Carry On Up the Khyber (1968)

That was an excellent one.

Excellent, smart action film.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

CARRY ON UP THE KHYBER has much in common with previous CARRY ON outings such as CARRY ON FOLLOW THAT CAMEL: the humour is broad, the cast all play similar characters, and the shot-in-the-UK locations have a special nostalgic charm all to themselves. This might well be the last of the great historical movies made by the team, as their fortunes (and budgets) started to wane soon afterwards.Still, it's best to enjoy it while it lasts, and there's plenty to enjoy here, not least an on-form cast giving it the best of their abilities. Sid James is back (after being incapacitated in CARRY ON DOCTOR) on his top, woman-hunting form, and Kenneth Williams once more makes for a hilarious bad guy. There's also an extended role for the great, underrated Peter Butterworth, who I think gives the funniest performance in the whole film, particularly at the end.By this stage, the jokes are almost entirely sexual or rely on references to various body parts for effect. Still, they come at a ferocious pace and you can't beat the smutty innuendo which is used at just the right level without being too explicit. Everything flows naturally and the cast work together well. Also, CARRY ON UP THE KHYBER has the best climax of any CARRY ON film: the wonderful dinner party sequence, which takes the mickey out of the famed British stiff upper lip to glorious effect.

Carry On Up the Khyber is a wonderful entry in the classic comedy franchise, right up there with Screaming and Cleo, and I personally think it is an improvement over Abroad, and (as I enjoyed it) Henry too. It is also a million times better than Emmanuelle and Columbus, they were the disgraces of the franchise, well to me they are. The plot here is quite simple, and there are one or two slow moments in the middle half. However, it is the script that is the film's greatest strength, filled with classic hilarious lines and innuendos, and there are some very imaginative character names as well. The film is a tad on the long side too, but what does compensate are the performances, the scenery and the quality of the script.The film does look beautiful, the costumes more lavish than they were in Cleo, and they were very lavish in that one, and the sets are very colourful. The direction is also solid, but asides from the script, the performances were what made this so fun to watch. Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey are hilarious as always, but for me the scene stealers were Sidney James and Joan Sims as the Ruff-Diamonds. All in all, very very enjoyable, and easily one of the better Carry Ons. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Never mind those dour" slices of working - class life" epics with ex -miners/dockers/railway workers coughing their lungs into their handkerchiefs before lighting another Woodbine/pipe/roll - up and taking their whippet/bull terrier/cringeing cur into the local rec/disused pit/ dark satanic mill while the "Hovis" voice - over goes on about the good old days when you could take the "Daily Herald" into the outdoor privvie for a bit of peace and fill the tin bath with coal for ninepence,any "Carry on" will give you a truer picture of the British as they really are rather than the guilt - ridden imaginings of the North London Taliban. We are,and I say this quite proudly,vulgar,sexist,defiantly non PC,fiercely patriotic (an attribute apparently fine for everybody else),good - humoured and tolerant.We treasure the eccentric (Charles Hawtrey,Esma Cannon),love the camp(Kenneth Williams,Dick Emery),deflate the pompous(Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams again).What we most certainly are not is dour,humourless narrow - minded and filled with class hatred.From "Carry on Sergeant" to the less than magnificent "Carry on Columbus",we have a social history of 30 - odd years in the life of this island race .Nowhere is this reflected more strongly than in "Carry on up the Khyber".From Sir Sidney Ruff - Diamond to Private Widdle we have a microcosm of British Society,ostensibly a Victorian one but in fact timeless.In one of the funniest and truest scenes in UK cinema,Sir Sidney and his dinner guests blithely ignore a native(can you still say that?) uprising as the house is destroyed about them,determinedly clinging on to the familiar rather than accepting the inevitable.It is,in a strange way,rather moving. For those who would see racism in a box of Dominoes the sight of Kenneth Williams blacked up might offend,but,hey,this is Kenneth Williams we're talking about,not Heinrich Himmler.And if there is a distinct lack of black Asian faces in the cast that might just be because there weren't that many black Asian actors about 40 years ago. The whole movie is a Bumper Fun Book of puns,double entendres,lavatory and willy jokes and silly names.It is,in short,excruciatingly funny,played by an expert cast at the absolute top of their game,and, dare I say it,more representative of the real Britain than any Ealing Comedy.

This film represents the Carry On film series at its peak - all of the actors are at the absolute top of their form. From the very beginning of the film with Joan Simms' immortal line at the polo match: "he did not 'alf crack that one did he not", through to the breathtaking Dinner scene at the end, this is film is a joy to watch. Its a shame that Roy Castle and Angela Douglas did not go on to make further Carry On films, they really put in excellent performances hereBut the real "scene stealer's" are Peter Butterworth and Bernard Bresslaw - both fine comic actors (and both died far too young) showing an extra dimension to their usual performances - Bernard Bresslaw is especially impressive as Bungdit Din.If you've never seen a Carry On film - then watch this one, and prepare to be hooked forever of these riotous, saucy, classic British films