Fantastic!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I cannot believe at the time of writing this review this film has an average of 6.2, this is a 9 surely. Over 50 years on this remains a hilarious James Bond spoof. Banned from using characters from the James Bond franchise, Gerald Thomas creates Agent Charlie bind, 00-0. Kenneth Williams leads a team of British spies who must take on the STENCH criminals and capture the stolen formula of Professor Stark, who was blown up by the Milk man at the start. Spying stands out from the other early Carry on films by being very camp, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey are on fine form. Barbara Windsor has just finished playing Gloria in the Rag Trade, she makes a great start to her legendary Carry on career, by playing Daphne Honeybutt, although it would be 3 years before she'd return as Sandra May in Carry on Doctor. Dilys Laye is gorgeous in this film and is uncredited for singing The Magic of love, but it was actually her voice. A real feel good film, and one that will make all the family smile.

Carry On Spying is an OK movie with some funny scenes,but I didn't find it quite as entertaining as some Carry On films.I've seen many I always quite enjoyed them,especially Carry On Screaming,with was very funny,but with a great horror spoof to it as well.I enjoy Carry On films,they remind me of Monty Python,although a lot more innocent (also,not as good as Monty PAython).Although I think Carry On did a terrific job spoofing horror,I don't think they did as well in this spoofing spy movies.Agent Sompkins and his three trainees are on a mission to find a top secret formula that got stolen by a society called STENCH.

Everyone has a secret vice and mine, I suppose, is a predilection for the "cheap as chips" and often as saucy "Carry On" films of the 60's and early 70's which are on constant rotation on UK TV channels even today.This is one of the earlier black and white ones and stars some but not all of the commonly accepted ensemble cast (no Sid James or Joan Sims for example). The innuendo is not as heavy as in later films as the "Swinging 60's" and liberated 70's advanced, but it's there of course, pushing the envelope as much as they dare.The plot is a spoof of the early James Bond films, but also nods in the direction of classics like "Casablanca" and "The Third Man", only don't expect any exotic location shots here, in fact the drop-in library footage of these locations gets a laugh in itself, it's so obvious.There are plenty of amusing quips and situations, with the usual hit-or-miss success rate. Kenneth Williams minces about as only he can, implausibly playing up to the ladies in the cast while a young Barbara Windsor gets disrobed as usual but otherwise spares us her trademark cackle and for once is quite palatable. There are a couple of obvious mis-casts - Charles Hawtrey's arch campness is too close to Williams' to be effective and it's obvious that Jim Dale would have been better suited to the gormless young male lead part than the irritating Bernard Cribbins (something the casting director would put right before too long - Cribbins never got another part in the series while Dale got the nod in at least two of the funnier entries soon afterwards, in "Carry On Cowboy" and "Carry On Doctor").The humour is, as has been said before akin to that in British sea-side postcards of the time and is the film equivalent to the likes of Benny Hill on TV. Both were hugely successful in the UK although I doubt the "Carry On..." films travel much outside the UK, unlike Hill. Even so, the best of them are really quite funny and it's fun to see the writers toying with the censor of the time in attempting to slip in as risqué a joke as they can.

This movie is not the best of the Carry on franchise but it works very well. Yes even with one or two moments of uneven pacing and an underused Dilys Lane, the film is very entertaining, with a nice simple story and some funny dialogue and gags. Carry On Spying is nicely filmed, has a quirky score and the acting is fine(even without Sidney James). Ever the old pros, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey give it their all and are great fun, while Judith Furse stands out as well. But it is the wonderful Barbara Windsor who steals the show, she was delightful in this movie. Overall, this film is simple and thanks to the acting and dialogue especially is very entertaining as well. 8/10 Bethany Cox