Touches You

Powerful

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The Carry On troupe took their act to darkest Africa in this spoof of jungle films. Ironically the troupe was really spoofing Hollywood's idea of jungle films because the British being involved in Africa did so much better until Hollywood filmed The African Queen and King Solomon's Mines.Frankie Howerd is telling of the results of his latest expedition to Africa which was to find a rare bird and also to help Joan Sims locate whatever happened to her husband and baby son who were left there. Serving as guide is white hunter Sid James and serving as decoration is Jacki Piper.Piper turns out to be necessary to find out what happened to the boy who is now a Tarzan like character named Ugh. He's in sad need of the facts of life. But Sims also has her needs as Howerd and Kenneth Connor start the moves on her.Of course they all have to cut out the mating calls when cannibals capture them and then an Amazon tribe rescues them. Then we learn of the husband's fate as Charles Hawtrey is found to be the only male in the tribe. That in itself is the best sight gag of all.A whole lot of clichés about safari movies are smashed to blazes as the Carry On crew looks like they're having a rollicking good time in the heart of darkest Africa.

I can't believe that of all of the films I've reviewed to date, not one has been a Carry On caper; let's put that right...In Carry On Up The Jungle, the 19th film in the long-running British comedy series, The Carry On team tackle one of my favourite genres, the jungle adventure, sending up the legend of Tarzan with their own inimitable style of 'seaside humour', whereby virtually every line uttered is a thinly veiled innuendo and crazy slapstick situations abound.Craggy faced Sid James plays fearless hunter Bill Boosey (Boosey by name, boozy by nature), guide for an expedition in search of the legendary Oozlum bird (which supposedly flies in ever decreasing circles until it disappears up its own backside). While deep in the African jungle, the group come face to face with the cannibalistic Nosher tribe, meet Ugh (Terry Scott), the long lost son of Lady Bagley (Joan Sims), and are taken captive by a tribe of women who need men for mating, all of which allows for plenty of smut and general tomfoolery.Up The Jungle sees the team on top form, the ribald humour and double entendres coming thick and fast (oo-errr!) and the silliness in overdrive. With a patently fake gorilla on the rampage, a tubby Scott as an unlikely ape-man, Frankie Howerd 'oohing' and 'aahing' for all he's worth, Bernard Bresslaw in black-face as native bearer Upsidaisi, the gorgeous Jacki Piper as Ugh's love interest June, and buxom babe Valerie Leon in a revealing jungle outfit, this is unashamedly unsophisticated and terribly un-PC, and as a result, hugely entertaining.9/10 (it should be noted, however, that my rating is as a lifelong Carry On fan).

Having recently seen several early black and white Carry On films I was rather disappointed with this later outing. The jokes were nearly all of a sexual nature; that wouldn't have been to bad if they had been funny; instead they were mostly fairly puerile. The story sees a group of English men and women; which includes Carry On regulars Sid James, Kenneth Connor and Joan Simms as well as Frankie Howard going to 'darkest Africa' accompanied by a blacked up Bernard Bresslaw as their native guide. Joan Simms is hoping to find some sign of her child who was lost in the area as a baby and it turns out he has grown up to become a loincloth wearing Terry Scott! He has never seen a woman before but quickly takes an interest in his mother's assistant June, played by Jacki Piper when he sees her having a swim. As the group travel through the jungle they have to contend with a tribe of cannibals and an all female tribe who intend to but the men to work… mating.The story wasn't too bad and there were a few reasonable jokes; sadly they were buried in a flood of schoolboy humour. The cast did a good enough job with their limited material but I was rather uncomfortable seeing Bernard Bresslaw blacked up to play an African; surely in 1970 there were black actors in the country who could have played the part. In 'Carry On Follow that Camel' the creators managed to make a few sand dunes look like a desert but here the jungle never looked like anything other than a set; something not helped by the inclusion of a gorilla that was so obviously a man in a suit that you could see the actors white skin around the eyes! While this wasn't terrible it is certainly below par and I wouldn't advise anybody to go out of their way to see it; if it is on television and there is nothing better on it passes the time well enough though.

I do like the Carry on movies, and I have to say I did enjoy Carry on Up the Jungle. It is not their best, but it is far from their worst either. One or two of the story lines are disjointed and the film is too short I think. But a lot compensates, especially the very funny and snappy one liners, and also the splendid sets, quirky music, skilled direction and fun performances. When it comes to the performances, the regulars are great and are always amusing especially Sid James, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims(Sims getting a snake up her dress is one of the film's highlights). But for me, Frankie Howerd steals the show in a fussy, campy but very enjoyable performance. The mating ritual was wonderful as well. All in all, not the best Carry on but a fun one. 8/10 Bethany Cox