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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 91481" data-attributes="member: 23">I wonder if England or Emmanuelle is someone's favourite Carry On. Surely so. It takes all sorts to make a world, after all. Personally, I vacillate on which is least enjoyable. They're both terrible in different ways. England almost has an actual plot but is filled with unfunny lines and unlikeable characters. Emmanuelle has familiar character actors interacting wonderfully in a vehicle that seems designed to alienate both them and the audience. Last night, I found myself favouring England of the two, simply because I can imagine it looked good on paper. The story seems inspired by some earlier Carry Ons. The earliest, in fact. The armed forces setting is reminiscent of Sergeant, while the series of pranks seems to echo those in Teacher. With Loving or Camping's preoccupation with copulation thrown in.  Thing is, though, Sergeant was character driven, Loving and Camping were filled with familiar face, and the pranksters in Teacher were schoolchildren motivated by the thought of losing their beloved headteacher. England has a bunch of annoying newcomers behaving like children. The suffering they inflict with relish on Kenneth Connor's character is most unpleasant to watch. It goes way beyond schadenfreude and crosses the line into malice. And this is the first we've seen of most of them. Having followed the series for this long, it's like watching a bunch of arrogant young hooligans gate crash a most enjoyable party and vomit everywhere. Kenneth Williams suffers similar indignities in Emmanuelle, but somehow it seems to matter less. Perhaps because it feels so far removed from what a Carry On is. The one thing the film does is to have the more established cast members together as the below stairs staff, so there are at least a few scenes that come close to capturing the right tone. Indeed, there's something quite fitting about Kenneth Connor, Joan Sims, Peter Butterworth and even Jack Douglas acting as a Greek chorus to the goings on elsewhere in the film while not knowing the half of it. The characters' blasé attitude towards sex and nudity are a sign that the Carry On party is coming to an end. Emmanuelle is naked, and nobody cares. Kenneth Williams gets his arse out again, but it all meant nothing without Joan Hickson's drunken incredulity. No longer is this the world of the saucy postcard. Now it's a pictorial edition of Gray's Anatomy Of The Human Body. Anyway - I made it through. And I still have a number of audio commentaries to revisit. From Henry onwards, in fact.</blockquote>

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