Carry On at Your Convenience (1971)

Why so much hype?

Really Surprised!

The acting in this movie is really good.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

At Your Convenience is the 22nd of the Carry On Series, at the time of its release, the film was deemed as controversial seeing as the plot circled around problems with the trade unions at the time. Many carry on fans choose to boycott this film.Cause of all that At Your Convenience was the first financial flop at the box office. It's hard to believe that now this is rated one of the best Carry On films in entire series.Why is it one of the best? Well lets start with the plot, is film is set at a local toilet making factory called W.C. Boggs & Son. Which is run by W.C. Boggs played by Kenneth Williams and his son Lewis played by Richard O'Callaghan. The company is going through a bad patch and loosing money fast, due to the amount of strikes that the company has suffering. Which is Mainly caused by the lazy union representative Vic Spanner played by Kenneth Cope, who complains about the littlest thing in the factory and causes a strike.The story also shows how the lives of our lead characters are having due to all the strikes, Sid Plummer played by Sid James who is repeatedly fed up of listening to his wife Beattie talking to her pet budgie all day. Sid is also very keen on the next door neighbour and fellow colleague Chloe played by Joan Sims. Chloe is also got problems at home with her husband, who is often away on business and if he is home he normally rejects any sort of affection she gives him.Sid and Beattie also have a daughter Mrytle played by the always gorgeous Jacki Piper, who works in the factory as one of the canteen staff. Meryle is permanently being pursued by both Vic Spanner and Lewis Boggs. Which at times can be annoying for her, mainly because the both of them are just as bad as each other.While Vic Spanner despite him being in his late 20's-early 30's... is still living with his mam, who is permanently having a go at him for the amount of lack of money he brings into the house and all the strikes he causes. His Mum who is played by Renee Houston, has been forced to take in a lodger who is the jolly Charles Coote played by Charles Hawtrey, who also works at the factory as a toilet designer. Vic's mother seems to treat Charles a lot better than Vic by being more polite and generous.Vic also has a mate and a fellow colleague Bernie played Bernard Bresslaw, Bernie comes across as a bit daft and allows himself to be bossed about by Vic too much.The plot isn't spectacular but its simple and the script is fantastic. The casting is 100% cast and all the regular faces are present, though Terry Scott had a deleted scene playing the part of a union big wig.Everybody involved looked to be enjoying themselves which helps with there performance, they probably all looked forward to the trip to Brighton!I found at times the film does take a couple of serious moments, one being there is a nice scene between Sid and Chloe who during a night shoot. Showing that both of them have got more feelings about each other, sadly the only thing missing about this scene was a nice kiss at the end. Anyhow the scene is well acted by both Sid James and Joan Sims. For this movie Sid is taken away from his usual dirty old man character and many of the cast have said this probably the closest how Sid was like in real life. To be honest its the same for Kenneth Williams who I find less camp in this film, this time round he is playing the straight guy. At Your Convenience is probably the most Carry On I've watched the most. It's a nice gentle Carry On and shows what the Carry On's were all about... family friendly comedy. If you haven't watched At Your Convenience then you must, I can only describe it as a beautiful looking Carry On and comedy. I give Carry On At Your Convenience a 8/10.

The Carry On troupe in Carry On At Your Convenience take on management/labor relations in a toilet factory. Kenneth Williams is the owner of a plant that manufactures bathroom accessories, toilets, sinks, bathtubs. His designer of these products is Charles Hawtrey and the plant foreman is Sid James. Given the subject matter there are more chances for scatological one liners than is normal even for a Carry On movie. This is after all a necessary industry. Can you imagine our lives without these devices?Williams gets an order from a rich Arab sheik who wants 1000 special toilets for his thousand wife harem and he wants it with cold and hot running water. Hawtrey designs one and production goes in immediately.That brings management into conflict with organized labor and the head of toilet workers union played by the officious and mother dominated Kenneth Cope. He's the kind of guy who gets off asserting any kind of authority he has. As shop steward he's forever calling for walkouts and strikes on the least little provocation. Funniest moment for me was when the workers go on holiday leave in Brighton and the hotel can't serve them because they're kitchen workers are on strike. What a moment that is for Cope to see what it's like with the shoe on the other foot. Sid James makes the most of it.In fact at the very end of the film Cope is shown to have learned his lesson thoroughly.Labor and management really do come together in the end. A really funny entry from the Carry On series.

This is far from the best Carry on film, Screaming, Cleo and Up the Khyber are much better offerings, but it is a million times better than Carry on England and Emmanuelle. I do agree that Carry on At Your Convenience is not perfect, the plot doesn't always flow as well as it should due to some padding, the pacing could have been much more secure and I wish Hattie Jaques had more to do. Conversely, it looks pretty good, as the photography is decent and the costumes and sets are at least nice to look at. Also the score is quirky enough, and while occasionally smutty a vast majority of the dialogue is funny. In general, the acting isn't too bad either; Sid James and Kenneth Williams especially are a lot of fun, and Joan Sims makes the most of an intentionally bitchy sort of character. So overall, decent if slightly disappointing entry. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I will admit I didn't pay full attention to everything going on in this film, but to be honest, I don't think it would have mattered. Basically the film takes place at a lavatory factory owned W.C. Boggs (Kenneth Williams), assisted by Sid Plummer (Sid James). The factory is having problems with constant workers calling strikes, most started Vic Spanner (Kenneth Cope), and his co-workers, including Chloë Moore (Joan Sims) and Bernie Hulke (Bernard Bresslaw), were bound to get fed up with him. Meanwhile Charles Coote (Charles Hawtrey) is keeping up work and has invented a bidet, and W.C.'s son Lewis (Richard O'Callaghan) has secured large orders for it, but of course Vic is going to cause another strike out of this. For some reason the story then becomes a work outing on Brighton Pier, but when everyone does get back, everything is resolved. Also starring an annoying Hattie Jacques as Beattie Plummer, Jacki Piper as Myrtle Plummer, Patsy Rowlands as Hortence Withering, Worzel Gummidge's Bill Maynard as Fred Moore, Davy Kaye as Benny and Margaret Nolan as Popsy, but where's Barbara Windsor when you want her? The innuendo attempts have almost zero effect, and the obvious toilet humour is just too ludicrous, so this is certainly one of the weakest entries in the series. Pretty poor!