Carry On Don't Lose Your Head (1966)

Just perfect...

Absolutely Fantastic

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I always have enjoyed the Carry On movies, they are a lot of fun and there are some very talented actors in the series. There are some stinkers like England, Emmanuelle and Columbus sure, but there are gems like Screaming(my personal favourite, Cleo, Up the Khyber and Camping. Don't Lose Your Head is up there with the best entries of the series. For me it wasn't perfect, Jim Dale is wasted and Jacqueline's harp scene is cringe-worthy. However, it is tightly directed, never dull and is beautifully designed. The music is also suitably rousing, and while simple the story spoofs The Scarlet Pimpernel in a very sharp and hilarious manner. The writing and the cast though were what made Don't Lose Your Head as good as it was. Right from the names, brilliant comic incidents and entendres the gags are plentiful and the memorable quotes endless, it is really a very wittily and hilariously written film. The bloody sight exchange is a scream in particular. Sidney James is superb(even when camping it up he still manages to make for a dashing fop), of the Carry On series I think he has only been better in Khyber. Kenneth Williams steals every scene and possibly even the entire film, his comic timing is spot on and it is worth seeing him for his facial expressions alone. Charles Hawtrey has some great lines and delivers them with utter comic conviction, while Joan Sims also excels as a very aptly-named character. Overall, very good and one of the best of an entertaining series. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This probably ranks as one of the better carry ons certainly in the top 10 but not quite in the top 5. Its from the period when the team were making the historical/costume carry ons that yielded so many of the classic carry on's Cleo, Cowboy and of course Up The Khyber. This time its the turn of the Black Fingernail (Sid James) to ride to the rescue of the French Aristocracy able assisted by Lord Darcy Pugh (Jim Dale) opposed by Citizens Bidet (Petter Butterworth) and Cananbert (Kenneth Williams).James is on top form and clearly relishes the chance to play the swash buckling hero much as he did in Cowboy he steals the show in this one as Williams isn't in the fine form he was in other historical carry ons such as Cleo and Kyhber. Dale provides able support as does Butterworth who began to become a more regular cast member through this period. Jaqueline Biset looks sumptuous as the love interest but some of the best lines go to the supporting characters of Joan Simms and Charles Hawtry.If you love Carry On's you'll adore this if not this one probably wont be the one to convert you. Overall a good carry on not up there with Cleo and Up the Khyber etc but well worthy of a 7.5 out of 10.

I've only watched 8 of the long-running and hugely popular "Carry On" films; their overall quality is quite patchy, but the most consistently entertaining so far have been CARRY ON...UP THE KHYBER (1968) and CARRY ON HENRY (1971). This one was actually in the same vein as the latter i.e. a period romp and, in fact, I find their brand of bawdy humor works best in this environment - not only because it allows for a contrast between modern times and the era being lampooned (including, in this case, parlor entertainment that features a minstrel tune whose chorus is lifted from The Beatles' "She Loves You"!) but also because it gives the low-budget films a semblance of grandeur not possible with their outings having contemporary settings.I decided to check this film before others in the series (happily, my local DVD rental outlet carries a handful of them) because I'm currently going through a bit of a swashbuckling phase as part of my Christmas marathon. Anyway, it's an extremely typical offering (despite dropping the "Carry On" from the title, though it did get renamed CARRY ON PIMPERNEL for the U.S.) that obviously deals with the French Revolution, which is being thwarted by a Scarlet Pimpernel-type figure who calls himself "The Black Fingernail" and leaves as his calling card a drawing with the "Up Yours!" gesture: the overall effect is hit-or-miss and the pace rather sluggish for what should essentially be a zippy adventure - but the host of practiced regulars from the series are in good form, thus ensuring the occasional hilarious moment or quip (usually for this gang, these would be double entendres and even include asides to the audience!).

In `Don't Lose Your Head' (aka `Carry On Pimpernel') the Scarlet Pimpernel myth/legend is presented by the `Carry On' gang as an hysterical parody. Real revolutions are generally bloodthirsty, and often go wrong LONG before they achieve their aims. Oh YES, the peasants were revolting! Cheering the guillotine, they stank on ice! This spoof by the double-entendre-gang stands unique among other Carry Ons, because it almost passes for serio-comedy, milking considerable drama and adventure from the story. It helps if you know a smattering of French, because the puns, especially the character names, rely on gag translations. There's also a touch of the Marx Brothers here, so SOMEONE had the right idea about its caliber! Without question, artistically this is the gem of the `Carry On' franchise.The film opens at a Paris guillotine. "What's the tally for the day so far?" asks the Secret Police's Citizen Camembert, the Big Cheese (Kenneth Williams). "Twenty-six set of aristo's", answers his toadying assistant Bidet (Peter Butterworth). " -Carry On Chopping!" cries Camembert, providing a thinly veiled alternate title.Sir Rodney Ffing (Sidney James), and his "inseparable companion,' Lord Darcy Pew (Jim Dale) are two "fashionable layabouts" who do not discriminate between "a girl" and "a chap" in order to pursue "hunting", "shooting" and "fishing,' all of which amount to much the same thing. So, both "exceeding bored" by the "same old girls...same old balls,' they decide "to lift a finger, or two" over the French Revolution. Sir Rodney becomes the `Black Fingernail,' who always leaves his calling card at his rescues of French aristocrats from Madame La Guillotine.This of course "utterly bedevils" Robespierre (Peter Gilmore), Camembert's boss and the real zealot behind the Revolution. The leader of the Royalists, the Duc de Pommfrit (Charles Hawtrey), meanwhile, hilariously refuses to get off the execution cart to go to the guillotine because he's "just on the last chapter of the latest Marquis de Sade", and "Couldn't POSSIBLY put the book down". We're even offered beheading jokes: "Your grace, there's an urgent letter for you!" " -Oh, drop it in the basket, I'll read it later" quips Pommfrit, who's definitely about "to have his chips" (a gag based on his name). When the blade gets stuck, he complains that "this would NEVER have happened under a ROYALIST government", to which Camembert snippily retorts, "-There's no need to make a political issue out of it!" (Now this really IS quite clever).When the Black Fingernail rescues Pommfrit, Robespierre threatens Camembert with the loss of his own head; so Camembert, his charge Desiree, and his trusty Bidet all pose as escaped French aristocrats in order to follow the Black Fingernail's trail back to England. Thus begins my favourite, the Calais scene, viz "Alais to Calais". At the chief exit port between France and England, Camembert encounters a border guard: "Listen, has anyone passed out within the hour?" he asks. The guard (an Eric Idle-lookalike and soundalike) replies " -Only the sergeant, but he's sleepin' it orff now". Camembert presses on: "I'm looking for a woman". Guard: " -Aw, nothin' doin' out here, chum; you wanna try LaMatre!"In England, Sir Rodney meets Desiree (a very busty Joan Sims) at the ball, greeting her with "You're a picture M'moiselle...a trifle overexposed". But Camembert has come to the ball to sniff out The Black Fingernail. "We must be circumspect", he warns Bidet. "-Oh, I was, when I was a baby!" offers his illiterate assistant.Sims' ample endowments and the locket upon them are used both as a ruse to trap the Fingernail, as well as a running gag (thankfully without becoming crass).At the ball Sir Rodney realises that "Count Henri de LaPlume de MarTonte" is really Camembert, but he and Darcy `act natural' by indulging in a somewhat gay and anachronistic polka! Still, Camembert manages to pick a pretext duel with Sir Rodney. "As the injured party, I have the choice of swords or pistols", he demands. "-Oh, we won't quarrel over that! You have the swords, I'll have the pistols" quips Sir Rodney in a gag that preempts `Raiders of the Lost Ark' by 14 yrs!With a decent plot and visually rich sets, the double-entendres are entirely at home in this spoof, providing more substance than other `Carry Ons.' It's difficult to fault either the screenplay or the cast; Peter Gilmore is an almost entirely serious(!) Robespierre, and Joan Sims, Jim Dale, and Charles Hawtrey are all in tune and excellent. Sidney James, sadly though, is too old to swash much buckle or woo Desiree, even as a ruse. Williams flares his nostrils and Butterworth puts up his dukes a few times too many, but otherwise everyone is pretty good.The screenplay delves into quite a few political issues for such a "fluff" movie. There's no attempt, for instance, to gloss over the facile hubris of the aristocracy; conversely, the emotionally blunt populace cheering at the guillotine are most like Bidet, who is revealed as a bastard child and a dull, inept peasant. The supercilious Camembert is revealed as a grubby plutocrat, contemptuous of both peasants, and even the Revolution: "I DO wish you'd stop Vive-ing all over the place!" and, "Oh, I really hate these peasants; give me the aristocracy any time!".Talbot Rothwell's modest but clever screenplay adapts the Pimpernel legend/myth to suit the `Carry On' gang like a glove. It gives each castmember something to shine with, while still milking the inherent drama. The custom (ie not overdone) double-entendres still sound fresh, and serve to justify the plot adaptations; while the surgical casting allows the actors to successfully trade on their established quirks.The one element that does fail is the story arc about the aging Black Fingernail's sudden "true love" Jacqueline (Dany Robin); their asides to camera are merely disruptive, and her Beatles-ed-up "He Loveth Me" harp scene is cringingly bad.Otherwise this is a hilarious spoof, good for laughs & quotes aplenty! 9.5/10.