Carry on Don’t Lose Your Head (1967)

Action, Adventure, Comedy /
6.5/10

Carry on Don’t Lose Your Head Storyline

It is the time of the French Revolution, and two bored English noblemen, Sir Rodney Ffing (pronounced “Effing”) (Sid James) and his best friend Lord Darcy Pue (Jim Dale), decide to have some fun and save their French counterparts from beheading by the guillotine.Enraged revolutionary leader Citizen Camembert (Kenneth Williams) and his toadying lackey, Citizen Bidet (Peter Butterworth), scour France and England for the elusive savior of the French nobles, who has become known as The Black Fingernail, after his calling card of “two digits rampant”. Duke De Pommefrite (Charles Hawtrey) is the next target who is due for beheading shortly.Ffing and Darcy get Camembert’s guillotine to malfunction & then as a bet get him to behead his own executioner & escape with Pommefrite. Pommefrite is an influential leader of the French nobility and hence an important figure for the revolutionists to get rid of. The revolutionists believe that the Black Fingernail had a role in helping Pommefrite escape.Ffing and Darcy use various disguises to fool Camembert and use him to get out of Paris, which is heavily blockaded, & get into Calais, from where they get into a boat to escape France and into England with Pommefrite. During his escape from France, Ffing meets his true love, Jacqueline (Dany Robin), leaving her with a silver locket containing a set of his mother’s false teeth.Camembert is chastised by his superior Maximillien Robespierre (Peter Gilmore) and threatened with the guillotine, unless he captures the Fingernail. Camembert is ordered to go to England and get Pommefrite back. Ffing, who is the real Black Fingernail, had become a hero to many Frenchmen for his exploits & Jacqueline had fallen in love with him. Camembert and Bidet knew of Jacqueline’s love for the Black Fingernail. Bidet and Camembert apprehend Jacqueline (Dany Robin) and imprison her.Camembert decides to use Jacqueline as leverage to lure The Black Fingernail back. Using the locket (which they knew was given to Jacqueline by the Black Fingernail) as a trap, they travel to England to uncover the real identity of The Black Fingernail. They are accompanied by Camembert’s lover, Desiree (Joan Sims), who is on the lookout to marry a man with a title, disguised as the Comte and Comtesse De La Plume De Ma Tante. Desirée pretends to be Camembert’s flamboyant sister, whilst wearing the locket.Camembert, Bidet and Desiree attend an aristocrats balls thrown by Ffing to inquire about the Black fingernail. At the ball Camembert uses Desiree to wear the locket given by the Black Fingernail to Jacqueline. Ffing notices the locket, believes Desiree to be Jacqueline & proceeds to meet her secretly & kiss her. However, Desiree reveals that she is not Jacqueline & that she is under Camembert’s control at Bastille. Bidet overhears the entire conversation & tells Camembert that Ffing is the Black Fingernail.Now Camembert is unaware that Desiree (Joan Sims), Camembert’s flamboyant mistress, is herself in love with the hero and will do all she can to save him from the guillotine. Using Desiree’s honor as bait, Camembert challenges Ffing to a duel, which he accepts. Camembert rigs the contest by instructing Bidet to load only 1 pistol. But Ffing plays a trick which makes Camembert end up in a human excreta pit & Ffing escapes with Darcy & Pommefrit to France, where he intends to rescue Jacqueline from Bastille.Camembert arrives with reinforcements & transfers Jacqueline to his private castle, which he presented to himself for his services to the revolution. Ffing gets inside the castle with the help of Desiree who only agrees to assist in return for a marriage title. Ffing gets to Jacqueline to rescue her & then fights his way out of the castle, with the help of Darcy & Pommefrit, who help fight Camembert’s soldiers and, in the process, destroy all the priceless artifacts of the castle.For their incompetence, Robespierre (Peter Gilmore) orders the execution of Camembert and Bidet on a double guillotine. They are relieved to know that the Fingernail is not there to see it, until the executioner reveals that he is The Black Fingernail himself. Afterwards, in England, Ffing marries Jacqueline, who becomes Lady Ffing, whilst he keeps his promise to Desiree, who has married the Duke De Pommfrite (as he has a title), much to her own chagrin.

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Carry on Don’t Lose Your Head Movie Reviews

Carry on chopping!!

DON’T LOSE YOUR HEAD

Aspect ratio: 1.66:1

Sound format: Mono

During the French Revolution, the villainous Citizen Camembert (a perpetually outraged Kenneth Williams) goes in search of the notorious ‘Black Fingernail’ (Sid James), an unidentified British aristocrat who’s been crossing the English Channel to rescue his French counterparts from the guillotine.

The second and final entry in the long-running series not to feature ‘Carry On’ in its title due to political fall-out from a change of UK distributor (the first was FOLLOW THAT CAMEL, released earlier the same year), DON’T LOSE YOUR HEAD demonstrates yet again that screenwriter Talbot Rothwell was at his best when indulging his fondness for historical burlesque. Sumptuously mounted on various high-blown locations (including Clandon Park and Waddesdon Manor, with interiors filmed at Pinewood Studios), the film’s ribald parody of the French Revolution encompasses everything from silly character names (Camembert is the local ‘big cheese’, aided and abetted by the gormless Citizen Bidet, while the Black Fingernail conceals his true identity under the foppish pseudonym of Sir Rodney Ffing – “with two F’s!”) to puns, sight gags and lowbrow slapstick. In other words, the formula as before.

But like so many of the better “Carry On”s, the comedy is rooted in a well-developed storyline, augmented by the usual array of flamboyant characters and eccentric supporting players. Highlights include Charles Hawtrey as a jolly French aristocrat, and Joan Sims as Williams’ Cockney-spouting sister (Sims and Hawtrey share an unlikely seduction sequence midway through the film which culminates in a terrific ‘please yourself’ gag). Sid James and Jim Dale are the nominal heroes of the piece, camping it up with affectionate glee, while Peter Butterworth excels as Williams’ dimwitted lackey, forever lusting after Sims and shouting: “Equality! Fraternity! Liberty!” (to which Sims retorts: “I don’t care about the equalities and the fraternities, but I’m NOT having the liberties!”). But as usual, Kenneth Williams walks away with the picture, overplaying every gesture, emphasizing every double entendre, and milking every gag for all its considerable worth. An absolute comic gem! Director Gerald Thomas keeps the pot boiling throughout, and production values are solid. Watch out for a couple of mistakes which made it into the final print (Williams’ hat being knocked by Butterworth in a cramped carriage, and Sims almost falling over whilst admiring a lovely new dress), betraying a rushed production schedule.

Favorite gag: Hawtrey brags to a group of young women that he escaped the guillotine by slaying half a dozen of his captors, and one gushing admirer declares: “What a bloody sight it must have been.” Hawtrey, quick as a flash, retorts: “M’dear, if me sword hadn’t broken, it’d have been a bloody sight more!” Genius.

Ffing good!

Having been replaced by Harry H. Corbett for Carry On Screaming following a heart attack, Sid James rejoins the Carry On line-up for Don’t Lose Your Head and puts in one of his funniest performances ever as British dandy Sir Rodney Ffing, who, along with his good friend Lord Darcy Pue (Jim Dale), travels to France to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine. Whether camping it up in powdered wig and make up while affecting a lisp as the effete Ffing, or cutting a dash as his daring alter ego The Black Fingernail, James can do no wrong, milking every gag for all its worth, wringing laughs from even the corniest double entendre. Sid’s most definitely back and he’s loving every minute!

The rest of the regulars are also on fine form: Dale is delightful as Ffing’s foppish pal Darcy, Williams plays the part of French Chief of Secret Police Camembert with gusto, Hawtrey is hilarious as wimpish aristocrat Duc de Pommfrit, Peter Butterworth does bumbling brilliantly as Citizen Bidet, and the lovely Joan Sims (my favourite Carry On performer) is utterly charming as ample-bosomed Désirée Dubarry. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that they’re working with such a wonderful script, which is sharper than the blade on Madame la Guillotine: the gags flow thick and fast, with fantastic puns, impeccable innuendo, cheesy one-liners, and even a couple of wonderful moments where the characters break the fourth wall to address the audience.

After much hilarity, viewers are treated to a rousing finale featuring a surprisingly well choreographed sword-fight scene involving James, Hawtree and Dale (Sid seems remarkably sprightly for a man whose recently had a heart attack!) and lots of knockabout stunts, including copious chandelier swinging. It’s a great way to conclude what proves to be one of the most enjoyable entries in the series.

So you’re the one looking for the black fingernail.

There is no doubt about it, Carry on don’t lose your head is one of the funniest entries in the series, an utterly joyful film that is funny from start to finish. The backdrop of the French revolution is a real goody, the story line is actually really well devised also it works so well. The characters Thomas managed to create in this film are even bigger, bolder and more flamboyant then normal.

The English/French humour is always really funny and this is massively played on, there’s always been a great humour between the Brits and our French cousins.

Kenneth Williams is on his absolute best form, he gets to totally camp it up and add his snideness. Sid James is great as our hero, Joan Sims is utterly delightful, what a pretty woman she was. As for Charles Hawtrey, I think after Camping it is my favourite performance from him, the best sequence has to be during Sir Rodney’s ball and Camembert says to Pommfrit ‘So you’re the one looking for the black fingernail,’ to which he produces a small hammer and hits his finger. One of many golden comedy sequences, the duel too and siege scenes are funny too. One of those films I never tire of, I love it. 9/10

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