BA_Harrison With James Bond proving a smash at the box office, it wasn't long before the Carry On team cashed in on the spy craze by spoofing the exotic world of international espionage. Their 1964 effort, Carry On Spying, sees Kenneth Williams as inept spy Simkins, who is sent to Vienna with three trainee agents (played by Bernard Cribbins, Charles Hawtree and Barbara Windsor) to try and retrieve a top secret formula that has been stolen by criminal organisation S.T.E.N.C.H.The spy genre provides plenty of material for the gang to parody, and the gags come thick and fast (fnarr fnarr!), with the usual mix of innuendo and slapstick proving to be a lot of fun. Babs Windsor, in particular, is a revelation: in her very first role in a Carry On film, she steals the show with her infectious combination of wide-eyed innocence and unique sex appeal and gets some of the biggest laughs, her finest moment being a hilarious scene where she is unsuccessfully interrogated by Dr. Crow (Judith Furse), head of S.T.E.N.C.H.After much crazy shenanigans, including a trip to Algiers where Windsor and Cribbins don belly dancer disguises to infiltrate a harem (allowing for Babs to jiggle her bristols), the film winds things up in fine style with two fabulous set pieces, the first aboard a speeding steam train crawling with enemy agents (including Dilys Lane as sultry spy Lila), and the second taking place inside the villains' underground lair, where our quartet of brave but bumbling agents are chased by sexy gun-toting female agents in skin-tight outfits into an automation area where they narrowly escape being killed by numerous large pieces of machinery—not just once, but twice, when the system is put into reverse!Favourite gag: the British secret service's description of the enemy agent known as The Fat Man… He's male. And fat.

jc-osms Everyone has a secret vice and mine, I suppose, is a predilection for the "cheap as chips" and often as saucy "Carry On" films of the 60's and early 70's which are on constant rotation on UK TV channels even today.This is one of the earlier black and white ones and stars some but not all of the commonly accepted ensemble cast (no Sid James or Joan Sims for example). The innuendo is not as heavy as in later films as the "Swinging 60's" and liberated 70's advanced, but it's there of course, pushing the envelope as much as they dare.The plot is a spoof of the early James Bond films, but also nods in the direction of classics like "Casablanca" and "The Third Man", only don't expect any exotic location shots here, in fact the drop-in library footage of these locations gets a laugh in itself, it's so obvious.There are plenty of amusing quips and situations, with the usual hit-or-miss success rate. Kenneth Williams minces about as only he can, implausibly playing up to the ladies in the cast while a young Barbara Windsor gets disrobed as usual but otherwise spares us her trademark cackle and for once is quite palatable. There are a couple of obvious mis-casts - Charles Hawtrey's arch campness is too close to Williams' to be effective and it's obvious that Jim Dale would have been better suited to the gormless young male lead part than the irritating Bernard Cribbins (something the casting director would put right before too long - Cribbins never got another part in the series while Dale got the nod in at least two of the funnier entries soon afterwards, in "Carry On Cowboy" and "Carry On Doctor").The humour is, as has been said before akin to that in British sea-side postcards of the time and is the film equivalent to the likes of Benny Hill on TV. Both were hugely successful in the UK although I doubt the "Carry On..." films travel much outside the UK, unlike Hill. Even so, the best of them are really quite funny and it's fun to see the writers toying with the censor of the time in attempting to slip in as risqué a joke as they can.

TheLittleSongbird This movie is not the best of the Carry on franchise but it works very well. Yes even with one or two moments of uneven pacing and an underused Dilys Lane, the film is very entertaining, with a nice simple story and some funny dialogue and gags. Carry On Spying is nicely filmed, has a quirky score and the acting is fine(even without Sidney James). Ever the old pros, Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey give it their all and are great fun, while Judith Furse stands out as well. But it is the wonderful Barbara Windsor who steals the show, she was delightful in this movie. Overall, this film is simple and thanks to the acting and dialogue especially is very entertaining as well. 8/10 Bethany Cox

bob the moo When the evil forces of STENCH strike at a British research laboratory they get away with a top secret chemical formula. With the British agents spread thin across the world, The Chief has very few options open to him to follow up the lead into the mysterious Milchmann who led the attack. The Chief scraps the bottom of the barrel and comes up with Simkins – probably one of his worst agents. Assigning Simkins with a handful of trainee agents – Crump, Honeybutt and Bind – the ragtag band set off to meet up with Agent Carstairs in Vienna.Despite being made in the mid-sixties this Carry On film has more in common with those made early in the series (Teacher and Sergeant) more than it does with those made around the same time as it (Jack, Cruising, Cowboy). It is not just the black and white that made me think this but also the fact that the humour seems fresher and slicker than the heavy innuendo and crudity of the later films. Others have said this has more in common with Ealing than Carry On – they are wrong, but I can see what they mean because the light spy spoof is very much an early Carry On. The material isn't great though but it does produce easy and obvious comedy and those looking to just to fill a wet Sunday afternoon.The cast make a big difference even though not all the regulars are present. Williams and Hawtrey are the most fun as both play up their camp characters to good effect – they both get the best lines as well. Windsor is pretty good as she isn't just used as an object. Cribbins was pretty dull I thought but Dale was good value in a small role. Additional support from Barker, Laye and a few others all helps. Overall a Carry On like they first made them; not brilliant but light fun.