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  • Widescreen 1.66:1
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  • English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
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    Carry on Cowboy
    Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 95 mins . PG . PAL

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    Carry On Cowboy dates from 1965, when the Carry On team was fairly well established.

    Here are the regular stalwarts Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey and Joan Sims, along with Jim Dale and Angela Douglas, dressing up a conventional 'mistaken identity' plot with their standard schoolboy-level sexual double-entendres and lascivious leerings.

    Sid James in particular is more obsidian-eyed than usual as he ogles anything remotely female on two legs - in this movie he also seems to have perfected his special line in blatant insincerity.

    The story takes us to the Wild West town of Stodge City, where Kenneth Williams as Mayor Burke ("a Real Burke", as we are constantly reminded) has the town firmly in the grip of his temperance zeal. Sid is the outlaw The Rumpo Kid, who quickly turns the town on its ears as he sets out to provide a steady stream of income for the undertaker.

    Stodge City needs a special Marshall. What they get though is a new immigrant from England, Marshall P. Knutt, a sanitary engineer and garbage disposal specialist who arrives with a mission to clean-up Stodge City. Travelling in disguise with him is famed femme sharp-shooter Annie Oakley. He unknowingly acts as front-man while she gets on with the real clean-up job.

    I'm not a Carry On fan; I think their style of humour had dated badly before the screenplays were written. But Kenneth Williams in this movie does hint at the level of comedy he had reached so brilliantly in earlier radio series such as Hancock's Half Hour and Around the Horne, and Kenneth Hawtrey in his role as an effete Indian chief does approach humorous levels.

    Sid James unfortunately remains Sid James, and the film does remain firmly embedded in the Carry On tradition. Aficionados do regard this as one of the better movies in the series. And I can certainly promise that with this movie, you get everything you expect.

      Video
      Audio
      Extras
    Contract

    The 1.66:1 transfer is non-anamorphic, but is very clean and bright, with few artefacts apart from a few dirty opening frames. The quality seems in fact super-glossy, with no film grain evident - it's almost unnaturally clean and polished for a film of this vintage.

    The Dolby Digital two-channel mono soundtrack is guaranteed not to give your system a workout. But it is adequate for its purportedly comic ambitions.

    As with other releases in this series, there are no extras.


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  •   And I quote...
    "Aficionados regard Carry On Cowboy as one of the better movies in the Carry On series. With this movie, you get everything you expect. "
    - Anthony Clarke
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Panasonic A330
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          Loewe Profil Plus 3272 68cm
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