646f9e108c The time of the French revolution, and Citizen Robespierre is beheading the French aristocracy. When word gets to England, two noblemen, Sir Rodney Ffing and Lord Darcy take it upon themselves to aid there French counterparts. Sir Rodney is a master of disguise, and becomes &quot;the black fingernail&quot;, scourge of Camembert and Bidet, leaders of the French secret police… DON&#39;T LOSE YOUR HEAD <br/><br/>Aspect ratio: 1.66:1<br/><br/>Sound format: Mono<br/><br/>During the French Revolution, the villainous Citizen Camembert (a perpetually outraged Kenneth Williams) goes in search of the notorious &#39;Black Fingernail&#39; (Sid James), an unidentified British aristocrat who&#39;s been crossing the English Channel to rescue his French counterparts from the guillotine.<br/><br/>The second and final entry in the long-running series not to feature &#39;Carry On&#39; 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&#39;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&#39;s ribald parody of the French Revolution encompasses everything from silly character names (Camembert is the local &#39;big cheese&#39;, aided and abetted by the gormless Citizen Bidet, while the Black Fingernail conceals his true identity under the foppish pseudonym of Sir Rodney Ffing - &quot;with two F&#39;s!&quot;) to puns, sight gags and lowbrow slapstick. In other words, the formulabefore.<br/><br/>But like so many of the better &quot;Carry On&quot;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 Hawtreya jolly French aristocrat, and Joan SimsWilliams&#39; Cockney-spouting sister (Sims and Hawtrey share an unlikely seduction sequence midway through the film which culminates in a terrific &#39;please yourself&#39; gag). Sid James and Jim Dale are the nominal heroes of the piece, camping it up with affectionate glee, while Peter Butterworth excelsWilliams&#39; dimwitted lackey, forever lusting after Sims and shouting: &quot;Equality! Fraternity! Liberty!&quot; (to which Sims retorts: &quot;I don&#39;t care about the equalities and the fraternities, but I&#39;m NOT having the liberties!&quot;). Butusual, 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&#39; 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. <br/><br/>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: &quot;What a bloody sight it must have been.&quot; Hawtrey, quicka flash, retorts: &quot;M&#39;dear, if me sword hadn&#39;t broken, it&#39;d have been a bloody sight more!&quot; Genius. The &quot;Carry On&quot; films are a variable lot, but this take on The Scarlet Pimpernel is one of the funniest. (In its initial script, the movie was actually entitled Carry On Chopping and it was actually released in some areasCarry On Pimpernel). True, some might argue that the French Revolution does not lend itself to a farcical approach, and it does seem at first that the idea of introducing the guillotinea venue for satire and knockabout comedy is in extremely bad taste. Fortunately, it soon emerges that the movie is not primarily a take-off on the French Revolution (as a smartypants newsreel commentator impliessoonthe picture starts), but is actually a send-up of the Baroness Orczy novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel and its 1935 picturisation with Leslie Howard. No more dramatic a contrast to Howard could possibly be provided than Sid James, who has one of his best roles everSid Rodney Ffing (I won&#39;t spoil the joke for you by pronouncing it). The scenario is full of the most ludicrous double entendres which all the players (except Jim Dale) heartily relish. Indeed, Kenneth Williams is often tempted to have too grand a time, but he receives such hilarious support from Peter Butterworth that we will excuse him. The only aspect of the movie I didn&#39;t really like (and speaking of aspects, full marks to Joan Sims and Dany Robin) was its over-produced slapstick finale. Otherwise, Talbot Rothwell has given us a really colorful script. Producer Peter Rogers has loosened the purse strings on this one and even Gerald Thomas has risen to the occasion with direction that can only be describedremarkably proficient.
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