Carry On Cowboy (1965)
 Way
out west, the peace of Stodge City is shattered when the dreaded
Rumpo Kid rides into town and guns down the sheriff.
Marshal P
Knutt (yes, Marshal is his name - You can see where the confusion
is heading), a travelling British Sanitary Engineer, finds himself
suckered with the job of making the town safe, with some secret
help.
Sid James is a convincing, blood-chilling bandit who fully
deserves his baddie black hat.
The gags and comic situations are there merely to
counterbalance an evil plan of American domination, greed and
murder, and attempts at dispatching favourites like Jim Dale and
Kenneth Williams.
 Joan Sims relished the chance to turn on seductive Mae
West-like charms and works brilliantly off Sid - oozing glamour in
her tight, black low-cut gown.
Amongst the supporting actors there are two fine minor turns
from a couple of valued newcomers: Bernard Bresslaw, booming and
yelling his Red Indian anger at every opportunity, and Peter
Butterworth fidgeting in the background and stealing every scene
he appears in.
The delightful Angela Douglas, in a return to the straight
leading ladies throws another log on the feminist fire with her
rebel rousing, gun-wielding heroine.
Jim Dale, finally gaining a major romantic lead role and
playing it to perfection, brilliantly brings the regular foreigner
abroad character to life.
As the token English character, Jim's
mistaken hero tackles all the Western clichés and cinematic
echoes.
 The only American character to inject elements of his
clichéd persona is Indian chief Charles Hawtrey.
The entire film establishes the idea of the Carry On team as
Americans and Thomas cunningly builds up the tension for the first
appearance of a fearsome Indian.
The fact that we get the small
cough, twinkling grin and sparkling eyes of Charlie Hawtrey is a
peak of contrasting comic effect.
Celebrated as one of the most professionally produced and
effective films in the series, Cowboy is a western field of dreams where Sid's dark villain literally
gets away with murder, Jim Dale gets the gal of his
fantasies, Charles Hawtrey happily drinks away the Indian blues
and Bresslaw and Butterworth get a
memorable baptism of fire.
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