Carry On Matron (1972)
 The
fourth Carry On with a hospital background, and the 23rd in
the series, concerns a plot by petty criminals Sid James, Kenneth
Cope and Bernard Bresslaw to rob the local maternity hospital of
contraceptive pills and sell them abroad.
For Sid’s gang to gain entry to the hospital, his son Cyril
(Cope) has to pose as a nurse.
Naturally, Cope attracts the attention of sex-mad doctor, Terry
Scott. Having bluffed his way past Gwendolyn Watts on reception,
Cope bumps into sexy nurse Barbara Windsor who discovers his true
identity, tosses in a tongue-in-cheek reference about being a
'gangster's moll!' and evokes a priceless shocked expression from
Sid as the two 'nurses' are caught in a passionate embrace.
Taking on elements from The Lavender Hill Mob, Too
Many Crooks and a score of second feature British crime
thrillers, Sid James strolls effortlessly through his part, with
the merest of raised eyebrows and chuckling comment enough to get
his belly laughs.
The scenes of the gang's robbery plans are juxtaposed with
various flights of fancy with the three principal authority
figures at Finesham hospital: Hattie Jacques as the endearingly
cynical Matron, Kenneth Williams as the overtly eye-popping,
hypochondriac surgeon and Charles Hawtrey as the absent-minded
psychiatrist.
This trio of Carry On legends simply camp around the
hospital, mugging wonderfully to lesser characters and the camera,
and have a whale of a time with the ancient comic dialogue.
The patients in this film are even less important than in Carry
On Again Doctor. Although several expectant mums arrive and
have their babies (notably Valerie Leon and Madeline Smith), they
are simply the source of a quick one-liner or just a plot
device.
Only one genuine expectant mother is given any sort of screen
time and that's ever-eating, ever-complaining Joan Sims, who
spends the film lying in bed, devouring sausages and tomatoes and
faking birth pangs to avoid induced labour. It's a fairly minor
supporting turn but delivered beautifully, with belittled railway
worker Kenneth Connor the ultimate in anxious expectant husbands.
The bumbling gang of crooks muff the operation but avoid the
long arm of the law, Cope and Windsor get together and the on-off
romantic relationship between Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques
that had stretched back to Doctor finally ends in wedding
bells.
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