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  Established in 1998, Nostalgia Central is your one stop reference guide through five decades of music, movies, television, pop culture and social history


THE CAST

Bert Handy
Sid James
Sam Twist

Kenneth Connor
Francis Courtenay

Kenneth Williams
Gabriel Dimple

Charles Hawtrey
Lily Duveen

Joan Sims
Delia King

Liz Fraser
Mike Weston

Bill Owen
Penny Panting

Fenella Fielding
Montgomery Infield-Hopping

Terence Longdon
Mata Hari

Betty Marsden
Wolf

Nicholas Parsons
Miss Cooling

Esma Cannon
Landlord

Stanley Unwin
Lefty

Freddie Mills
Dynamite Dan

Joe Robinson
Helen Delling

Carole Shelley
Mr. Panting

Ed Devereaux

Director
Gerald Thomas

 

Carry On Regardless (1961)


This is a mixed-up collection of Carry On delights with a totally meaningless title for a totally plotless array of brief comic situations and familiar character players. 

As the title suggests, this film is devoid of any real thematic focus, and wanders aimlessly but memorably through a myriad scenarios in which anything can happen.

Bert Handy (Sid James) runs the Helping Hands Odd Job Agency, and he’s recruiting new staff. But the people he gets from the Employment Exchange are inexperienced, and end up confused and bewildered as they mix up their respective tasks, as do the people they are supposed to help. 

Kenneth Connor bumbles around nervously as women make advances (a particularly lush Fenella Fielding), Kenneth Williams stomps through the working-class masses with his nose in the air, Joan Sims has the frumpy female gags thrown at her as her sexy figure and Charles Hawtrey minces about in the background with a constant smile and a wickedly sparkling glint in his eye.

The element of stability in the film is in the office sequences where boss Sid James and flustered assistant Esma Cannon dish out the various odd-ball assignments and try and tie the whole into a seamless comedy of community and innuendo. Hugely welcome performers wander through the proceedings as the seven 'Helping Hands' eagerly try and complete their assignments.

All is fine and dandy as the problems are resolved and the job of cleaning one of Stanley Unwin's properties creates a whiz bang, dust covered, gloriously messy climax which ends the only way it can - Kenneth W translating Unwin's last words as "carry on regardless".