7/25/2023

A largely overpowering Frankie Howerd heads the cast for this slightly revamped version of "Carry On Nurse" (1959) as the crooked preacher who ends up in hospital after a posterior altercation leaves him a bit bruised. When he gets to the hospital - where everything happens under the watchful gaze of the portrait of "Sir Lancelot Spratt" - he alights on "Roper" (Sid James) and "Barron" (Charles Hawtrey) and encounters the ruthless matron (Hattie Jacques). She resurrects her established partnership with Kenneth Williams' doctor - this time he's called "Tinkle" and the scene is now set for some fairly standard fayre of mischief and mayhem. Jim Dale features a little too frequently for me - I found his efforts just too busy and frenetic - as the bumbling "Dr. Kilmore" who is the apple in the eye of the nurses, especially "Miss Clarke" (Anita Harris) and so the seeds of romance are sewn. It's all a bit same old, same old, this comedy - but the last twenty minutes or so give them all a chance to shine as revenge is taken and Williams, in particular, gets a little more than he bargained for. It's quickly paced and there is plenty of innuendo but here I found the script a bit more akin to the traditional films - less smut and more fun. A power struggle with anaesthetics - what's not to like?