Production
Pre-production
The Carry On series had ended in 1978 following the negative critical reception to Carry On Emmannuelle . Plans to reignite the series with projects such as Carry on Down Under, Carry on Dallas, and Carry on Again Nurse did not come to fruition. [3] However, when Carry On director Gerald Thomas and film producer John Goldstone's attempts to reignite the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope Road to movies, which were popular in the mid-twentieth century, stalled, they began to return their attention to the Carry On franchise. [4] With several films being released in 1992 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' 1492 arrival in America, Goldstone realised that the subject would be a good fit for a Carry On revival. [3] Peter Rogers, who had produced all of the previous Carry On films, gave the project his blessing, and is credited as executive producer'. [4]
The project developed with some speed so that the film could be released in 1992. Comedy writer Dave Freeman, who had previous written 1975's Carry on Behind and several episodes of the Carry on Laughing television series, was tasked with writing the screenplay within three weeks so that the film could be released in summer 1992. John Antrobus, who had written Carry on Sergeant , also contributed to the script. [5] Freeman would later express unhappiness with his experience of the project, relating that he has been "pushed and shoved in all direction by the producer and director", and how he could have done a "better job" with more time. [6]
Casting
Many of the series core cast members had died by the time Carry on Columbus was in pre-production. When Robbie Coltrane declined the offer to play the title role, Jim Dale agreed to play Columbus to bring 'star power', out of affection and loyalty to the series and its producer and director. [3] Surviving members such as Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor and Joan Sims declined the minor supporting roles that they were offered, [3] although some sources claim that Windsor and Bernard Bresslaw were unable to appear because they were already committed to a Blackpool summer show called Wot A Carry On, which clashed with filming. [7] Veteran Carry On performer Frankie Howerd was signed up to appear, but he died in April 1992 shortly before production started; his role was played by Leslie Phillips. [3]
The cast also included actors who had previously appeared in the series, including Jack Douglas, Peter Gilmore, Bernard Cribbins, Leslie Phillips, Jon Pertwee and June Whitfield. [3] Goldstone drew upon his connections with 'a new generation of comedians' [6] including Peter Richardson, Alexei Sayle, Rik Mayall, and Nigel Planer (from The Comic Strip ), alongside Julian Clary, Tony Slattery and Richard Wilson. Harry Enfield declined the offer to play Columbus' brother because as a Carry On fan, he felt it odd that so many of the original cast were not involved. [3]
Production
The film was shot between 21 April and 27 May 1992 with interior shooting at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire and location shooting at Frensham Common. The latter location was previously used nearly 30 years earlier for the similarly nautical Carry On Jack .
As with previous Carry On films, director Gerald Thomas retained the discipline to ensure that production kept to schedule, with the "new faces" instructed that the script was "the bible" with no space or time for "scene-stealing ad libs". Goldstone reflects that Thomas' organisation, "confidence and happiness" lead to a positive atmosphere on set. [8] However, others have reported a gulf between the veteran Carry On actors and the new generation; [7] Goldstone attributed to established friendships amongst the older stars, [8] while Jim Dale reported the veteran Carry On actors felt like "outsiders" because the younger actors "all had their little in-jokes". [5]
Reception
Critical reception was mixed, although the balance was towards the negative. [7] [9] Writing for Sight and Sound , Andy Medhurst says that the film "is not the disaster it might have been" but its "timidity" is disappointing, and that it is "a text of pleasure rather than pure bliss". [10] Medhurst later reflected that Columbus was a Carry On "in name only" without its most recognisable stars, [11] a sentiment reflected by critics such as Mervyn Cooke [12] and Frances Gray. [13] Variety's Derek Elley commends Alan Hume's "bright and handsome" cinematography, and how the tight editing helps Thomas' "no-frills" direction. However, Elley is critical of a script which he says begins "weakly", and while it contains the expected double entendres , the "by-the-numbers comedy lacks the conviction of old". [14] Other critics also derided the script, with Nigel Andrews branding it "bare of wit", and The Independent's Sheila Johnston labelling the screenplay as "third-rate", and lamenting that "most of the entendres are distressingly singular." [15]
Michael Dwyer in The Irish Times described Carry on Columbus as a "flaccid, feeble comeback effort" and a "wretched and pathetic attempt which is singularly unfunny". [16] Scholar Asela Laguna compares Carry on Columbus positively to the BBC's comedy Bye, Bye, Columbus , commending "the introduction of an international intrigue" when the Sultan of Turkey finds out that Columbus "is planning to find a new route to Asia from Portugal". [17] Another scholar, James Chapman, reflects upon the incongruity of alternative comedians, characterised as "non-discriminatory, non-racist, and non-sexist", in a Carry On film. [18]
Despite the critical reception, Carry On Columbus took more money at the UK box office (£1,667,249) [1] than the two other Columbus films released in 1992, John Glen's Christopher Columbus: The Discovery and Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise , although all three films flopped. Carry On Columbus was also shot on a much lower budget than the other two films, a budget of £2.5 million compared to the other two budgets of $45 million and $47 million respectively. [19]
In a 2004 poll of British film actors, technicians, writers and directors on British cinema, Carry On Columbus was voted the worst British film ever made. [20] In a 2018 retrospective on the series, the British Film Institute named Carry On Columbus as one of the series' five worst films, alongside Carry On Girls (1973), Carry on England (1976), That's Carry On! (1977), and Carry On Emmannuelle (1978). [21]
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