Carry On Columbus

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Carry On Columbus
Carry On Columbus FilmPoster.jpeg
Original UK quad poster
Directed by Gerald Thomas
Written by Dave Freeman
John Antrobus
Produced byJohn Goldstone
Peter Rogers (executive producer)
Starring Jim Dale
Bernard Cribbins
Maureen Lipman
Peter Richardson
Alexei Sayle
Jack Douglas
Rik Mayall
Charles Fleischer
Larry Miller
Leslie Phillips
Julian Clary
Sara Crowe
Rebecca Lacey
Nigel Planer
June Whitfield
Richard Wilson
Cinematography Alan Hume
Edited byChris Blunden
Music by John Du Prez
Production
company
Distributed by United International Pictures
Release date
  • 2 October 1992 (1992-10-02)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£2.5 million
Box office£1.7 million [1]

Carry On Columbus is a 1992 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas and written by Dave Freeman and John Antrobus. The 31st and final release in the Carry On film series, it starred Carry On regular Jim Dale in the title role, alongside a range of younger actors associated with alternative comedy. [2]

Contents

The Carry On series has stalled since the negative critical reception to 1978's Carry On Emmannuelle . Following several unrealised attempts to reignite the series, the filmmakers were inspired by the high budget films which were being released to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas. [3]

Critical reaction to the film was largely negative, with reviewers particularly commenting upon the script, which had been quickly written to meet the tight production schedule. [4] Scholars have observed the incongruity of progressive alternative comedians performing in a Carry On film. [5]

Plot

Christopher Columbus believes he can find an alternative route to the far East and persuades King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to finance his expedition. But the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who makes a great deal of money through taxing the merchants who have to pass through his country on the Silk Road, sends his best spy, Fatima, to wreck the trip...

Cast

Production

Development

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. [6] [7] 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. [3] 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. [6] Thomas, according to a later interview with his daughter, though that Columbus would work with a "new generation" and wanted to encourage younger talent. [8] Goldstone, known for his work on Monty Python's Life of Brian and The Rocky Horror Picture Show would produce Columbus; Peter Rogers, who had produced all of the previous Carry On films, gave the project his blessing, and is credited as executive producer'. [3] [8]

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. [8] 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. [9]

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. [6] Surviving members such as Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor and Joan Sims declined the minor supporting roles that they were offered. [6] Windsor, who had refused to play in the explicit Carry on Emmannuelle , [10] was particularly critical of the script, labelling it as a "bad Confessions film, crude and awful" rather than the double entrendes of the style of the McGill saucy postcards which the Carry On films were known for. Windsor says that she conferred with Sims and Bresslaw, who both felt the same. [11] However, 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. [12] Veteran Carry On performer Frankie Howerd was signed up to play the King of Spain, but he died in April 1992 shortly before production started; his role was played by Leslie Phillips. [13]

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. [6] Goldstone drew upon his connections with 'a new generation of comedians' [9] 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. [6]

Filming

The film was shot in April and 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 . [14]

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. [15] Julian Clary and Marc Sinden both reported having a "lovely time" on set. [14] However, others have reported a gulf between the veteran Carry On actors and the new generation; [12] Goldstone attributed to established friendships amongst the older stars, [15] while Jim Dale reported the veteran Carry On actors felt like "outsiders" because the younger actors "all had their little in-jokes". [14]

The score was composed by John Du Prez, with a title song written and produced by Malcolm McLaren and Lee Gorman. [16]

Reception

Critical reception was mainly negative. [12] [4] 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". [17] Medhurst later reflected that Columbus was a Carry On "in name only" without its most recognisable stars, [18] a sentiment reflected by critics such as Mervyn Cooke [19] and Frances Gray. [20] 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". [21] 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." [22]

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". [23] 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". [24] 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. [5]

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. [25]

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. [26] 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). [27]

Commercial release

The film was classified as PG by the British Board of Film Classification and released on VHS in March 1993 by Warner Home Video in the UK. [28]

References

  1. 1 2 "UK Top 50 Films". Screen International . 29 January 1993. p. 15.
  2. ↑ "Carry On Columbus". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 Webber 2009 , p. 175-176
  4. 1 2 Webber 2009 , p. 179
  5. 1 2 Chapman 2012 , p. 112-113
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fryer 2023
  7. ↑ Frost 2022 , p. 193
  8. 1 2 3 Frost 2022 , p. 194
  9. 1 2 Webber 2009 , p. 177
  10. ↑ Frost 2022 , p. 172
  11. ↑ Frost 2022 , p. 195-6
  12. 1 2 3 Brew, Simon (30 October 2025). "Carry On Columbus, and the failed attempt to revive a comedy series". Film Stories. Retrieved 18 November 2025.
  13. ↑ Frost 2022 , p. 195
  14. 1 2 3 Frost 2022 , p. 196
  15. 1 2 Webber 2009 , p. 181
  16. ↑ Webber 2009 , p. 248
  17. ↑ Medhurst 1992
  18. ↑ Medhurst 2007
  19. ↑ Cooke 2023 , p. 273
  20. ↑ Gray 2004 , p. 108
  21. ↑ Elley, Derek (5 October 1992). "Carry On Columbus". Variety. 348 (11): 62.
  22. ↑ Andrews and Johnston both quoted in Webber 2009 , p. 179
  23. ↑ Dwyer 1992
  24. ↑ Laguna 2011
  25. ↑ Weinraub, Bernard (21 May 1992). "The Talk of Hollywood; It's Columbus Against Columbus, With a Fortune in Profits at Stake". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  26. ↑ "Smallweed". The Guardian. 21 August 2004. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  27. ↑ Mitchell, Neil (23 November 2018). "The 5 best Carry Ons… and the 5 worst". British Film Institute . Archived from the original on 15 April 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  28. ↑ "Carry on Columbus". BBFC. Retrieved 18 December 2025.

Bibliography

Further reading


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