CARRY ON BEHIND <br /><br />Aspect ratio: 1.85:1<br /><br />Sound format: Mono<br /><br />An archaeological team encounters a variety of comic mishaps whilst excavating ancient ruins beneath a dilapidated caravan park.<br /><br />In retrospect, it was a huge mistake for the "Carry On" series to, er... carry on following the retirement of regular scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell due to ill health. Few writers could have matched his genius for puns and wordplay, least of all TV journeyman Dave Freeman, who swapped the playful innuendo of his illustrious predecessor with single-entendre gags and near-the-knuckle sexual references ('erection' jokes had become permissible at PG-level in 1975). Still, CARRY ON BEHIND amounts to a fair imitation of the 'real thing', putting its game cast of veterans and newcomers through a free-form remake of CARRY ON CAMPING (1969), minus the flying bras and hilarious hippies of that earlier outing! <br /><br />Shot in the dead of winter in a muddy field round the back of Pinewood studios (note the visible breath from actors dressed in summer clothing!), the movie revels in its own shortcomings. Top-billed Kenneth Williams had always been contemptuous of this material, but he must have despaired of the sudden downturn in production values, even by "Carry On" standards. Nevertheless, he acts up a storm as renowned archaeologist 'Professor Roland Crump', whose lecture to a bored-looking Town Hall audience in the opening scene is enlivened when his 'film show' turns out to contain footage of a stripper (as the girl is about to remove her bra, an oblivious Williams intones: "Miss Fosdyke is about to reveal something of ENORMOUS interest!"). But Williams - so often the star of these shows by default - is almost completely upstaged by Britt Ekland, utterly delightful as a vivacious Russian scientist whose basic grasp of English gets her into all sorts of trouble ("Professor Crump and I vill soon be having it off!" "No, no - HITTING it off!!"). Co-star Joan Sims is in full battleaxe mode, sharing much of her screen time with a rude Mynah bird (voiced, uncredited, by director Gerald Thomas), while middle-aged lotharios Windsor Davies and Jack Douglas make fools of themselves by pursuing a couple of bosomy dolly-birds (Carol Hawkins and "Coronation Street"s Sherrie Hewson). Best gag: When a crowd of holidaymakers lose the seat of their pants after sitting on newly-painted chairs, site owner Kenneth Connor promises a thorough investigation: "I'll get to the bottom of this - I feel a complete arse!" <br /><br />Though cheap and cheerful in its own debased way, this was the last of the 'good' "Carry On" movies. Denied the opportunity by British censors to exploit newfound sexual freedoms enjoyed by moviegoers across the rest of the world, Adult filmmakers merely co-opted the sex-based humor of Thomas' long-running series and rendered explicit what had always been implied by Rothwell's fruity screenplays, adding softcore sex and nudity to an ultra-commercial brew (I'M NOT FEELING MYSELF TONIGHT, CAN YOU KEEP IT UP FOR A WEEK?, the "Confessions" series, etc.). Unwilling to compete with such material, and having lost both Rothwell and star Sid James (he died onstage at the Sunderland Empire theatre in 1976), the series plunged into serious decline with the following entry, CARRY ON ENGLAND (1976), a wartime farce which swapped wit and cleverness for puerile pratfalls and naked female breasts, earning the franchise its first restrictive censor rating in the UK (AA - no one under 14 allowed).