Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3387 in VHS
• Released on: 1997-08-18
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, HiFi Sound, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 81 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first of the Carry On movies, 1958's Sergeant is rather different from its successors, much more a film of its time (the latter days of National Service) and rather less a bawdy picture postcard. Sergeant Grimshaw (William Hartnell long before Doctor Who) is about to retire and hopes that he can get his last platoon into shape as Champion Platoon of its intake. Unfortunately, the new recruits include the clumsy Golightly (Charles Hawtrey), the barrack-room lawyer Bailey (Kenneth Williams) and the hypochondriac Horace Strong (Kenneth Connor). Love interest is provided by Bob Monkhouse and Shirley Eaton--newlyweds separated by the call-up and reunited by her taking a job in the canteen--and by the pursuit of Horace by Dora Bryan's Nora. The film relies heavily on a mixture of slapstick and paradoxical revelations of character complexity--the obnoxious Bailey nonetheless takes the trouble to coach the incorrigibly dense Herbert (Norman Rossington); the series' later obsession with low comedy only really emerges in the scenes between Horace and the medic Captain Clark (Hattie Jacques). The platoon's eventual coming together as other than total incompetents is predictable, but likable.

On the DVD: The DVD has no frills whatever except for a widescreen picture and chapter selections; it has been cleaned up however so that we get a remarkably crisp mono picture and mono sound, which brings out the quality of the military-band score by Bruce Montgomery, who was also the writer Edmund Crispin. --Roz Kaveney

Synopsis
This comical caper centres on a bunch of raw recruits at an army training unit. Charles Hawtrey stars as the sergeant who is daft enough to accept a bet that his last squad of recruits will win the 'Star Squad' award.

Customer Reviews

Arghhhhhhhh
This was the first Carry on, they didn`t know at the time that they were going to make more. Any film that contains Kenneth Williams going Arghhhh!!! earns the first star. Ironically, the basic training scenes are closer to reality than many a war epic. Bob Monkhouse makes his first and last apearance in a Carry on, and he puts in a good and funny performance. Kenneth Connor is superb, as always he is always in bother. Charles Hawtrey is brilliant. Kenneth Williams plays it straight, and his snapping and snotty one liners are delivered like nobody else could. A Carry On film without Kenneth Williams is like a lamp without a bulb. This film is a must for Carry On fans, it is the first and one of the best, and all the jokes are fresh.

Carry On
As always a great film from the Carry On stable. Being the first of it's kind makes it special and in some ways it is the best of the bunch.
A very enjoyable film.

The 1st Carry On
While it was never intended as the first of an epic series, with Carry On Sergeant you can certainly glimpse the beginnings of the format that the latter films would perfect. About half of the cast are the familiar faces who would go on to greater things: Charles Hawtry as the bungling wimp Golightly and Kenneth Williams as the snooty know-it-all Bailey get some good scenes, but the real star of this first film is Kenneth Connor as hypochondriac Horace Strong, with his battles with medical officer Hattie Jacques to convince her that he is ill providing the highlights of the film - amusingly after his 'curing' he even turns into a proto-Sid James wolf, complete with 'Phwoo-aar'-ing at the opposite sex! With a strong central straight role for William Hartnell as the retiring Sergeant Grimshawe, and Bob Monkhouse and Shirley Eaton as the romantic leads, this is a much gentler, more restrained comedy than the later films, with a recognisable film plot rather than just a string of smutty jokes. That said, the script isn't particularly hilarious, with only one line pointing the way to the crudity of the latter films (one private whose been excused from training has a number of exemption chits, leading to the lovely "Blimey, you're just one great big pile of chits!"), and the only real clever word play coming from Eric Barkers drill inspection - you'll find yourself laughing at Kenneth Williams not because he says anything amusing, but just because its Kenneth Williams. As such, this is a film that only really works as the opening instalment of a classic comedy series - judged on it's own its a mildly amusing, pleasant film, but no classic.