Carry On Sergeant

7/23/2023

I suppose that this first of the "Carry On" films suffered quite definitely from being all to easily compared with the far funnier and potent wartime efforts of the likes of Will Hay and Norman Wisdom. These latter efforts had a far more immediate sense of blackened humour given that bombs were frequently dropping around them all as the films were being made. This is more of a compendium of satire and smut that struggles to build on quite a weak story, some rather puerile dialogue and a remarkably lacklustre effort from a team who seemed just a little too tentative and out-of-sorts to string the flimsy plot out. That story centres around the desire of "Sgt. Grimshawe" (William Hartnell) to retire in a blaze of glory by taking his ramshackle squadron of half-baked boys and girls and turn th