"Well, I bow to the majority, of course, but I'd like it noted that I did suggest the suggestion I suggested"
"And very suggestive it was, too!"
Carry On Regardless is a 1961 British comedy directed by Gerald Thomas and produced by Peter Rogers. It is the fith film in the Carry On series.
Regulars Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims and Kenneth Williams all return from previous entries. Hattie Jacques was due to have a starring role, but ill health saw her part taken by Liz Fraser who makes her debut. Jacques did, however, appear briefly as Sister in the hospital scene.
Regardless also marks the final appearance for Terence Longdon. Stanley Unwin makes a cameo appearance as the agencies landlord.
Synopsis[]
The Helping Hands agency employs some very strange people to perform some very strange jobs. Even the simplest of tasks get bungled by the incompetent but lovable staff.
Plot[]
Down at the local labour exchange, everyone is moaning about the lack of decent jobs, unaware that nearby Bert Handy and his secretary Miss Cooling are attempting to fill vacancies at a new enterprise called Helping Hands. However this all changes when the disgruntled job seeks stumble across a job advert in the local paper. They're very quick to leg it round to the new business, and are even quicker to introduce themselves. Sam Twist, Francis Courtenay, Delia King, Gabriel Dimple, Lily Duveen, Mike Weston and Montgomery Infield-Hopping.
Bert decides to hire them all, and at first business is slow. The only customer so far is a man who speaks gobbledygook, and since Francis isn't present (who can speak 16 languages) nobody can understand him, and he goes on his way.
The employees of Helping Hands Agency
Thankfully, within a few days business soon picks up. Delia has her initial assignment to try on a complete women's wardrobe for a gentleman who is planning a surprise for his wife. However things get complicated when the mans wife arrives home unexpectedly.
Meanwhile Sam Twist is sent to a baby-sitting job, only to find that there isn't a baby to be sitted! Instead there is a woman who needs to make her husband jealous. Needless to say when he gets home he is indeed jealous as they both find out.
The next day, Francis is assigned to take a pet for a walk, due to his owner having the flu. It's only when he gets to the woman's house that he finds out it's a chimpanzee. Always being one to see a job through to its bitter end, he takes the chimp for a walk. However he soon discovers that people who work in the transport industry have an aversion to apes. They eventually end up at a chimps tea party enjoying a nice afternoon tea.
Connor and Fielding as Sam Twist and Penny Panting respectively.
Next up is Lily Duveen, who has been employed to attend a wine tasting evening to collect invitation cards from the attendees. After she has performed this task, she's invited to sample some of the wines herself. Unfortunately, she has rather too much and makes a bit of a spectacle of herself.
Later a man from Amalgamated Scrap-Iron arrives in the Helping Hands office. He's obviously a busy man as he requests that someone take his place in the queue at the hospital outpatients department at the hospital. Bert says that he will immediately get someone on the case, but the chap is rather bullish, and insists that the top man undergoes the job himself. So inevitably, Bert ends up queuing at the hospital, and is mistaken for Sir Theodore who is an eminent diagnostician. He is then taken on a guided tour of the hospital, watch out nurses!
The next job that Francis undertakes is in the field of photography as a model. Obviously very chuffed that he has been chosen, he is crestfallen when he discovers that the job is an advertisement for a bee-keepers helmet. Sam Twist is equally put out when attempts to quit smoking.
Francis' next job is between a bickering couple. The husband can't understand his wife, and is continually berating him in her native tongue of German. Thanks to Francis getting a bit emotionally involved, the wife starts speaking English and the couple make up.
Lefty Vincent, a boxing friend of Bert pops into the office. He requires four helping hands to act as seconds for his fighter Dynamite Dan. When they get to the venue, Dan is obviously terrified by his opponent, Mickey McGee so pretends that Gabriel has sprained his finger. The fight is off, but Gabriel is incensed by McGee that he takes him on in the ring, and wins!
Williams as Francis Courtenay at a Chimps tea party.
Sam is really chuffed over his next job. He thinks he's on a top secret spying mission, but due to a mix up all that was really required of him was to make up a game of bridge. He ends up at the Forth Bridge in Scotland.
When Sam gets back, he learns that the whole of Helping Hands have been engaged to demonstrate exhibits at the Ideal House exhibition. Needless to say all of the demonstrations end in calamity. Rather like Sam's next job at an exclusive men's club. No matter how hard he tries, he just can't keep silent. A strict rule of the establishment.
Miss Cooling decides on a new filing system, for more streamlined operation of the organisation. Cards for the helping hands are put in cubby holes for each of them. Disaster strikes when the cleaner knocks the box down. She picks it up and puts it back, with the cards all mixed up. Everyone gets someone else's assignment, with misunderstandings all round.
Later, the gobbledygook man turns up at the offices. However this time Francis is there to translate. Therefore it translates that he is their landlord, and has been trying to inform Bert that he will have to vacate the premises, due to the fact that he's had a better offer. However, due to a show of unity by all the staff, he agrees that they can stay on the provision that they do something for him. His main interest is property development and he needs a house cleared and cleaned. Unfortunately, the team end up demolishing it! Thankfully it turns out that the house needs demolishing for a block of flats. After hearing this news, what else can the team do, but carry on regardless!
Cast[]
- Sid James as Bert Handy
- Kenneth Connor as Sam Twist
- Charles Hawtrey as Gabriel Dimple
- Kenneth Williams as Francis Courtenay
- "Professor" Stanley Unwin as Landlord
- Joan Sims as Lily Duveen
- Liz Fraser as Delia King
- Terence Longdon as Montgomery Infield-Hopping
- Bill Owen as Mike Weston
- Esma Cannon as Miss Cooling
- Freddie Mills as 'Lefty' Vincent
- Fenella Fielding as Penny Panting
- Hattie Jacques as Sister
- Joan Hickson as Matron
- Sydney Tafler as Strip Club Manager
- Judith Furse as Headmistress
- Howard Marion-Crawford as Wine-Tasting Organiser
- Jimmy Thompson as Mr. Delling
- Patrick Cargill as Raffish Store Customer
- Molly Weir as Bird Woman
- Kynaston Reeves as Sir Theodore
- David Lodge as Connoisseur
- Jerry Desmonde as Martin Paul
- Ambrosine Phillpotts as Yoki's Owner
- Nicholas Parsons as Wolf
- Cyril Chamberlain as Policeman
- Cyril Raymond as Army Officer
- Eric Pohlmann as Sinister Man
- Julia Arnall as Trudy Trelawney
- Terence Alexander as Trevor Trelawney
- Victor Maddern as First Sinister Passenger
- Norman Rossington as Boxing Referee
Production and release[]
Alternative UK poster
Production for Regardless began on 28 November 1960 and concluded on 17 January 1961.
The role played by Terence Longdon was originally intended for Leslie Phillips. However Phillips, complaining of typecasting, withdrew, and the part was drastically cut, before being recast.
Gerald Thomas played a joke on Joan Sims during the wine tasting scene. Initially tap water was to be used as a substitute for wine but Thomas swapped it for neat gin between takes. Sims downed the drink and her reaction was genuine. To make matters worse for Sims, the scene was shot at 8.30 in the morning.
The interior shots were filmed in Pinewood Studios. The corner of Park Street and Sheet Street in Windsor, Berkshire, doubled for the Helping Hands Agency. The location was used again a decade later for the Wedded Bliss agency in Carry On Loving.
Box office and reception[]
- Budget - £100,000[1]
- Gross - Unknown
The film was the 10th most popular movie at the UK box office in 1961.
Variety wrote, "Ingenuity of scriptwriter Norman Hudis is sometimes a bit strained, but he has come up with some sound comedy situations. Hudis' dialogue is also lively, relying on a great deal of double meanings, saucy vulgarity and the various personalities of the lengthy cast. Even down to the smallest one, the roles are played by actors well experienced in jumping through the comedy hoops that director Gerald Thomas tosses deftly in the air."
Margaret Harford of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "is too scrambled to be consistently funny but regular addicts of the series will enjoy the obvious humour inherent in any outfit labelled the Helping Hand Employment Agency."
The Monthly Film Bulletin opined that "mostly the gags have long since grown old gracelessly in the hallowed tradition of British music-hall and farce. This comedy seems staler, less yeasty than, say, Carry On Nurse. But the series has worked up such popular appeal it can probably coast along on that momentum very nicely for some time, before the public finally calls its bluff."