Paul Evans The early black and white Carry on films almost seem like a separate entity to the later, more bawdy, saucy postcard minded films. There was a soft, sweet innocence about the earliest films, and Nurse is perhaps the funniest. The medical formula clearly works well, a situation that would of course return a few times. The characters are excellent and truly lovable, the acting is terrific, Hattie Jacques and Wilfred Hyde White are the standouts, but everyone performs well. Great laughs, I'm always given fits of laughter by Charles Hawtrey's earphones, and I'm always charmed by Matron's smile after seeing the daffodil. Sweet, innocent fun that we'll never see the like of again.

memorable-name Carry On Nurse was the second in the long line of Carry On comedies that started in the late 1950s, continued throughout the 1960s and ended in the late 1970s. After the surprise success of Carry On Sergeant in 1958 the team behind and in front of the film were brought back for what would be the most successful of all Carry On Films, Carry On Nurse, becoming the most successful film at the British Box Office in 1959 proving that laughter really is the best medicine with over 10.4 million tickets sold.Among the returning actors were Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Conner and Hattie Jacques, while in supporting roles were Leslie Phillips, Joan Hickson and Terence Longdon, blonde bombshell Shirley Eaton also returned for her second of three Carry On Films, while Carry On Queen Joan Sims made her Carry On Debut.The plot, although thin is substantial enough to keep the film moving at a good pace and revolves around a mens ward with troublesome patients, young nurses to send the men's temperatures up even higher, doting visitors, a betting orderly all under the watchful eye of a domineering matron. A reporter is sent to the ward with appendicitis while there he is persuaded to investigate the workings of a modern hospital, this being 1959 it is very different to the health system of today but even back then it seemed our NHS was doomed if things were to run like as they do in Haven Hospital.The reporter (Terence Longdon) not content with just writing articles also finds time to fall in love with nurse Shirley Eaton (this is prior to her turning gold for James Bond). Other patients on the ward included Mr Hinton (Charles Hawtrey) who seems to like nothing best than listening to the radio, Oliver Reckitt (Kenneth Williams) an intellectual about to have his own study in love, a colonel (Wilfrid-Hyde-White) who being posh of course has a private room to himself where he likes to place bets, eat biscuits and seems to think the nurses have nothing better to do than to dote on him hand and foot and also Bernie Bishop (Kenneth Conner) a boxer with an injured hand. When another patient Jack Bell (Leslie Phillips) arrives to have a bunion removed and his operation is postponed the wards drunken patients decide to remove the offending bump themselves. The comical ending involves the nurses getting their own back on the annoying colonel by taking his temperature in a most peculiar way. Carry On Nurse would be the first medical themed film in the series and as with other early entries in the series is more gentle than the later innuendo filled adventures of the Carry On gang and so for most of the film you would hardly recognise it as one and it is interesting to see the actors in a script that didn't require extra sauce (saucy). Charles Hawtrey is forever the scene stealer, Joan Sims makes the most of her clumsy character, Kenneth William hams it up as the intellectual while Kenneth Conner gets a tougher than you might expect role but of course plays a boxer with heart and Hattie Jacques seems born for the role of uptight matron.Carry On Nurse is a healthy comedy and I would personally give it a healthy 8/10, its age may mean it's not for everyone's tastes but for those willing to watch a film in black and white (oh just the thought of it!) it's rewards grant an enjoyable hour and half with laughs along the way.

Tweekums This second film in the series finds the Carry On team on the men's ward of Haven Hospital but unlike the first film, 'Carry on Sergeant', there is no plot to speak of, just a series of amusing events involving the patients and the nurses looking after them. The patients are a varied bunch and include a nuclear physicist, a boxer with a broken hand, a man with a broken leg and another with a bunion. During the film they have amusing interactions with each other and the nurses, however it isn't until close to the end that they all interact in the most amusing scene in the film… after a couple of bottles of late night champagne the physicist claims that he is quite capable of operating on the man's bunion but after a slight accident with the nitrous oxide none of them are capable of doing anything! It isn't just the patients who are providing laughs, accident prone Student Nurse Stella Dawson provides plenty too; most notably when she gets her revenge on an awkward patient in a way that I'm surprised the 1959 censors allowed!This film was fun to watch although it didn't contain as many laugh out loud moments as some films in the series it did make me chuckle a few times. The cast did a decent job; the regulars are clearly already comfortable in their roles. One or two of the jokes are a bit 'naughty' but are never as crude as those to be found in the later instalments of the series meaning it is probably okay for younger viewers to watch although some parents might disagree. Watching this it is clear that health care has changed a lot in the last fifty years; no longer does Matron rule the ward with a rod of iron and patients certainly don't smoke in the hospital… these days they stand outside the front door to do it!

DPMay From 1959 comes the second film in the famous "Carry On" series. Many of the personnel return from the earlier "Carry On Sergeant", now in a different setting but still poking fun at British traditions and authority.Some of the actors from the first film return in very similar roles: Kenneth Williams as the intellectual, Shirley Eaton as the glamorous love interest, Hattie Jacques as an imperious authority figure and Charles Hawtrey as the wimpish man. Others are now playing different types of characters, notably Kenneth Connor, shedding his previous persona as a neurotic hypochondriac to portray a confident, successful boxer. Bill Owen is no longer an establishment figure as in the first film and joins the ranks of the common men.Added to the mix are many new faces, not least Joan Sims and Leslie Philips who will go on to become established stars of the film series. The big name guest star on this occasion is Wilfrid Hyde White.Like the earlier film, there are many witty one-liners, much of the humour suggestive rather than coarse, and the story is littered with instances of authority constantly being undermined by ineptitude.Did I say story? Alas, that is Carry On Nurse's big glaring weakness. The plot is virtually non-existent. Whereas Carry On Sergeant unfolded with a clear sense of purpose and progression, Carry On Nurse just lurches from one situation to another in a seemingly random manner. As with the earlier film, there are two romances on the go but in this film they seem rather incidental. Kenneth Williams' connection with Jill Ireland (surely one of the most unlikely romances in cinematic history) just sort of happens, and occurring so quickly without complication makes one wonder what the point of it was. More drawn out is Terence Longdon's pursuit of Shirley Eaton. There is a hint that there could be twists in store when Eaton is shown to be looking more longingly at Doctor Winn, but this plot thread, like many others, is just discarded and forgotten about. Another is the idea that Longdon's reporter character is hired to observe hospital life whilst he is a patient there and write a report on it, but again this idea never gets picked up again.It seems that whenever the film starts running out of steam, a new character is introduced just to keep events ticking along. Having had one incompetent nurse in the form of Joan Sims, we later get another one (Rosalind Knight). Having had one smooth talking, womanising patient in Terence Longdon, halfway through the film we get another in the guise of Leslie Phillips.The only thrust of the plot in the first half of the film is that Matron mustn't be defied, but we don't get too care too much because we don't see much by way of what happens when she *is* defied, other than a nice brief essay on rank, when Matron's stern rebuke of the Ward Sister is passed on in turn by the Sister to the staff nurse, and so on until the student nurse gets the ear-bashing.Late on the film comes the most interesting phase, when a drunken Williams is coerced into putting his money where his mouth is and performing an operation himself. This leads to the patients taking over an operating theatre and then unwittingly overdosing themselves with laughing gas. It is pure Carry On comedy, but it only lasts about 15 minutes.Aside from the main plot is Wilfrid Hyde White's colonel, in a private room. He likes gambling on horses and pestering the nurses, but doesn't really contribute anything by way of laughs until the film's famous closing gag. White is given no interaction with most of the main cast at all and his inclusion seems completely superfluous.There are lots of good gags, and good performances, but with a shallow plot and, consequently, shallow characters, the overall film is merely average. Writer Norman Hudis just fails to make the ideas work. To see how it should have been done, watch Talbot Rothwell's later reworking of the same ideas in "Carry On Doctor" which is not only much funnier, it has a much stronger storyline and characters the viewer will care more about.