Richard Webber - The Complete A–Z of Everything Carry On

Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell

Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers

Associate Producer: Frank Bevis

Art Director: Bert Davey

Editor: Rod Keys

Director of Photography: Alan Hume

Camera Operator: Godfrey Godar

Assistant Director: Peter Bolton

Unit Manager: Ron Jackson

Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway

Sound Editor: Jim Groom

Sound Recordists: Robert T. MacPhee and Ken Barker

Hairdressing: Stella Rivers

Costume Designer: Cynthia Tingey

Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner

Master of Horse: Jeremy Taylor

Continuity: Gladys Goldsmith

Producer: Peter Rogers

Director: Gerald Thomas

Judge Burke (Kenneth Williams) lives up to his name

Stodge City is a sleepy Western town where people live in peace and harmony, that is until Johnny Finger, alias the Rumpo Kid, arrives on the scene and starts throwing his weight, and his bullets, around. He cuts a frightening figure and is soon running the place; even Belle’s Place, an inn which only served soft drinks, is renamed Rumpo’s Place and becomes a rowdy, alcohol-swilling gambling house, with dancing girls, fights and goodness knows what as part of the scene. It’s a far cry from the days when Judge Burke tried banishing impropriety by declaring shooting, fighting, boozing and gambling were banned from Stodge, or as he put it so bluntly, ‘no nothing’.

No one has the strength or guts to stand up to the Rumpo Kid and his growing band of followers; the last person to try, Albert Earp, the sheriff, ended up with a chestful of bullets. His dying words were for his folks to be told what happened in the hope they might try and even the score; his wish was heard and heading for Stodge is Earp’s daughter, Annie Oakley, a fine shot who’s determined to track down the man who killed her father. Sharing the stagecoach with her is Marshall Knutt, a drainage, sanitation and garbage disposal engineer, who’s been involved in a terrible mix-up; desperate to recruit a peace marshal to sort things out in Stodge City, the local government take Marshall’s Christian name as meaning he’s a qualified marshal and send him to clean up Stodge City; Knutt, meanwhile, thinks he’s been appointed to clear out the town’s drains.

En route to Stodge, Annie has the chance to show off her prowess with the gun. Worried about the arrival of a new marshal, the Rumpo Kid, not wanting to be implicated himself, seeks the help of a local Indian tribe to try and prevent Knutt reaching Stodge. When they attack the travelling stagecoach carrying Knutt and Oakley, they didn’t expect to be facing a crack shot. Surviving the attack, Knutt thinks he was the one who successfully saw off the Indian threat.

Still desperate to find a way of ridding the town of Marshall P. Knutt, Johnny Finger hatches a plot whereby the marshal is tipped off about cattle-rustling taking place that night. The judge tells Marshall to take a posse out with him but he has trouble recruiting anyone, so Johnny gives him two of his own men. Arriving at the ranch, he’s accused of horse-rustling and finds himself with a hangman’s noose over his head. It looks like it’s curtains for Marshall Knutt until Annie Oakley comes to the rescue.

Back in Stodge City, Annie entices Johnny Finger up to her bedroom and finds a way of getting him to admit to killing her father; she invites him back later and in preparation for his visit rigs up her gun to shoot him when he opens the door. Fortunately for Johnny Finger, his sidekick, Charlie, enters her room first and is killed.

Later, when the judge lets on to the Rumpo Kid that the marshal isn’t actually a marshal, but an engineer sent to the town by mistake, he vows to kill him. Annie Oakley tries to persuade Marshall to leave town, revealing that she was the one who shot the Indians. Marshall isn’t going to run, though, and has a plan he’s confident will work if she can help him become a crack shot in the two hours remaining before the Rumpo Kid’s arrival in town.

He may not know his way around a gun, but Marshall P. Knutt is an expert when it comes to drains and sets about nailing the Rumpo Kid once and for all.

The Rumpo Kid (Sid James) meets his match in the unlikely shape of Marshall Knutt (Jim Dale)

Nowadays, he can be found helping his son run fruit stalls at Putney and Clapham Junction.

CORNELIUS, JOE

Role: Second in Loving

Born in London in 1928, Joe Cornelius started his working life, aged fourteen, in the printing trade. A keen amateur wrestler, by the time he was twenty-two he’d decided to turn pro and travelled to Berlin for his first bout. During a career spanning two decades, he fought around the world, including China and Japan, and was crowned Southern Area heavyweight champion and runner-up in the nationals.

He made occasional television and film appearances, including Adam Adamant Lives! and The Befrienders for the small screen and The File of the Golden Goose, Trog and The Dirty Dozen for the big screen.

After quitting wrestling in 1973, he managed various pubs in London before retiring to Lanzarote, where he remained for six years. Now lives in Spain.

CORRIE, ERIC

Role: Citizen in Constable

On screen since the 1950s, his television work included The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and Doomwatch , while his film credits ranged from The Colditz Story and A Hill in Korea to The Quatermass Xperiment and The Iron Maiden.

CORSET LADY

Played by Amelia Bayntun

Seen in Loving , the woman is desperately being squeezed into a corset by Esme Crowfoot when Sidney Bliss calls to set up a date for Bertie Muffet.

COUCH, LIONEL

Art Director on Teacher , Regardless , Don’t Lose Your Head , Camping , Loving , Henry , At Your Convenience , Matron , Abroad , Dick , Behind and England

Educated at Dulwich College, Lionel Couch trained at Camberwell Art School and was intending to become an architect before the outbreak of war saw him serve in the army.

After demob he quickly found employment as an assistant art director at Gainsborough Studios before transferring to Pinewood. His CV boasts such pictures as Nurse On Wheels, Night Must Fall, Casino Royale, Anne of the Thousand Days (for which he received an Academy Award nomination) , Assault, Bless This House, The Satanic Rites of Dracula and, his last picture as art director, The Awakening.

COULTER, PHIL

Co-wrote the song, ‘ Don’t Lose Your Head ’, heard in the film of the same name

Born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1942, composer, pianist and arranger Phil Coulter graduated from Belfast’s Queen’s University and went on to write music for films such as A Man Called Sledge and The Water Babies as well as television series, including 1980’s Metal Mickey.

He’s also made the occasional appearance as an actor, such as in the 1999 film Black Eyed Dog and the television series, You’re A Star , hosted his own show, Coulter and Company for RTE in Ireland, and released many albums.

COUNSELL, JENNY

Role: Night Nurse in Again Doctor

COURTAULDS