I have long been a fan of the carry on films, since childhood catching them in the summer holidays in the afternoon, grabbing half an hour of one here and there at lunch time and even now occasionally on a bank holiday or as a guilty pleasure. Therefore I was racking my brains as to how I didn't remember this one, well now I know why.
It is well known that amongst the absolute stars of the carry on catalogue like Carry on Nurse and Carry on Camping that there is a dud or two and this one stinks more than most.
Set in the wild west Sid James is a gunslinger that moves into town, kills the sheriff and takes over. Kenneth Williams is the Judge and Mayor who ran the gaff before said baddies arrival and Jim Dale plays the clichéd mistakenly picked Marshal to come sort out the town. Its not just that the plot is terrible, I guess its meant to be clichéd as effectively its a spoof of the westerns of the day, but its just not funny. The gags are as predictable as the days in the week and delivered to deafening silence, I mustered two sniggers in the whole thing.
The real absolute tragedy here is the awful attempt at American accents by the cast, Sid James goes from East to west coast to deep south all in one sentence and Williams is even worse. Joan Sims is more wooden than a Troy Horse and just looks bored, in fact most of them look like they cant be arsed.
If you're a fan of Carry on and have avoided this to date, keep the memory alive and keep it that way, a terrible film.