Stevecorp
Don't listen to the negative reviews
DubyaHan
The movie is wildly uneven but lively and timely - in its own surreal way
Patience Watson
One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.
BA_Harrison
The Carry On team tackle that other British staple of the 1970s, the package holiday to the Med for some sun, sea, and a bit of 'how's your father?'; the result is another seriously silly caper full of low-brow humour and cheap titillation that is more fun than doing a drunken flamenco on a tapas bar table. Olé!Kenneth Williams plays travel guide Stuart Farquhar (Stupid what?), who leads a troupe of happy-go-lucky holidaymakers to the resort of Elsbels. With Sid James, Charles Hawtree, Joan Sims, Babs Windsor, Kenneth Connor, and Bernard Besslaw amongst the travellers, hilarity is most definitely on the agenda, especially since the hotel they are booked into is not only seriously understaffed, but also isn't quite finished being built.Having left their inhibitions back in England, the Gang proceed to drink, fight and flirt their way through the week, getting in trouble with the local police, partaking of a suspicious looking aphrodisiac purchased on an excursion, and partying while the hotel collapses, all of which allows for plenty of smutty innuendo, daft slapstick, and a spot of welcome T&A from Carry On regular Windsor, babes Carol Hawkins and Sally Geeson, and total hottie Gail Grainger as Williams' sexy assistant Miss Plunkett.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.
crossbow0106
This is a fun farce from the Carry On crowd. In this film, the group go on holiday to a place called Elsbels. The resort they stay in, The Palace Hotel, is not quite finished, which is part of the fun. There are shared baths (literally) and strange things happen when you turn on the faucet etc. So, the film relies on sight gags, double entendres and one liners and guess what? It succeeds. The young ladies in this film look great, like Sally Geeson, Gail Grainger and the bubbly, buxom Barbara Windsor. The men, who are lechers, repressed, undersexed (and so on) are fun to watch also. The movie is politically incorrect, which given the time makes sense, but its refreshing to watch today because of it. If you've seen other Carry On films, you know what you're getting. With the ladies here, you're seeing a bit more than usual. This is a consistently fun film, so enjoy.
ianlouisiana
There are many,many gags in "Carry on Abroad".Some of them,even 35 years later,are very funny,others perhaps ugly,even hurtful to an audience to whom the Music Hall tradition is lost in the mists of time. Mr Jimmy Logan - a brilliant Scottish Comic on the stage - seems almost barbaric,a genuine unregenerate throwback to the worst kind of leering,bottom - pinching,wandering - hands,bottom of the bill low comedian from the seediest of "Lost Empires".Compared to Mr Logan,Sid James comes on like Hugh Grant.You don't have to be a feminist to feel uncomfortable about Mr Logan's performance,but he might complain - like Gloria Swanson - that it's the movies that have got smaller. Contrast that with the defiant and rather poignant portrayal by Miss Joan Sims as Sid James' long - suffering wife.As in "Carry on Doctor",Miss Sims confounds our expectations with a performance of subtlety and depth that would not seem out of place in a 40s Ealing comedy. Charles Hawtrey - in his last "Carry on" - is like a man on Speed; once away from the baleful influence of his mother his behaviour is almost demented.It is a most uncharacteristic turn. As is usual in "Carry ons",the overt sexism is expiated by the eventual triumph of the Female,as nearly all the men are in thrall to women in one way or the other. I must make a special mention of the wonderful Miss June Whitfield. Nearly sixty years of brilliant comedy on wireless,TV and movies,and she shows no sign of slowing down.Although hardly a sex symbol,here she is very winsome as the unfortunate repressed wife of a rampant Kenneth Connor who rediscovers herself in the arms of a not - very - Spanish Ray Brooks. Peter Butterworth,a favourite of mine since his days on children's' television in the early 1950s,is pleasingly manic as the hotel proprietor,although Miss Hattie Jacques' eccentric talents are wasted as his very peculiar wife. The incomparable Miss Barbara Windsor does so well what she does best,and if,as alleged,Sid James was infatuated with her,one could hardly blame him. The "Carry ons" blew hot and cold over the years,but along with "Carry on Dick","Abroad" is one of the last of the good ones.
didi-5
Lots of people dismiss this as one of the weaker entries in the 'Carry On' series, but I think it represents the typical storyline and characterisations which showed the team at their best.Here, Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, June Whitfield, Kenneth Connor, Jimmy Logan, Barbara Windsor, Charles Hawtrey, Peter Butterworth, Bernard Bresslaw, and Hattie Jacques liven up proceedings when they take a holiday in the most horrendous hotel and resort there is to stay in.With a character name like 'Stuart Farquhar', Williams gets the brunt of a lot of the jokes with the hotel host (Butterworth) constantly mispronouncing all or both. And throw in a rainstorm, a bowl of punch, some monks, randy husbands and stuffy wives, and busty blondes, and you have the ingredients for a 'Carry On' success!
