Carry On Cowboy

Sid James - Johnny Finger/The Rumpo Kid
Kenneth Williams - Judge Burke
Jim Dale - Marshall P. Knutt
Joan Sims - Belle Armitage
Charles Hawtrey - Big Heap
Angela Douglas - Annie Oakley
Peter Butterworth - Doc
Bernard Bresslaw - Little Heap
Percy Herbert - Charlie
Davy Kaye - Josh
Jon Pertwee - Sheriff Albert Earp

With a script of Western ideals and violently staged sequences, this is innuendo in the real world. Sid James is a convincing, blood-chilling bandit who fully deserves his baddie black hat. The gags and comic situations are there merely to counterbalance an evil plan of American domination, greed and murder, and attempts at dispatching favourites like Jim Dale and Kenneth Williams. Joan Sims relished the chance to turn on seductive Mae West-like charms and works brilliantly off Sid - oozing glamour in her tight, black low-cut gown. Amongst the supporting actors there are two fine minor turns from a couple of valued newcomers: Bernard Bresslaw, booming and yelling his Red Indian anger at every opportunity, and Peter Butterworth fidgeting in the background and stealing every scene he appears in. The delightful Angela Douglas, in a return to the straight leading ladies throws another log on the feminist fire with her rebel rousing, gun-wielding heroine.

Jim Dale, finally gaining a major romantic lead role and playing it to perfection, brilliantly brings the regular foreigner abroad character to life. As the token English character, Jim's mistaken hero tackles all the Western clichés and cinematic echoes. The only American character to inject elements of his clichéd persona is Indian chief Charles Hawtrey. The entire film establishes the idea of the Carry On team as Americans and Thomas cunningly builds up the tension for the first appearance of a fearsome Indian. The fact that we get the small cough, twinkling grin and sparkling eyes of Charlie Hawtrey is a peak of contrasting comic effect. Celebrated as one of the most professionally produced and effective films in the series, Cowboy's magic is there in heaps: it's a western field of dreams where Sid's dark villain literally gets 'away with murder, Jim Dale gets the gal of his cowboy fantasies, Charles Hawtrey happily drinks away the Indian blues and the character skills of Bresslaw and Butterworth get a memorable baptism of fire.
Review© Robert Ross: Carry On Companion.