CARRY ON COWBOY, an extremely broad spoof of the ever-popular western genre, marks a real high for the Carry On team; this is even better than CARRY ON CLEO, and despite missing a couple of regulars in Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Connor, this proves to be a real highlight of the series.The film features a devilish turn from Sid James, who's having a ball as the Rumpo Kid, a gunslinger and outlaw who holes up in a western town and proceeds to wreak havoc. Up against him are nasally Mayor Kenneth Williams, the famous sharpshooter of legend Annie Oakes (played well by Angela Douglas), and Jim Dale as a would-be Marshall.Jim Dale is the real revelation, playing what was quite possibly his best role in a Carry On movie. He's charming, endlessly funny, and gives a decent performance too. I never much liked the guy when I watched these movies as a kid, but that's changed with his role here. CARRY ON COWBOY also features two additions to the stable, with the excellent Peter Butterworth and Bernard Bresslaw in minor parts. The humour is typically scattershot but it has a high threshold of laughs compared to groans, and fans will be in their element.

Not as good as the last one I saw, but it had it's moments. Jim Dale was funny as the Marshall, and Angela Douglas (The Four Feathers) really spiced up Annie Oakley.Kenneth Williams was very funny as the judge, with Sid James as The Rumpo Kid. They all looked like they were having a real good time making this film.Along with Angela Douglas, this was the first film for Bernard Bresslaw (Little Heap), Peter Butterworth Doc), and Playboy model Margaret Nolan (Dink in Goldfinger).Not one of the best, but funny, nonetheless.

The Carry On team this time, in a British film acting as Americans, spoof the great westerns. Basically Johnny Finger, the Rumpo Kid (Sid James) is the suspicious new arrival to the town of Stodge City, and Major Judge Burke (Kenneth Williams) is convinced he's either up to or guilty of something. So he sends for Marshal P. Knutt (Jim Dale), mistaking him for a Marshall when he's really a plumbing and drainage expert. There is no real plot or story to it, but then again, hardly any westerns I've seen do. It is a good film for all the misunderstandings jokes, some fight scenes, including with Chief Big Heap (an almost show stealing Charles Hawtrey) and just the whole Carry On premise. Also starring Joan Sims as Belle Armitage, Angela Douglas as Annie Oakley, Bernard Bresslaw as Little Heap, Peter Butterworth as Doc; Percy Herbert as Charlie, the Bartender and Jon Pertwee as Sheriff Albert Earp, but where's Barbara Windsor when you want her? Carry On films were number 39 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. Good!

Perhaps I have overly fond childhood memories of Carry On movies and now that I'm starting to rediscover them, I'm a bit more critical. That said, many do stand the test of time, but Carry On Cowboy is not one of them.Carry On Cowboy is a film in that category of movie in which: (1) you can't wait for it to end, but (2) it's so unbelievably bad that you assume it has just got to get better at some point, so you continue to watch. Torture!I didn't laugh once. The biggest attempt at a gag in the film seemed to revolve around Jim Dale being clumsy. The occasional example of Dale doing a poor impersonation of Norman Wisdom is bad enough (eg Carry On Doctor), but to repeat it again and again is agony. Towards the end of the movie, when Dale practices shooting a gun, was so painful to watch I half-hoped he would shoot me instead. The only selling points are the great sets and the half-decent American accents of the Carry On gang.