Watch Carry On Emmannuelle For Free

How sad is this?

Crappy film

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

By 1978, the tried and trusted Carry On formula of saucy seaside innuendo and silly slapstick no longer seemed relevant, especially in a world where nudity and sex in the cinema had become commonplace; in an effort to get bums on seats, the series' makers looked towards the world of soft-core porn for inspiration, riding the wave created by the success of Just Jaeckin's Emmanuelle (1974).Sadly, Carry On Emmannuelle (double consonants throughout, presumably to avoid legal issues) proves to be one of the worst of the whole Carry On series, a laugh free exercise that replaces suggestive humour with blatant and not-at-all-funny sex gags, and knockabout silliness with an excess of bare flesh (and not just from its sexy star Suzanne Danielle as the film's titular French nymphomaniac: in what must have been a career low, Kenneth Williams strips for the camera as well).Sid James escaped the embarrassment of appearing in this mess by dying two years earlier; Carry On regulars Williams, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth and Joan Sims weren't quite as lucky, their resumé forever blighted by this tawdry flop. Ever the professionals, they soldier on, rattling out the dire one-liners with as much enthusiasm as they can muster, but unsurprisingly fail to produce the laughs, the material being even more tired and worn out than the cast delivering it.

'Carry On Emmannuelle' ( 1978 ) is thankfully nowhere near as excrementally awful as its predecessor 'Carry On England' ( 1976 ). Sadly, this is not much of a recommendation. The Rank Organisation had cut the funding to the series ( a decision which led to producer Peter Rogers allegedly describing his former backers as 'toffee-nosed b#####ds' ), and meaning finance had to come from elsewhere. Because of this, it became a 'lost' movie for many years, not being issued on video nor shown on television until the 1990's ( it crept out late one night on I.T.V. to no-one's great pleasure ).By 1978, British audiences had not only experienced the 'Confessions' series, but also the 'Adventures' pictures, so one way or another they had had a surfeit of red-faced British actors being chased by nubile girls in varying states of undress. The new kids on the block were Mel Brooks and the Monty Python team, both of whom offered fresher and more daring comedy styles. The 'Carry On' series just could not compete.'Carry On Emmannuelle', as the title implies, is a spoof of the infamous 1974 Just Jaeckin soft porn picture starring Sylvia Kristel. The problem with the subject matter is immediately apparent - just how do you go about spoofing a picture which appears at times to be a spoof of itself? The script originated with Australian writer Lance Peters, though uncredited rewrites were done by Willie Rushton and Vince Powell. Suzanne Danielle is 'Emmannuelle Prevert', sex-starved wife of 'Emile', ( Kenneth Williams ), the French Ambassador to Britain. He lost his sex drive following a sky-diving accident, so she beds every man she encounters. One of her conquests is nerd 'Theodore Valentine' ( Larry Dann ). He becomes infatuated with her, and sets about trying to track her down. The plot, such as it is, has Emmannuelle drifting from one bloke to another, many of whom seem to be old and tired instead of young and virile. There is a lengthy scene where the Ambassador's domestic staff - butler 'Lyons' ( or 'Loins' as his mistress keeps referring to him, played by Jack Douglas ), cook 'Mrs.Dangle' ( Joan Sims ), chauffeur 'Leyland' ( Kenneth Connor ), and decrepit gardener 'Richmond' ( Peter Butterworth, in one of his last roles ) reminisce about past amorous exploits, but these are never as funny as they should have been.'Emmannuelle' does not feel like a 'Carry On' picture, more like Stanley Long's 'Adventures Of A Diplomat's Wife'. Yes, some of the old gang are around, but don't get much to do. Williams gets most of his laughs by baring his bum and speaking in a silly French accent. The script is pretty threadbare in terms of comedy. Sexy Danielle is on screen 99% of the time ( she went on to play 'Princess Diana' in Mike Yarwood's shows ). Nice to see Douglas in a role which does not require him to lapse into his usual twitching and fumbling, and Larry Dann is good as the lovesick 'Theo', ditto Beryl Reid as his domineering mother. Also around is Henry McGee as a David Frost-style television interviewer called ( wait for it ) 'Harold Hump'. Eric Barker has a wordless cameo as a decrepit General. Another Eric - Rogers - is back too; the picture opens with a disco song called 'Love Crazy', written by Kenny Lynch. Disco and 'Carry On' did not mix. The overall impression is one of desperation.Funniest moment - Emmannuelle's seduction of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, which causes the New Scotland Yard sign to sway back and forth in time to their lovemaking! Barbara Windsor gave the film some much-needed publicity when she complained about the level of pornography in the script. But it was not enough to save it from bombing at the box office. In a way, I'm sorry that it happened as we then lost out on 'Carry On Again Nurse' ( which would have brought Norman Hudis back to the series ) and 'Carry On Dallas' ( a spoof of the dire U.S. soap which would have starred Williams as the wonderfully named 'R.U. Screwing'! ). The 'Carry On' movies became firm television favourites, along with compilation series such as 'Carry On Laughing' and 'Laugh With The Carry On's'. Then, in 1992, 'Carry On Columbus' sailed the ocean blue - but the less said about that, the better.

Emmanuelle Prevert has flown from France on the Concorde to visit her husband in the United Kingdom, as he is an important ambassador. Strangely, though, the scrawny ambassador allows her to pursue sex with anyone of her choosing, but prefers to not have her himself.Directed by Gerald Thomas, who has worked on many -- if not all -- of the other "Carry On" films -- and centering around the disco theme "Love Crazy".The video on the Fortune 5 disc is blurry and faded... looks like a poor VHS transfer -- you cannot even read the credits. The sound seems okay, though.The film is in sort of a slapstick style, with some strong sexual overtones. It is also incredibly silly -- it's somewhere between "Airplane" and softcore pornography. Very softcore, with lots of sex but no real nudity beyond buttocks.When the staff shares their oddest love stories, it is pretty great, involving Nazis, a laundromat, a closet, skydiving and gorillas. Harry Hernia has a body, but has the stupidest voice imaginable.

CARRY ON EMMANNUELLEAspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: Mono"Carry On" regular Sid James had been dead for almost two years when this threadbare concoction hit UK cinemas in 1978, and principal scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell had retired from the business in 1975 following a bout of ill health, throwing the long-standing (and extremely lucrative) "Carry On" series into disarray. While CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE isn't the worst of them - that 'honor' belongs to CARRY ON ENGLAND (1976), an utterly turgid wartime entry - Lance Peters' script was initially rejected by star Kenneth Williams as unworkable, though the finished product could hardly be worse! A mild, half-baked spin on the "Emmanuelle" series (inspired by Just Jaeckin's 1974 softcore drama), the 29th "Carry On" epic features Williams as the French ambassador to London, whose sexpot wife (Suzanne Danielle, surprisingly assured in her screen debut) has it off with all and sundry whilst pining for her husband's absent libido (lost when he landed on a church spire during a parachute jump - which demonstrates the film's level of wit). Series stalwarts Joan Sims, Jack Douglas, Kenneth Connor and Peter Butterworth look suitably embarrassed as members of the ambassador's household staff, and Larry Dann plays a downtrodden nerd who falls in love with Danielle following an amorous encounter on Concorde; Beryl Reid is his mum, a vision in chintz. Opening with a dreadful disco ditty ('Love Crazy', written by Kenny Lynch and sung by 'Masterplan') which must have seemed dated even in 1978, CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE swaps the double entendres and deconstructive satire of Rothwell's era for a barrage of blatantly obvious sex jokes, none of which are even remotely funny, while Williams is reduced to mugging frantically over Danielle's 'suggestive' dialogue and dropping his drawers every time there's a lull in the action. While exploitation fans in other countries had been enjoying frank cinematic depictions of sex and sexuality since the late 1960's, British voyeurs - ie. those whose tastes ran more to NAUGHTY KNICKERS (1970) and DEEP THROAT (1972) than the mature exploration of adult themes favored by Ken Russell (THE DEVILS), Stanley Kubrick (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) and others at the cutting edge of mainstream outrage - were forced to endure heavily censored imports and tawdry homegrown comedies (I'M NOT FEELING MYSELF TONIGHT, CAN YOU KEEP IT UP FOR A WEEK?, LET'S GET LAID, etc.) which reinforced sexual stereotypes of every persuasion, and CARRY ON EMMANNUELLE is no better or worse than any of them. Having bombed at the box-office, this SHOULD have been the series' last gasp, but director Gerald Thomas and producer Peter Rogers revived the format in 1992 for the equally lackluster CARRY ON COLUMBUS, while "Carry On London" (shudder!) currently exists in pre-production limbo. All together now:"That woman is lo-o-ve crazy / She's lovin' all night! / That woman is lo-o-ve crazy / Won't stop for a bite!..."Told you it was dreadful, didn't I?...