Carry On laughing until you have hysterics, but... Don't Lose Your Head!
1966-12-10
N/A
90 min
The time of the French revolution, and Citizen Robespierre is beheading the French aristocracy. When word gets to England, two noblemen, Sir Rodney Ffing and Lord Darcy Pue take it upon themselves to aid their French counterparts. Sir Rodney is a master of disguise, and becomes "The Black Fingernail", scourge of Camembert and Bidet, leaders of the French secret police.
I found this to be one of the cleverer "Carry On" films with Kenneth Williams on good form as the revolutionary "Citizen Camembert" aided by his sidekick "Bidet" (Peter Butterworth) making sure that all the nasty aristos turn up for their appointment with madame guillotine. The fly in their ointment soon becomes the enigmatic and chivalrous Brit "Sir Rodney Ffing" (Sid James) and his aide-de-camp "Pue" (Jim Dale) who are bent on frustrating their French nemeses and rescuing the "Duc de Pommfrit" (Charles Hawtrey) before trying their best to ensure that the famous vertical chopper gets two, more appropriate, victims. Instead of the "Scarlet Pimpernel" we have the "Black Fingernail" but otherwise, it's a fairly enjoyable parody of the Orczy story with some good one-liners, a nice dynamic between James and Butterworth and, mercifully, little of the annoying Dale to clutter up the proceedings. It looks good, the jokes are frequently quite pithy and for my money this is James at his best. Good fun.
