Carry on Spying Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Carry on Spying Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 11, 2023

Gerald Thomas "Carry On Spying" (1964) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films. The supplemental features on the release include archival audio commentary by actors Bernard Cribbins and Dilys Laye; vintage promotional materials; and more. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The greatest prison escape

It is all right if you have not seen all the Carry On films that were made on the other side of the Atlantic. There are thirty-one of them, correct? But it is not all right if you have not heard of the Carry On franchise and your reaction just a few seconds ago was, What? They made thirty-one Carry On films and I never knew they existed?

For what it’s worth, I have not seen all the different Carry On films either. During the DVD era, when some of these films reemerged, I picked up a few that I knew well and liked, but I never had the complete collection. Also, not all of them are supposed to be great, or even good. This is something that was established a long, long time ago, and it is the main reason I always had some sort of excuse not to acquire the ones I was missing.

Carry On Spying is one of the films I have seen multiple times in the past and consider to be from the Very-Good-Possibly-Excellent batch. Like the rest of the Carry On films, it is directed by Gerald Thomas, but I do not think that the main reason it works is the quality of the direction. I will explain in a moment why, but first here’s a short description of its plot:

Somewhere in London, at a very, very top-secret location, the Chief of Security (Eric Barker) is informed that the evil Dr. Crow (Judith Furse) and his minions from STENCH, the Society for Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans, have stolen a top-secret formula from a top-secret government laboratory. If the top-secret formula is not recovered, Dr. Crow can destroy the free world and become the ultimate dictator. But the Chief of Security has his best agents and the ones that are ranked immediately after them dispatched on urgent missions across the world, so he is forced to improvise with the leftovers -- the clueless secret agent Desmond Simkins (Kenneth Williams) and the similarly clueless newcomers Daphnie Honeybutt a.k.a. Brown Cow (Barbara Windsor), Harold Crump (Bernard Cribbins), and Charlie Bind (Charles Hawtrey). After a quick briefing, each member of the newly assembled team is then handed a fake passport and dispatched to Vienna, where Dr. Crow’s minions were last seen carrying out his orders. Several fumbles later, however, the secret agents are redirected to Algiers to track down The Fat Man (Eric Prohlmann), who is supposed to be carrying top-secret documents for Dr. Crow.

Even if you are not a seasoned film aficionado you will very quickly realize that Carry On Spying mocks at will various big classic spy films – anything from The Third Man to 5 Fingers -- and of course the very popular early James Bond films. However, you will also realize that this mockery quickly becomes so fluid that in some areas its connection to the original material is utterly meaningless. This is done entirely by design because it makes it possible for the stars to improvise at will and give the new material the classic Carry On identity.

What exactly is this Carry On identity?

It is directly related to a special brand of very light, often quite silly but still lovely humor that mainstream critics were rarely impressed with. (For reference, these were the same critics that discarded Stanley Long’s Adventures films as trash cinema. It was many decades later that a few, but mostly a different generation of critics, began admitting that the Carry On films were not truly as bad as advertised). This brand of humor usually exploited most of the classic insecurities of the two sexes, their obsessions, cultural biases, and of course latest favorite socio-political targets. This is why, for instance, in Carry On Spying the evil Dr. Crow, who does not identify as a man or a woman, delivers a couple of quick speeches about the superiority of his kind. (The message is: It is time to move on from the battlefield).

But in the best of the Carry On films, and I think that Carry On Spying is one of them, this brand of humor was very effective because the stars had special chemistry, too. In other words, it did not matter if a few jokes missed their targets, or the destruction of classic cinematic characters did not turn out as planned, because the special chemistry easily made up for the shortcomings.

*Carry On Spying is one of four films that are included in Carry On: Film Collection 3. The remaining three films are: Carry on Cleo (1964), Carry on Cowboy (1965), and Carry on Screaming (1966).

Carry on Spying Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Carry On Spying arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Imprint Films.

StudioCanal remastered quite a few of the Carry On films, and Carry On Spying is one of them. I do not know exactly what type of work was done during the remastering process. However, I do know that there isn't any room for meaningful improvements. Indeed, delineation, clarity, and depth are consistently very good or excellent, while depth was as impressive as I think it could be. In a few areas, grain exposure is slightly uneven, but there is nothing to be concerned with. The grayscale is excellent, too. As you can tell from the screencaptures that are included with this article, darker areas are especially well handled and there are no traces of crushing. Grays and whites are beautifully balanced. I think that the overall dynamic range of the visuals could be just a tad better, but on my system, from start to finish the film looked gorgeous. I noticed a few tiny blemishes, but there are no distracting cuts, marks, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 4.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Carry on Spying Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

All exchanges were very clear and easy to follow. Balance is very good. Also, if there were any age-related imperfections in the past, before the film was remastered by StudioCanal, it is impossible to tell now. The upper register, in particular, is very solid. I did not notice any unevenness or distortions to report in our review.

Carry on Spying Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary was recorded by actors Bernard Cribbins and Dilys Laye. It is a very spirited, often quite hilarious commentary with plenty of interesting recollections about the production of Carry On Spying, the lasting appeal of the Carry On films, and simply the "way things were back in the days".

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for Carry On Spying. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Textless Titles - In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

• Photo Gallery - a collection of vintage promotional and printed materials for Carry On Spying. (3 min).

• Book - a 112-page book containing reproductions of the original pressbooks of the first 12 Carry On films.

Carry on Spying Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It may be a flawed practice, but it has worked exceptionally well for me, so I am going to share it with you. I judge British comedies by comparing them to the work of my two favorite British comedians, Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips, who never failed to entertain me over the years. If a film matches the quality of their work, I always have a good time with it, and what mainstream critics have to say about it is irrelevant to me. I have not seen all of the thirty-one Carry On films, but I know that a lot of them are disliked by mainstream critics, for all sorts of different reasons, too. Carry On Spying is one of the few that I had seen before and liked quite a lot because it produces the type of laughs I would expect from the two gentlemen I mentioned. So, as far as I am concerned, Carry On Spying is a very good film. It looks wonderful on Blu-ray and is included in Carry On: Film Collection 3, a four-disc, Region-Free box set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.