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.
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.