Albert Potter (Jim Dale) and his sweetheart Doris Mann (Angela Douglas) are in Hocombe Woods courting. When Doris hears a noise Albert goes to investigate. While he is thrashing around in the bushes Doris is kidnapped by a monster called Oddbod (Tom Clegg). At the scene of the crime Albert finds a finger that broke off of the monster. He races to the police station to report the incident. Henpecked Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung (Harry H. Corbett) and his assistant Detective Constable Slobotham (Peter Butterworth) investigate the kidnapping.
After dropping the finger off at the police lab, Potter, Slobotham and Bung go back to where Doris disappeared to search for more clues. Not far from the Woods is a large estate called the Bide-A-Wee Rest Home. The door is answered by a large Lurch looking butler named Sockett (Bernard Dresslaw). The home is owned by Valeria Watt (Fenella Fielding) and her brother Dr. Orlando Watt (Kenneth Williams). Orlando is dead at the moment and currently being regenerated. Valeria interrupts his recharging so he can speak to the officers. When Orlando fades and momentarily becomes invisible the three men make a hasty retreat. What the officers don’t know is that Orlando and Valeria are responsible for the missing women. They have been transforming the women into mannequins and selling them to local stores.
In the meantime the police lab’s mad scientist, Doctor Fettle (Jon Pertwee), experiments with the finger. Subjecting it to electricity the finger regenerates into a new Oddbod monster. Oddbod Junior (Billy Cornelius) kills the doctor and makes his way to Bide-A-Wee. While this is happening Bung and Slobotham are following a lead from a man called Dan Dann (Charles Hawtrey) who used to be a gardener at Bide-A-Wee. When Dan gets murdered Bung heads back to the estate to ask some more questions. Bung meets the sexy Valeria and is smitten.
The next day Potter finds a mannequin in a store that he says is Doris. He causes a disturbance and Bung and Slobotham are sent to calm him down. Bung returns again to Bide-A-Wee and mentions to Valeria about the situation with the mannequin. Valeria gives Bung a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde potion turning him, temporarily, into an obedient monster. She sends him to steal the mannequin from the department store. When Bung returns to normal Potter is blamed until he comes up with an alibi. To solve the case Bung decides to set a trap using Slobotham dressed as a woman for bait. Things get a little strange after that.
“Carry On Screaming” was released in 1966 and was directed by Gerald Thomas. It is a British comedy and the twelfth in a series of thirty-one “Carry On” films. The “Carry On” films were comedies and mostly parodies of other genres. This one was based on the Hammer Horror film style. The “Carry On” films were made between 1958 and 1992. The film pays homage to, not only Hammer Films but, “Frankenstein”, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, “House of Wax”, “The Addams Family”, and various other horror films.
This being my first “Carry On” film, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Some of the humor was a bit over the top but there were some genuinely amusing parts. I especially loved Harry Corbett’s performance as the henpecked and rather obtuse Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung. He was the most adorable Mr. Hyde monster I’ve ever seen. Fenella Fielding as the sultry Valeria Watt was also exceptional. The red dress she wore was so tight she couldn’t sit in it and had to use a leaning board. Her character was supposed to be Dr. Orlando’s daughter but Kenneth Williams wanted to play someone closer to his actual age so the script was rewritten making them brother and sister.
Jon Pertwee plays Dr. Fettle in the movie. He is known as the third Dr. Who in the British television series “Dr. Who”. Some believe that Kenneth Williams character Dr. Watt is a play on the Dr Who character. That interpretation is up for debate. Censors for both U.K. and U.S. versions of the film required that the mannequins be dressed in at least a bathing suit.