Carry On Sergeant (1958)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1958
Running Time	80:16
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Thomas Gerald
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	William Hartnell Shirley Eaton Eric Barker Dora Bryan Bill Owen Charles Hawtrey Kenneth Connor Kenneth Williams Terence Longdon Norman Rossington Gerald Campion Hattie Jacques Cyril Chamberlain
Case	?
RPI	$17.50	Music	Bruce Montgomery

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    1958's Carry on Sergeant is the one that started it all, and one of the few Carry On films where the title actually makes sense. The story, what little there is, is based around the soon-to-retire sergeant Grimshaw (William Hartnell of Doctor Who fame), whose job it is to whip National Service recruits into shape.

    Before the arrival of his last intake before retirement, Grimshaw makes a bet with the other sergeants that he'll at last win the star squad award which has so far eluded him. Of course he wasn't betting on having the most unlikely bunch of recruits to ever grace a parade ground, and the misfits that make up his last squad go from bad to worse during the course of their training.

    This group includes Charlie Sage (Bob Monkhouse) who's been called up on his wedding day, the hypochondriac Horace Strong (Kenneth Connor), intellectual public-schoolboy James Bailey (Kenneth Williams), wimpy Peter Golightly (the ever-effeminate Charles Hawtrey), and a handful of other less-than-enthusiastic recruits. Rather than constantly putting these men up on charges for their regular infringements, Grimshaw decides to treat them with a "loving" hand in the hope that it will bring out the best in them. Of course this just allows them to run riot and it's not until the very end that they try and put things right for their sergeant.

    It's hard to believe that a fairly innocuous little comedy like this spawned 30 films over a 20 year period from 1958 to 1978, and having not seen this particular "Carry On" for many years I was surprised at its lack of resemblance to the films that followed. It still contains a number of actors that were to later become regulars, such as Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Connor and so on, but the tone of the movie is much less of the bawdy and a lot more of the feel-good. There are hardly any of the innuendoes and double entendre that were later to become the makeup of most of the films in this series, and some of the characters actually have you almost caring about them.

    I'd say this is by no means a comedy classic, but it is certainly of novelty interest as the first film in what became a comedy phenomenon. The humour is not going to make you laugh out loud, but it should raise the odd smile, and as a feel-good movie it succeeds in leaving you feeling pretty good by the end. So not a total loss.

Video

    When I first heard of the DVD release of this batch of Carry On films I naively hoped that they might be restoring them all, and putting them out in a manner worthy of being kept for comic posterity. Alas, if this disc is anything to go by, there hasn't been a whole lot of time or money spent getting these out the door.

    This transfer is presented in a letterboxed aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness is not really a whole lot better than a VHS, and the film is filled with slight grain that occasionally becomes excessive (73:58). I didn't notice any low-level noise, which is good considering how much black there is in a black and white film. Shadow detail was acceptable as well.

    The grey scale exhibited in this transfer is more than acceptable.

    Fortunately there aren't many examples of film to video artefacts, with moire being the one major exception, since it appears regularly on the cast members' suits (3:05, 8:13, and 21:28). There are numerous film artefacts throughout, including one horrible white line that runs the full height of the image for almost a minute at around the 27:00 mark.

    There are no subtitles included on the DVD.

    This is a single layered disc, so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is one audio track on this DVD; English Dolby Digital 2.0. This track is adequate, but is what you'd expect from a source this old; in other words nothing to write home about.

    Dialogue is generally understandable, largely due to the well-spoken actors I'm sure since the transfer isn't overly sharp or defined. There were no problems with audio sync.

    Music by Bruce Montgomery is your standard 1950's orchestral score, providing the appropriate mood for any occasion. Like many aspects of this DVD, it does its job.

    There is no surround use.

    There is no subwoofer use either.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Move along - nothing to see here.

    The Region 1 version of this disc appears to only be available as a double set with Carry On Nurse included. This is a similar bare bones DVD to the one we get, but the video transfer is 16x9 enhanced making it the Region of choice. Why they couldn't give us the same transfer is beyond me.

    There's also a trailer on the Region 1 version that is missing from ours.

    The first of the Carry On films is surprisingly lacking in the trademark raunchy humour (for its day) of the others in the series. It's more of a feel-good film with some none-too-taxing visual and verbal humour thrown in. The actors certainly help to make more of it than it could have been.

    The video is not especially good, but is still better than a VHS copy.

    Audio is adequate for the job at hand, which is basically just hearing the dialogue for a film such as this.

    There are no extras at all.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall