Carry on ... Up the Khyber

(UK)

Adder/Rank. Director Gerald Thomas; Producer Peter Rogers; Screenplay Talbot Rothwell; Camera Ernest Steward; Editor Alfred Roome; Music Eric Rogers;; Art Director Alex Vetchinsky

Sidney James
Kenneth Williams
Charles Hawtrey
Roy Castle
Joan Sims
Bernard Bresslaw

This one has a slightly stronger storyline than some of its predecessors, but still continues to rely primarily on low-comedy visual and verbal gag situations for its yocks.

Up the Khyber centers on the British occupation of India in Queen Victoria's day and the reputation of the British is rocked when the local rulers suspect that the dreaded Scottish Devils in Skirts, members of the intrepid Third Foot and Mouth Regiment, actually wear drawers under their kilts. Settling of this urgent question causes considerable hoo-hah in the shape of a local uprising engineered by the local Khasi of Kalibar.

There's a small touch of genius in the way the Pass, for instance, can be shot in North Wales to everybody's complete satisfaction. Main highlight in this film is its finale, where the tribal chiefs launch a full-scale attack on the government residence while the governor and his guests with unshaken poise nonchalantly continue dinner amid the turmoil.

Performance of Sidney James as Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, the bluff, vulgar British governor, is a gem, impeccably timed, wily and always in character.

(Color) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1968. Running time: 87 MIN.

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