Here they are again: the James - Williams - Hawtrey - Sims - Jacques - Bresslaw - Cope - Scott - Windsor - Connor, Uncle Tom Cobley and all team in yet another hospital-based Carry On.
The scene is set at Finisham Maternity Hospital, and it's here that Sid, his son Cyril, and Ernie and Freddy set their sights with a view to pinching a gigantic stock of birth pills, intending to make a fortune selling their haul to foreign contacts.
In order to gain entry to the hospital, Cyril disguises himself as a student nurse, but this involves many problems, especially when groping gynecologist Dr Prodd takes a fancy to her/him and he has to share a room with Nurse Ball, who is in the habit of sleeping in the nude.
Other personnel of the hospital include chief surgeon Sir Bernard Cutting, well-known hypochondriac, worried that he is changing sex, resident physiatrist Dr F A Goode and the whole presided over by Matron played by Hattie Jacques who, in the circumstances, gives a surprisingly stately and impressive performance.
With Joan Sims as Mrs Tidey, weeks and weeks overdue and enjoying all the scrumptious meals she's getting in order to keep up her strength...and with the hospital wards named Bunn and Oven and a whole string of well-worn music hall maternity jokes, this latest Carry On cannot help but delight the myriad followers of these mirth making movies.
An added attraction to the more recent Carry Ons as been the inclusion of alternative titles for these movies, following the main one, with the obvious intention (and with successful results) of getting the audience into a humorously receptive mood straight away...and among the alternatives for this latest laughter maker are "From Here to Maternity", "The Pregger's Opera", "Familiarity Breeds" and "Womb at the Top".