A gang of thieves plan to make their fortune by stealing a shipment of contraceptive pills from Finisham maternity hospital. They assume disguises and infiltrate the hospital, but everything doesn't go according to plan. The hypochondriac consultant Sir Bernard Cutting, Matron and the doctors and nurses at Finisham have a habit of getting in the way. Written by

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BritishFilms1 from Scotland
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CONTAINS SPOILERS

This "Carry On" film was made in 1972, when they were considered to be "past it". It is set at Finisham Maternity Hospital where Sid James plans to steal some pills. He is assisted by dumb Bernard Bresslaw, cockney Bill Maynard and Sid' son Kenneth Cope, disguised as a nurse.

The hospital staff include Hattie Jacques as Matron, Kenneth Williams as head surgeon Sir Bernard Cutting, Charles Hawtrey as Dr FA Goode, a psychiatrist, Barbara Windsor as the nurse and Terry Scott as lecherous Dr Prodd.

There is also a good supporting turn from Joan Sims as an "eating machine" expectant mother who is a month overdue and Kenneth Connor as her fed-up husband.

This film ends with Sid's gang getting away and wedding bells for Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams.

10 out of 10!

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jamesraeburn2003 from Poole, Dorset
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Sid Carter (Sydney James) is a leader of a gang of thieves and he persuades his son Cyril (Kenneth Cope) to dress up as a female nurse and infiltrate the "Finisham Maternity Hospital" so that he can get the gang a plan of the place enabling them to steal vast quantities of "The Pill". "I know a couple of countries who'll go mad for the stuff" says Sid.

Occasionally funny entry in the long running series. The funniest moments include the scene where the Matron (Hattie Jacques) visits the registrar Sir Bernard Cutting (Kenneth Williams) in order to bring him his morning post. Sir Bernard is a proper hypochondriac who thinks he's on the verge of a sex change, "Your mail" says Matron handing him the letters, "I know and I can prove it do you hear prove it" screams Sir Bernard not aware of what she really meant. Another stand out moment is when Syd Carter and his gang arrive at the hospital to pull off the raid, Syd is disguised as a doctor sporting a laughable beard and dark glasses. "I am Dr Zhivago" he says. When the film isn't funny it gets by because it possesses a charm that many of the other less funny Carry On's have, a charm that one journalist described as "an England that never was" and besides that there is the assured presence of all the regulars including Charles Hawtery, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor and Bernard Bresslaw, but Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and Syd James ultimately steal the show.

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TheLittleSongbird from United Kingdom
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I love most of the Carry on films, especially Cleo, Up the Khyber and my favourite Screaming. And I do admit I prefer in general the earlier entries, which had more fun and charm in alternative to the later entries some of which had an over-reliance on smut.

Carry on Matron may have some slow-moving scenes and a thin and predictable plot, with some odd moments of overly-smutty innuendos and crude slapstick. But thanks to the witty gags, sharp script and fun performances, even with its shortcomings it still manages to be one of the better and funnier later entries of the series.

The production values are pleasant, the music is suitably quirky and the direction is solid. What really drives the film are the performances. Hattie Jacques does a fine job in the title role and Charles Hawtrey is as good as ever. The wonderful Kenneth Williams is hilarious and has some of the best lines and scenes, and Sid James plays it straight in a somewhat atypical role. And I mustn't forget the lovely cameos of Kenneth Connor as the nervous dad-to-be and Joan Sims as the overdue mum either.

All in all, an entertaining film. 7/10 Bethany Cox

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m_pratt from United Kingdom
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This is excellent. The only word to describe this film is excellent.Its a real treat from beginning to end.For those who have not seen this film you haven't lived!!!. Everyone is enjoying themselves in the Finisham maternity hospital. The film has the lot Innudendo gags saucy jokes and all good clean fun!! Sid Bernie Hattie Charlie Kenny Williams and Kenny Connor, Babs as Nurse Susan Ball. Terry Scott Dr Prodd. Joan Sims plays the ever expectant mother. Jacki Piper and Patsy Rowlands are joining in the fun. The film is great along with Doctor the best medical carry on film!!.Patsy has short screen time which is a shame. This was the highlight of the carry on series. A good film for Terry Scott to leave the series from as with Jacki Piper.10/10

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crossbow0106 from United States
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This is another madcap comedy from the Carry On group, this time set in a maternity hospital. The whole group is here and its a fun film. Kenneth Williams deftly plays the hospital administrator Sir Bernard Cutting, who is obsessed with his manliness, Kenneth Cope plays Cyril, who dresses as a nurse to try to find out where "the pill" is stored, while Sid James plays his father, who is the mastermind of the group looking to steal the pills to sell them on the black market. There are sight gags, mistaken notions etc, just what you would expect. Hattie Jacques deftly plays the matron of the title. Its a fun comedy, at a time when the Carry On films were hitting their stride. You should check it out.

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TC Raymond from Finisham
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With its delightfully corny old jokes, cringe-inducing wordplay and flagrantly over-the-top performances, CARRY ON MATRON resembles a particularly outrageous end-of-the-pier farce, but the sheer energy and exuberance of the performers (and of Talbot Rothwell's tightly-packed screenplay) keep it entertaining and compelling throughout. Series fans will get a kick out of seeing the usually uptight and prudish Williams playing against type as an insatiable sexual predator, forcing himself on the flustered Matron in an almost hysteria-inducing scene that sees both actors on top form, milking the juicy dialogue for all it's worth. A good example is as follows -

MATRON : You don't understand! I'm a simple woman with simple tastes, and I want to be wooed! SIR BERNARD : Oooh, you can be as WUDE as you like with me!

Elsewhere, Sid James has a rare straight role as a cockney crook, Kenneth Cope is touchingly funny as his reluctantly cross-dressing son, Bernard Bresslaw is lumberingly moronic (and I love that hippie-ish wig he wears!), Joan Sims and Kenneth Connor are a memorable odd couple, and there are fine cameos by Madeline Smith, Valerie Leon and Margaret Nolan. Don't forget to watch for the scene where Terry Scott gets injected, as he tactfully puts it, "up the archipelago" - after what he went through in CARRY ON CAMPING, he must have had the most painful posterior in the business!

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Chris Gaskin from Derby, England
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Carry On Matron is one of the best of the Carry On movies and I first saw this when I was quite young.

A gang of crooks are after a load of pills and try to get them from Finisham Matarnity Hospital. One of the gang dresses up as a woman nurse but still fails to succeed. They get them towards the end but most of the hospital's staff and patients stop them. Also, the Matron and Sir Bernard Cutting are married at the end.

Most of the Carry On gang are in this, including Hattie Jacques in the title role, Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Babs Windsor, Bernard Bresslaw, Joan Sims, Kenneth Conner and Terry Scott. This also stars Kenneth Cope, Bill Maynard (Heartbeat) and a young Wendy Richard, who of course now stars alongside Babs in EastEnders. Excellent stuff from all.

Have a laugh with Carry On Matron. Very funny.

Ratinf: 3 stars out of 5.

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bob the moo from United Kingdom
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A group of thieves plan to make a killing by stealing a large shipment of contraceptive pills that have been delivered to Finisham maternity hospital. Sending young Cyril in undercover, nobody planned that he would end up dressed as a nurse, living in the nurse's dorms and trying to convince everyone that he is a woman – rather too well in the case of amorous doctor Prodd. Cyril keeps trying to find the pills while being helped by his father Sid and the rest of the gang. Meanwhile the staff of the hospital carry on a collection of less-than-subtle and sordid affairs behind closed doors.

With the 1970's came the gradual end of the Carry On series of films that had run since the 1950's and, although the seventies had one or two that were genuinely good, it also had a couple that barely reached the standard set by the poor sex "comedies" that were being mass produced by the UK during this decade. While Matron is not one of the latter, it certainly is not one the stronger films of the decade – although there are moments that are very enjoyable. The plot is pretty terrible and the robbery of pills fails to engage simply because it is so damn stupid from start to finish; I know it is a comedy but if ever a man was a less convincing woman than Kenneth Cope then I don't know who it would be – it is a problem that the lynch pin of the narrative is him passing himself off as a nurse. The subplots are actually better and the best scenes feature great witty interplay between series legends Williams, Hawtrey and Jacques. There are also some nice little additions such as Connor's waiting station master and little throwaway gags such as one of the wards being known as "The Bunn Ward"! These aspects threw up the odd laugh but anytime it fell back to the central narrative it tended to be weak and just be a series of obvious jokes and clumsy chases/pratfalls.

The cast are pretty good if they have the material – in particular the trio of Jacques, Williams and Hawtrey. Scott has a basic role but is quite entertaining in his last appearance in the series but you do have to feel for Sid James who is dumped on the edge of the film with the weak plot to carry with little help from Bresslaw and Maynard. Windsor does her usual stuff but Cope is poor from the start to finish and cannot do anything with the silly narrative and pratfalls. Sims has little to do but it is nice to have as many of the faces as possible in the film.

Overall this is an average entry in the series; the plot is weak and can't provide much in the way of structure or laughs but the subplots provide some classic moments and some good material for the cast members lucky enough to get it. There are much worse films in the series than this one but there are much, much better ones as well; fans of the series will enjoy the classic moments and be patient with the rest, but it is unlikely that this film will be the one to win converts to the series.

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Spikeopath from United Kingdom
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The 23rd film in the Carry On series and the fourth (and last) of the medical themed adventures. Sid Carter (Sid James) leads a gang of thieves who plan to break into Finisham Hospital and steal a load of contraceptive pills to sell abroad. But where are they kept? Sid decides to send his son Cyril (Kenneth Cope) in undercover disguised as a nurse...

They probably seem like cheap gags now, but much mirth is mined from the scenarios set up by a man undercover as a female nurse. Cue him having to share a room with a foxy babe (Babs Windsor), having to fight off the attentions of the randy Doctor Prodd (a brilliant film stealing Terry Scott) and him getting involved with medical issues he has no idea about (yikes this is a maternity hospital!). Elsewhere Joan Simms portrays a human eating machine that is three weeks over due, while her poor railway worker husband (Kenneth Connor great as always) goes insane in the waiting room. Kenneth Williams is the hypochondriac hospital manager and the wonderful Hattie Jacques gets great scenes in a film thats title and script acknowledges her work in the medical Cary On films.

Briskly paced by the ever reliable Gerald Thomas, "Matron" is one of the more likable and funny Carry On entries of the 70s. 7.5/10

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classicmusiclover from United Kingdom
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From the opening scenes when the camera shows the name of the maternity hospital and then pans round to a sign that says deliveries in at the rear you know it is a classic Carry On movie a fun film for the entire family as the kids will love the slapstick humour as the parents laugh at the double entendres. Another classic scene is the newt club scene between Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey. This classic Carry On will have everyone rolling about crying with laughter as the trainee nurse played by Kenneth Cole is forced to go on an emergency call out with Dr Prodd (Terry Scott) and winds up sedating the doctor with a syringe full of medication

nurse|carry on|hypochondriac|three word title|medical profession|bathtub|thief|nudity|maternity ward|drag|sequel|female impersonator|actor shares first name with character|independent film|

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Certifications:
Australia:PG / Iceland:L / Portugal:M/18 / UK:A (original rating) / UK:PG (tv rating) / UK:PG (video rating) (1987) (2003) / West Germany:12