Time to start the weekend on a lighter note with What A Carve Up, a comedy horror starring Carry On stalwarts Kenneth Connor and Sid James and the character actor Donald Pleasance. Connor plays Ernest a proof-reader for cheap novels, who shares a flat with a worldly-wise bookie Syd, played by James, Ernest and Syd are visited one day by a creepy solicitor played by Pleasance who tells Ernest that his uncle has died and he needs to go to Yorkshire to hear the will read.

Tempted by the prospect of a legacy, Ernest and Syd go to the remote manor house in Yorkshire where they find other relatives of Ernest who’ve also been summoned for the will reading.

In te manor house, cut off from the outside world by a violent storm outside, strange things start to happen including members of the family being killed off one by one.

This is a classic British comedy horror from 1963 with some funny spoken word and slapstick comedy. Having seen Connor and James in so many different Carry On films, it was interesting to see them doing a different comedy routine.

There are some brilliant visual comedy moments most notably the ‘black cat’ scene and the revolving mirror scene and they are funny because the audience can see what is going to happen but the characters are totally oblivious to what is going on.

This is very much a ‘B’ movie but is still entertaining for all the bargain basement production values. For the student of 20^th century cultural history this movie has some funny topical references, such as the servant reading a copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, when the Chatterley Trial would have been quite fresh in the minds of much of the contemporary audience.

This film is undemanding but fun and I hope you enjoy it.