Cleopatra (Amanda Barrie) and Mark Antony (Sidney James) plot something in CARRY ON CLEO (1964)
Fun film. Not uproariously funny but fun to watch. According to some sources, the costumes and sets used for this film were intended for CLEOPATRA (1963) but when production moved on to Italy, the CARRY ON team used what was left behind. The beginning in ancient Britain is a tad boring but when the story moves to Rome or Alexandria, the silliness is non-stop! PEPLUM comedies are almost a genre unto itself.
I agree fully that Peplum comedies are virtually a genre unto themselves.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in my experience such films hardly ever work well. Comedy should be more sophisticated than silly. The best British comedies of the 1950s, for example, usually revolved around the class system there.
Personally I prefer "straight" adventure (peplum, pirate, and Arabian Nights) movies to comedy-adventure ones.
Admittedly the first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN worked surprisingly well, but the sequels were not so good. Ditto with the INDIANA JONES films.