Carry On Sergeant (1958) on Netflix
Charlie Sage is called up during his wedding breakfast and reports to Heathercrest National Service Depot. Sergeant Grimshawe wagers that his last platoon will be his first champion platoon.
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Plot summary
The call-up papers reach Charlie Sage at his wedding breakfast, and he reports to Heathercrest National Service Depot, where he meets Horace Strong, a chronic hypochondriac distressed at being declared fit for service. Sergeant Grimshawe, close to retirement, makes a fifty-pound bet with Sergeant O'Brien that his final platoon will become his first champion platoon. His charges include Herbert Brown, Miles Heywood, Peter Golightly and James Bailey, a university graduate. With Captain Potts inspecting and Corporal Copping giving grudging support, Grimshawe tries kindness instead of shouting. Mary Sage, intent on spending her wedding night with her husband, smuggles herself into the depot to take a job in the NAAFI.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Carry On Sergeant (1958)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Carry On Sergeant was not conceived as the start of a series: only after the film's surprising success did producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas plan a further project, and after their next film, Carry On Nurse (1959), succeeded the Carry On series evolved.
- The film was made just as National Service was ending: the War Office White Paper of 1957 recommended its abolition, and Sydney Box and his brother-in-law Peter Rogers agreed instead to make fun of National Service.
- The film's success made audiences applaud and laugh when the military phrase "carry on" was used in serious settings, including among audiences watching The Devil's Disciple (1959).
- Unlike its disapproval of the earlier army comedy Private's Progress, the War Office helped the production of Carry On Sergeant by supplying a Company Sergeant Major to the film.
- Screenwriter Norman Hudis said his main contribution was changing the story so the soldiers rally round to help their sergeant win his bet, a pattern he said set the style of the films he wrote; only the opening scene of the original novel survived.
