Carry
On Cleo Trivia
- Kenneth Williams' immortal line "Infamy, Infamy,
they've all got it in for me", was actually taken from the Jimmy
Edwards radio show Take It From Here, written by Talbot Rothwell's friends Frank Muir and
Denis Norden.
- Authenticity is brought to the film with E V H
Emmett doing the voice over. Emmett was the much respected voice of
the Gaumont British News during the 1930's and 40's. It's a lovely
touch.
- Kenneth Williams was recalled for some dubbing to a
line that the censor wouldn't allow though. Concerning the lack of
women abroad, he originally commented to Joan Sims "They don't have them
abroad you know, they're a very backward people there". Backward
had to be changed to bashful due to it's homosexual connotations.
- Twentieth Century Fox started court proceedings against
Peter Rogers due to the plaguarisation of their film' poster from Cleopatra. Anglo
Amalgamated won the court case and the resulting publicity was
invaluable. Although Cleo is the most lavishly designed of the series
the whole caboodle including star's wages came in at under £200,000.
Rogers and Thomas were on £7,500 each, James and Williams received their
usual $5,000 a piece, Charles Hawtrey and Talbot Rothwell got paid £4,000,
surprisingly Jim Dale's major role earned him only £1,000 and woman of the
title, Amanda Barrie got £550. Joan Sims was employed on a daily
basis of £125 per day. The reason the film came in for such a meagre
budget was due to the filmmaker's use of the lavish sets left behind from
the Burton/Taylor Cleopatra.
- Kenneth Connor's contract included a clause that
ensured it would not disturb his very successful West End work in A Funny
Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum starring opposite Frankie Howerd.
- "Carry On Cleo. A funny sort of screenplay
by Talbot Rothwell" was the original title.
- One of the critics tipped off Marks and Spencer that
their names were being plaguarised in the film as Markus and Spencius and
also the slave trader's colours were green and gold, the same as
M&S. The Sieff family passed this on to their lawyers, but the
lawyer realised that no slight was intended to the store and they settled
for a public apology and explanation, and even that was eventually dropped.
Continuity
- It is peculiar that stone age people like the wheel maker and the
window maker can write and read, even Latin later in Rome.
- The Roman legion is marching towards the village of the Britons. You can
hear the commands "sinister - dexter". Sinister means left, and
dexter means right. However, when you look at the legs of the soldiers, they
put their right foot forward on the command "sinister", and the
left on "dexter".
