Peter
Rogers Trivia
- When Behind was released, Peter Rogers said in an
interview that he wanted to have 30 carry Ons under his belt, Behind being
number 27. Perhaps he new things were coming to an end.
- Twentieth Century Fox started court proceedings against
Peter 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 the 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 meager budget was due to the filmmaker's use of the lavish sets left behind from
the Burton/Taylor Cleopatra.
- Rogers, with his usual flair for music, wanted to have
Charles Hawtrey sing a quick snatch of Rose Marie's When I'm Calling
You Ooh in Cowboy, but the American publishing house wouldn't allow it.
- Although Norman Hudis wrote the script for Cruising, the
idea of a Carry On Holiday was suggested by Carry On Irregular Eric Barker.
His original idea was for a touring holiday on a coach, but Peter gave him
the credit anyway. Mind you, the idea was used twice more, in At
Your Convenience and in Abroad.
- When Peter was developing Carry On Doctor, he was
concerned about using the Doctor title so he asked the head of Rank, John
Davis. He told him to ask his wife, Betty Box, as she was still making the
Doctor.. series. They came to an arrangement, Peter paid her a
percentage of the takings
- Rogers wanted to cut back on the budget in England and
so only wanted to use a 20 piece orchestra for the music which normally took
40 pieces. Eric Rogers was having non of this and refused to do it, and so
Max Harris was brought in from TV's Porridge.
- Before production started for Carry On Girls, Peter and
Gerald Thomas took a visit to the cinema to watch a Confession of a ...
film, which prompted them to inject more risqué qualities in to the film.
- Rogers and Gerald Thomas were desperate to have Kenneth
Williams in Girls, but he kept refusing due to work commitments with a play
called My Fat Friend. They kept reducing the size of the role
but he still wouldn't budge, so they gave it to Jimmy Logan in the end.
He should have done the film, as the play was a flop.
- Peter Rogers was thanked by an Indian living in the UK
for showing them the 'old country', India in Up The Khyber. He said he
recognised the place at once. He didn't let on it was Wales.
- Charles Hawtrey refused to play the part of Mr Bedsop
in Loving because Peter Rogers said he shouldn't have third billing due to
the size of Hattie Jacques' part, and his part being small. Rogers
relented in the end.
- Due to the production costs being finalised, Jack
Douglas' agent couldn't get a fee for his small cameo in Matron. Peter
Rogers sent him a crate of Dom Perignon to make up for this fact, something
the connoisseur Jack much appreciated.
- When Carry On Nurse became as big a hit as Carry On
Sergeant, Peter Rogers announced that the next four films would be Carry On
films. He decided to offer the Carry On team (Kenneth Connor, Leslie
Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Terence Longden, Joan Sims,
Charles Hawtrey and Bill Owen) a percentage of the takings, as opposed to a
fee, but they declined. Years Later whenever anyone complained about
the money he just reminded them of this fact.
- Charles Hawtrey had the start of a long run
disagreement with Peter Rogers while filming Regardless, concerning his
billing, stating that "He was a comedian", but Rogers was having
none of it, and in fact Hawtrey had less to do in this film than he might.
- Peter Rogers took the distribution rights from Rank
after That's Carry On, due to the poorly received films, which Rogers blamed
on Rank's apathy in promoting the film, the bad quality of the posters, and
England being taken off some cinemas after three day. He was adamant
it was Ranks fault, and he moved to an independent company.
