Stodge City is a pretty tame place, until the Rumpo Kid (Sidney James) rides into town. He takes over, prompting city fathers to send for a marshal.
Thanks to a mistake by Washington, D.C., bureaucrats, they get Marshal P. Knutt (Jim Dale), a sanitary engineer someone mistakes for a marshal because of his first name.
He arrives in Stooge city expecting to do a cleansing of an entirely different sort than the town fathers expect.
Fortunately for Knutt and the good folks of Stodge, Annie Oakley (Angela Douglas) enters town on the same stage. The sharp-shooting blonde is after the man who killed the last sheriff of Stodge.
She’s quite capable of charming a man, then filling him with bullets. Or going straight to the bullets.
And she’s not too bad at providing Knutt with the backbone he’ll need to square off with the Rumpo Kid and his band of hoodlums.
Jim Dale as Marshal P. Knutt, a sanitation engineer turned marshal, locked in his own jail in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Sidney James as The Rumpo Kid, blowing smoke from his guns after leaving corpses in the street of Stodge City in Carry on Cowboy (1966)
Review:
This was one of about 30 “Carry On” films, so they were bound to get to the Wild West sooner or later. This entry drags early on and the jokes seem way too forced.
But hang with it, because things get much better and much funnier when the lovely and charming Angela Douglas and a very confused Jim Dale arrive in Stooge City.
Highlights include the bedroom trap Annie sets for the Rumpo Kid, only to nab the wrong ma;, the way lovely lasses keep showing up in Knutt’s Wild West bedroom; and the lead-up to the climatic showdown, as Annie teaches Knutt how to handle a gun.
This was one of 10 “Carry On” films for Dale; Douglas appeared in four.
Angela Douglas as Annie Oakley, flirting with The Rump Kid to learn what she wants to know in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Joan Sims as Belle Armitage, figuring she’s enough woman for The Rumpo Kid in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Directed by:
Gerald Thomas
Cast:
Sidney James … Rumpo Kid / Johnny Finger
Jim Dale … Marshal P. Knutt
Angela Douglas … Annie Oakley
Kenneth Williams … Judge Burke
Charles Hawtrey … Chief Big Heap
Joan Sims … Belle Armitage
Bernard Bresslaw … Little Heap
Peter Butterworth … Doc
Percy Herbert … Charlie (bartender)
Jon Pertwee … Sheriff Albert Earp
Sydney Bromley … Sam Houston
Edina Ronay … Dolores
Lionel Murton … Clerk
Peter Gilmore … Curly
Davy Key … Undertaker
Title tune: “Carry On Cowboy”
Runtime: 95 min.
Kenneth Williams as Judge Burke, a mayor desperately seeking someone to deal with The Rumpo Kid in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Bernard Bresslaw as Little Heap and Charles Hawtrey as Chief Big Heap, negotiating with The Rumpo Kid in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Memorable lines::
Annie Oakley to Marshal Knutt: “I came to turn myself in. I shot a man … It was an accident.”
Marshal: “We all make silly little mistakes. How did it happen?”
Annie: “I shot him. With a shotgun. A rifle. And two revolvers.”
Marshal: “That must have been some accident.”
Rumpo Kid, sending a saloon girl named Dolores to distract Marshall with a simple set of instructions: “Can you remember all the things your mother told you not to do when you came out West?”
Saloon girl: “Yes.”
Rumpo Kid: “Do them.”
Mayor: “I thought I heard shooting.”
Doctor: “It was probably just a horse backfiring.”
Percy Herbert as bartender Charlie, getting his first glimpse of Indian beauty Kitikata in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Sydney Bromley as Sam Houston, bemoaning the rustling of his prized bull Ramrod while Doc (Peter Butterworth) listens in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Chief Big Heap as his attractive new squaw shows up: “This is my new squaw. I bought her for two buffalo skins.”
Charlie: “How?”
Rumpo Kid: “Never mind how. Where?”
Bartender: “This is the mayor.”
Rumpo Kid: “You’d better stay away from my horse. He hasn’t seen a mare in three weeks.”
Belle Armitage: “Johnny, have you forgotten? I’m your little ding-dong.”
Rumpo Kid: “I’m sorry to have to say it, but your ding has lost its dong.”
Marshal P. Knutt, as he witnesses a three-way catfight: “I know this is the wild West, but this is ridiculous.”
Jim Dale as Marshal P. Knutt and Angela Douglas as Annie Oakley in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Jon Pertwee as Sheriff Albert Earp, hard of hearing, nearly blind and no match for The Rumpo Kid in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
Jim Dale as Marshal P. Knutt, unsteady with his pistol as he tries to lock up The Rumpo Kid gang in Carry on Cowboy (1966)
Angela Douglas as Annie Oakley, ready to spring her ambush with two pistols, a rifle and a shotgun in Carry On Cowboy (1966)
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