Please Turn Over ** (1959, Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Julia Lockwood, Charles Hawtrey) – Classic Movie Review 14,026

The Carry On team’s 1959 British black and white comedy film Please Turn Over stars Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Julia Lockwood and Charles Hawtrey.

‘The Carry On producers are Carrying On again!’ Well that would be producer Peter Rogers.

Director Gerald Thomas’s 1959 British black and white comedy film Please Turn Over stars Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Julia Lockwood, and Charles Hawtrey, with Lionel Jeffries, June Jago and Victor Maddern.

Please Turn Over is a so-so farce based on a 1959 London West End play called Book of the Month by Basil Thomas about the teenage hairdresser girl Jo Halliday (Julia Lockwood, aged 18, daughter of Margaret Lockwood) who pens a saucy bestseller potboiler called Naked Revolt showcasing sexed-up fantasy versions of her father Ted Ray, mother Jean Kent and aunt June Jago, and depicting herself as a prostitute.

Her nearest and dearest aren’t at all amused.

An insubstantial work from the Carry On producer Peter Rogers, screen-writer Norman Hudis, director Gerald Thomas and stars Ted Ray, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims and Charles Hawtrey nevertheless boasts some bright moments, pleasing performances and pleasant laughs. But there is no real wit or edge, and there are no incisive new comedy ideas. And, since it is all in the best possible taste, it’s not quite dark or sexy enough to make it work properly, or at least fully.

Cast: Ted Ray, Jean Kent, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Julia Lockwood, Charles Hawtrey, Tim Seely, Lionel Jeffries, Dilys Laye, June Jago, Joan Hickson, Victor Maddern, Ronald Adam, Noel Dyson, Cyril Chamberlain, Anthony Sagar, Colin Gordon, Marianne Stone, George Street.

Release date: December 1959.

Ted Ray, Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims and Charles Hawtrey reconvened from Peter Rogers’s Carry On Teacher (September 1959) just three months earlier that year.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 14,026

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