What's nice about the humor of the Carry On crew is that they don't need to twist their plot around sitcom-like misunderstandings. When a woman tells a man that her friend is in love with somebody and by her awkward wording, the man thinks it's him she's in love with, the misunderstanding isn't prolonged so much that it defines the course of the rest of the movie (as I dreaded, groaning, as the scene unfolded). Instead, the misunderstanding has its humorous payoff right then, the misunderstanding is cleared up, and then it's on to the next comic mishap.

I admire this about the comedy in this entry of the long running British Carry On series. Even after so many films, there's still enough laughs to be had so that they don't need to linger on a single joke for very long, and while they happily invite contrivances if they pave the way for humor, they refuse to hinge the plot on them.

Of course, the plot is still just an excuse for a parade of skits. The delightful Sid James plays the Captain of a cruise ship, and the rest of the Carry On gang play new members of his crew who have a knack for wreaking havoc -- or simply having it wrought upon them.