Trivia / Carry On Emmannuelle

• Acting for Two: Barbara Windsor was originally intended to play four roles - the blonde in the pub who takes Leyland home, the French girl who has it off with Richmond, the girl at London Zoo who Lyons meets and the nurse who delivers Emmannuelle's babies.
• Box Office Bomb: This was the biggest flop in the series and was most likely the reason for the fourteen-year gap until Carry On Columbus.
• Cast the Expert: The BBC newscaster was played by Tim Brinton, who had himself been one from 1959 to 1962.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Finland: Just Keep it Up, Emmannuelle.
  • Germany: Go on, Emmanuelle/Keep Going, Emmannuelle.
  • Mexico: Emmannuelle Attacks London.
  • Poland: Full Speed Ahead: Emmannuelle to Work.
  • Portugal: With Way Goes Emmannuelle.
  • Russia: Keep it Up, Emmannuelle.
  • Spain: Playing Emmannuelle.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Kenneth Williams was not impressed with the vulgar script and said so in his diaries:
    Read the Carry On Emmannuelle script. It's all about a nymphomaniac who does it with all kinds of people in all kinds of situations & keeps taking the pill. The denouement is that her one genuine lover switches placebos for the pill & she conceives. You begin with her wanking a steward on the Concorde. I found it monotonous and unfunny. When you get to her having the PM, the Judge, the Commissioner of Police etc. etc. with no variations whatsoever, the credibility is gone and there's nothing funny to redeem it. It's so far away from the sort of story which a Carry On used to have. All this seems to do is attempt to shock, whereas that element (like in Nurse etc.) was incidental to the story. Sadly, I'll have to turn it down: it's a sad business 'cos Gerald & Peter have been good to me, but with a script like this, I've no option.
  • Joan Sims truly believed the series had run out of steam by this point, and had decided that Emmannuelle would be her final Carry On. In her autobiography, she writes:
    The inventiveness and cleverness of the scripts which had made films like Cleo or Up the Khyber such a joy to work on seemed to have been replaced with a more smutty line of dialogue, which was no doubt a sign of the times but was not at all to my liking.
  • Jack Douglas confirms on the Carry On Girls DVD Commentary that he though this film went too far for a Carry On and wasn't believable.
  • Larry Dann went to see the film in cinemas when it came out, and thought it to be embarrassing and one-dimensional.
  • Zig-zagged with Beryl Reid; Reid complained later in her life about appearing in a "pornographic Carry On", although judging from her comments on the film, she seemed to be mistaking it for Rosie Dixon - Night Nurse, which she appeared in the same year.
  • Marianne Maskell was proud to have a role in the Carry On... Series, but admits that Emmannuelle wasn't the best film.
• Deleted Role:
  • David Hart was cast as a customs officer who greets Emmannuelle and Theodore, but his only scene was cut from the film. In earlier drafts, his customs officer was also joined by a female customs official.
  • A middle aged man who Emmannuelle shares a taxi from the airport with.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Emmannuelle and Theodore going through airport security:
    Customs Officer: Have you anything to declare?
    Emmannuelle: No. (Beat) Would you like to search me?
    Customs Officer: I don't think that will be necessary.
    Emmannuelle: I may have something hidden in my bra.
    Customs Officer: You're not wearing one.
    Emmannuelle: So I am not.
  • Emmannuelle sharing a taxi with a middle-aged man:
    Emmannuelle: Thank you.
    Man: That's my taxi.
    Emmannuelle: So kind of you to share it with me.
    Man: How far are you going?
    Emmannuelle: As far as you wish.
  • Lyons serving dinner to Emile and Emmannuelle.
  • The original version of the scene where Emmannuelle talks to Theodore on the phone while she pulls Lyons into bed with her had Lyons getting dragged in by the phone cord wrapping around his neck.
  • The men of Britain going on strike until more women like Emmannuelle are brought to England.
• Dolled-Up Installment: The film started as an unrelated treatment called Green Emmanuelle about an alien woman on Earth and was much more pornographic in nature.
• DVD Commentary: With Carry On historian Robert Ross talking to Jack Douglas (Lyons) and Larry Dann (Theodore Valentine).
• Fake American: One of many times the Canadian Bruce Boa played an American.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Kenneth Williams and Suzanne Danielle as a French couple.
  • Czechoslovakian Gertan Klauber as a German soldier.
• Follow the Leader: Peter Rogers was keen to capitalise on the popularity of the Confessions of a... Series which had proved popular with British cinema audiences and so hired the Australian author Lance Peters, a prominent writer of Australian sex comedies, to produce a script.
• Franchise Killer: The film was so badly received that it killed the series off for fourteen years.
• Hostility on the Set: The film was written by Lance Peters, who clashed with the regulars over how they felt the film should be. The Australian accent Kenneth Connor uses to voice Harry Hernia was said to be a mockery of Peters' own accent.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The film wasn't available on home video for years due to wrangling over its certificate.
• Money, Dear Boy: Kenneth Williams hated the script but got his highest paycheck from the series.
• No Export for You: The film didn't receive many international releases due to its saucier nature.
• Playing Against Type: Jack Douglas plays his first character in a Carry On to lack his trademark glasses or affected twitches.
• Throw It In!: Peter Butterworth improvised Richmond miming Emile and Emmannuelle's bedroom activities to Leyland.
• Uncredited Role: Reuben Martin as the gorilla.
• Wag the Director: Kenneth Williams initially turned down his part in the film, calling it offensive. He relented after some script changes had been made.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Lance Peters' original script was considered too vulgar for a Carry On, so Vince Powell and Willie Rushton were brought in to tone it down.
  • Barbara Windsor was originally offered four roles in the film (to be billed as "with odd appearances by Barbara Windsor") as the blonde in the pub with Leyland, the French girl met by Richmond during the World War II sequence, the girl at London Zoo with Lyons and the nurse who delivers Emmannuelle's babies in the final scene. However, filming coincided with a planned holiday by Windsor, and she dropped out of the project completely, leaving the roles to be taken by four different actresses (Claire Davenport, Deborah Brayshaw, Louise Burton, and Marianne Maskell).
  • On the Carry On England DVD Commentary, Patrick Mower recalls that he had been asked back to play a small role in this film but was unavailable. He was unable to remember which role he had been offered.
  • The opening sequence on the Concorde originally had Emmannuelle jacking off a steward rather than seducing Theodore.
  • The Flashbacks of Leyland, Richmond, and Lyon's amorous adventures were Dream Sequences at first.
  • The third draft had a cut sequence where Emmannuelle goes to a photo shoot in a sausage factory wearing a sausage bikini.
  • The sequence where the servants talk of their sexual experiences was also much bluer in the third draft - Mrs. Dangle's launderette story was about her having an orgasm sitting on a washing machine and rather than Emmannuelle's skydiving story she was to tell them of the time she forgot to wear panties when playing tennis at Wimbledon.
  • Before Suzanne Danielle, Kelly LeBrock was also considered for the role of Emmannuelle.
  • Theodore and Emmannuelle's tryst in the airplane bathroom had much more dialogue that was dropped.
  • Beryl Reid was originally a One-Scene Wonder, but during the filming of her scene, more were written on the fly and filmed on the same day as it was thought that limiting her to one scene would be a waste.
  • When Theodore kidnaps Emmannulle in a ski mask, Larry Dann wanted to wear his glasses over his mask because he thought it was funnier, but the idea was vetoed.
  • Marianne Maskell's agent later regretted not putting her up for the role of Emmannuelle.
  • The dandy's close-ups were supposed to have been done on a green screen, but the effect didn't work so it was instead filmed on location.

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