A 10 page manuscript extract from Talbot Rothwell’s original screenplay for Carry on Cleo together with his hilarious typescript proposal/ synopsis of the movie and a full ‘First Draft’ typescript screenplay which contains perhaps the earliest appearance of the oft-voted funniest ever line, ‘Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.’
Talbot Rothwell, the in-house screenwriter of the Carry On movies, has long been known to have drawn on scripts given to him by Frank Muir and Dennis Norden (which included their gift of their ‘infamy’ line) and they are in the form of Rothwell’s cache of Muir and Norden’s ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ sketches written for the radio show, Take it from Here. Chronologically in this collection these are followed by one of Rothwell’s early manuscript drafts, heavily reworked; his synopsis - still at that time titled ‘Carry on Caesar’ and finally the full-length First Draft typescript screenplay. A whole world of screenplay cross referencing, revision, reworking and inter-textuality opens up from these items.
The finished movie, Carry on Cleo (1964), starred Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims with Amanda Barrie in the title role. Filming took place in the reused sets from the Burton and Taylor Cleopatra which was released in 1963. By many Carry On fans, the movie is regarded as the series’ masterpiece.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
1 “Carry on Caesar” - hand corrected to Cleo, ‘Story Line for a Screen Comedy by Talbot Rothwell’, Kavanagh Productions - quarto size yellow paper typescript synopsis, introducing ‘A Caesar, let it be said, who resembles Kenneth Williams far more closely than Rex Harrison ever did. A fed-up worried and unhappy Caesar... You try traipsing about all over Europe in open-toe sandals.’ And Cleopatra ‘in fact the world’s number one Tease... Cleo is in the Queen racket strictly for gain. Antony having met her in Egypt, is already her abject hungering devotee, suffering from a bad dose of ants in the toga.’ This synopsis offers a very different plotline to the final version and no mention yet of Caesar’s ‘Infamy’ line.
2 Talbot Rothwell manuscript draft of ‘Sequence B’ of Carry on Cleo, pencil on foolscap, pp10 but not entirely sequential. The script begins with an exterior shot of a model of Rome and Caesar in a small chariot drawn by a Shetland pony, returning to a grumpy Calpurnia. Caesar: ‘I’ve been conquering’ Calpurnia ‘Conquering. A likely story!...’ Rothwell offers a first draft of the Slave Market scene, crossed through on page 4 and redrafted on page 5 with directions for overhead signs saying: ‘Special Today “Best Quality Imported Britons”. Hengist and Horsa appear at the auction and the manuscript concludes (p9) with a ‘Breakdown’ of the sequence.
3 First Draft “Carry on Cleo” unbound typescript, stapled into three sections, cover page loose, [1] ff90, annotation throughout in Rothwell’s hand suggesting dialogue, rearranging scenes, correcting the identity of speakers and including Caesar’s ‘Infamy! Infamy!’ at p29. Additional ink annotations towards the end of the screenplay.
2 “Carry on Cleo” ff1-12, each page duplicated. A later draft which begins in Hengist’s cave.
EARLY PHASE - 1950s: Take it From Here & TV scripts given to Rothwell by Frank Muir & Dennis Norden
“Caesar and Cleopatra” 12th October 1950 (With Muir and Norden inclusions.) Typescript with annotations, small quarto, ff9 - like most of these scripts they use the actors’ names - Wallas Easton, James Edwards, Richard Bentley and Joy Nichols in place of their characters.
“Caesar and Cleopatra”, foolscap typescript, heavily annotated in pencil
Untitled Caesar and Cleopatra radio script, foolscap, top-copy typescript using actors names, ff6
“Take it from Here”, foolscap [ff] 6, Emperor Nero sketch incorporating a Slave Market scene.
TV SKETCHES
Sketch. Slave Market Rome, ff10, with a page of pencil notes on f10v, annotated throughout. Typescript on foolscap, using actor’s names - Terry [Scott], Moulting and Avril; characters of Hengist and Hawsa present.
Final Sketch, small quarto typescript with annotation, ff12 set in Cleopatra’s palace and dramatising return of Caesar