Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2824 in VHS
• Released on: 1997-08-18
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, HiFi Sound, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A rare Carry On with more interest in having a proper plot than tossing off gags every line, Cabby is also one of the friendliest of the series, built around the relationship between a cackling but good-hearted Sid James and an unusually touching Hattie Jacques. Sid's so obsessed with his taxi business that he neglects his wife, spending their wedding anniversary driving expectant father Jim Dale to and from the maternity hospital on a false alarm that naturally pays off with a delivery in the back of the cab. This drives Hattie to set up her own rival firm ("Glam Cabs"), employing dolly birds in tailored uniforms to undercut the likes of Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey. It ends happily, with a pair of hold-up men trapped in a ring of taxis and the marriage saved. Among the expected Carry On bits: Connor in drag, Amanda Barrie in a corset, Hawtrey in a leather jacket as a devout rambler ("We like to go as far as we can"), Liz Fraser as Connor's perky intended. Kenneth Williams is missed, but his role as the obnoxious shop steward (Carry On producer Peter Rogers never missed a chance to be nasty about the unions) is ably taken by Norman Chappell. Other familiar faces are Bill Owen, Peter Gilmore, Milo O'Shea, Renee Houston and Michael Ward as the tweedy businessman who has apparently left a pearl earring in the back of Connor's cab.

On the DVD: No extras, but it's a smashing widescreen presentation of a pristine black and white print. --Kim Newman

Synopsis
The long-suffering wife of a taxi firm owner decides to set up a rival company in an effort to gain her husband's attention.

Customer Reviews

The Very Best Carry On - Bar None!
Often over-looked these days, presumably largely on the grounds that it was sadly made in Black and White, this Carry On is simply the best of the lot, even topping the hiliarious Carry On Doctor from several years later. What makes Carry On Cabby so good is that it has a really strong plot - a genuine story with twists, turns and suspense - which is over-laid with fine acting performances from Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor, Esma Cannon and a truly outstanding Hattie Jacques (side-splitting as her alter-ego, Mrs. Glam), and lashings of deliciously camp humour (despite the rather surprising absence from the cast of Kenneth Williams), without the need, on the whole, for smutty innuendo. This, for me, was the film which marked the point where the Carry On genre truly found its feet, and the only one which I will truly never tire of watching.

carry on at its best
Picture the scene, it's a grey sunday afternoon and you're stuck at home with nothing to do. Well, if you fancy a laugh from the days when carry on was fresh, funny and extremely well cast, then this is probably the one for you. this is a story of girl power versus an all male preserve of taxi drivers but with a great twist that shows the amazing quality of writing offered now 40 years ago. Watch the amazing hattie Jaques and even an early appearance from Alma of Coronation Street fame (Amanda Barrie). One of those films that should be up there with Brief encounter and the origonal Miss Marples as a true classic worth watching again and again.

An untypical Carry On
Most of the Carry On films were very funny but quite crude as well. In my opinion this broke the mould. Glamcabs, run by Hattie Jacques to get back at her neglctful hubby,played by Sid James,has leggy buxom female drivers,one of which is played by the wonderfully dizzy Amanda Barrie. What sets this film aside is the fact that it is one in the eye for a male dominated job as the women come out the victors. It also features a touching role played by the unforgettable Hattie Jacques.
A Carry On with a difference but a good one at that.