So much average

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

In spite of the absence of Kenneth Williams (for the first of only four times out of the 30 films made during his lifetime), this is my favourite "Carry On" films. It has a stronger plot than any of the six previous films and comes close to being a comedy-drama at times. It's more realistic than the other films and even has a little bit of social commentary in it, which is the last thing that I would expect in a "Carry On" film.Sid James and Hattie Jacques make great leads, playing their roles relatively straight. I liked the fact that Jacques was afford such a big role, her first that amounted to more than a cameo since "Carry On Constable". Kenneth Connor, one of only two actors to appear in all of the first seven films, is also very good in an unusually straight role. Returning from his temporary sabbatical, Charles Hawtrey is effortlessly hilarious as Pintpot and gets the lion's share of the best lines. He provides much of the film's humour. The funniest sequence in the film is probably Charlie and Pintpot driving a heavily pregnant woman and her husband to a hospital and back several times due to multiple false alarms. It has a great supporting cast including Esma Cannon (though she isn't as funny as in "Carry On Cruising"), Milo O'Shea (in his only "Carry On" appearance) and Amanda Barrie. Like Williams, however, Joan Sims is very noticeable by her absence.

I wish I could get with this series. I seem to remember enjoying one or two when they were first released. But now, years later, they mostly add up to a not very successful television comedy program dependent on weird-looking characters, slapstick, and weak jokes. This one centers around the conflict between the love-starved Hattie Jacques and her cabby husband, Sid James. There is an abundance of ancillary characters.I'll give an example of the humor. Charles Hawtrey, who looks like my Grandma, is constantly falling over things, frequently while carrying some delicate objects like tea cups. He falls over empty petrol cans, a table, and so forth. His goal: to become a cab driver.Hawtrey shows up at the cab company and applies for a job. His name is "Terry Tankard" but the boys all call him "Pint pot" -- "because of my name, Tankard, you see?" Sid James squints at him oddly and asks, "You're sure it was PINT pot?" (Joke.) It's all very cheerful, from the jaunty opening tune, and very working class in its plot, its humor, and its characters. And that was probably the intent. Keep it simple and only slightly off color. It probably amused undemanding audiences.But the industry in Britain was capable of far more than this sort of thing. I'll only mention the Ealing comedies of the 50s and early 60s in passing. Maybe my neurology has evolved (or devolved) but the Carry On series seems much less impressive now than it did in the early 60s. Not insulting and not dated, just a bit stale. I can imagine others finding the more amusing.

Carry on Cabby is directed by Gerald Thomas and adapted to a screenplay by Talbot Rothwell from a story by Richard Hills & Sidney Green. It stars Sidney James, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Esma Cannon and Liz Fraser. It's the 7th film of the long running Carry On film franchise. Plot finds James as Charlie Hawkins, a man so obsessed with his taxi business he severely neglects his wife Peg (Jacques). At the end of her tether, Peg sets up her own taxi company called Glam Cabs, the draw being that all the drivers are female, all are gorgeous and all are taking the trade away from Charlie's business. The men try and strike back, but these girls are not for turning.....Aside from the fact that the cast list is missing big hitters such as Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims and Bernard Bresslaw, Carry on Cabby also stands out from the other series entries for another reason. If it feels a little different, maybe even a touch too tame for the bawdy loving crowd, then that has to do with the fact that Talbot Rothwell actually scripted it as a non series entry. It was to be a standalone picture titled Call Me A Cab, but with the series starting to gain momentum it was reworked as a Carry On movie.The film is a breezy battle of the sexes comedy built around a more than decent plot. On a list of genuinely funny Carry On movies it most likely struggles to get in the top ten, but if we can judge it away from the series? It has a warm 60's appeal whilst throbbing with classic black and white capery. It's also one of the few Carry On film's that enjoys a pro feminist angle, whilst it's a joy to see Jacques get a decent and touching role some way away from the big bruiser character's she was known for. As the lady viewers enjoy the fun "womans" angle in the plot, the red blooded male is naturally (for a Carry On movie) catered for with plenty of woof-whistle moments (Amanda Barrie-oh my). And the robbery based finale is well constructed by genre legend Gerald Thomas.Innuendo light, but in this case it's not a bad thing. 7/10

I have no hesitation in stating that Carry On Cabby as THE best of the early 'Carry On' movies, and if pushed I would say that it ranked as one of the best films of the entire series.I think the main reason why this movie is one of the standouts of the series, was that both Composer Eric Rogers and writer Talbot Rothwell had joined the team, and it was Rothwell's unique brand of humour, that became synonymous with the bawdy risqué type of humour that was to become a trademark of all the future movies, (until 1974's Carry On Dick of course, which became notable for being the final Carry On film for Talbot Rothwell, Sid James, Barbara Windsor and Hattie Jacques). Rogers's music also had a comedy trademark all it's own, with Rogers regularly relying on the bassoon or oboe to good effect when trying to highlight comedic situations.Jim Dale also appears in his first Carry On film, in a small but hilarious role as an expectant father that turns Sid James's cab into a temporary maternity ward. Dale soon became a mainstay of the team throughout the remainder of the 1960's, usually cast as the male romantic lead previously reserved for either Kenneth Connor or Leslie Phillips.In 'Cabby' Sid James plays the manager of a local cab firm, who has trouble keeping a healthy balance between his beloved Taxi's and his home life, much to the chagrin of his neglected wife played brilliantly by Hattie Jacques, in what is regarded as her finest Carry On performance and certainly her own personal favourite. In order to teach him a lesson in love, she uses his money to covertly set up her own rival cab firm to pinch his customers, using only sexy female drivers as bait in what is destined to become not only a battle of the taxi's, but a real battle of the sexes.Amanda Barrie, is cast as one of these 'cabbies in corsets' and on the strength of this performance, I'm sure it came as no surprise to anyone, that she was to be cast as the title character in 'Carry On Cleo', the following year.Charles Hawtrey turns up as a well meaning but seriously inept and accident prone new recruit to Sid's fleet of drivers, while Kenneth Connor plays Sid's trusty and loyal right hand man. However, in this movie, Connor has his own love life to sort out in the form of Liz Fraser and while both are great in their roles, they do seem a bit mismatched, so I feel that maybe Dilys Laye, (Connor's Love interest in the previous movie 'Carry On Cruising'), would have been more suitable in the part.Bill Owen also gives a fine performance in what would be his final appearance in the Carry On series. Ironically, soon after completing 'Cabby', Bill Owen and Sid James would virtually reprise their roles in a BBC sitcom called 'Taxi!' playing, cab drivers yet again.The only thing missing from 'Cabby', is Kenneth Williams, who's absence is very noticeable as this was the first of only a handful of Carry On films in which he would not appear.Like Watch Your Stern, (made three years previously and starred a myriad of Carry On 'regulars'), Carry On Cabby was not originally slated to be a part of the Carry On series, and was filmed under the working title of 'Call Me A Cab', however, to add some appeal at the box office, it was decided at the last minute to add the 'Carry On' Moniker and make it an official entry. Eric Rogers's music remained unchanged, however, so that's why the films theme tune, if sung, fit's perfectly to the words 'Call Me A Cab', (which incidentally is also Sid's final line in the movie).For 'Carry On Cabby', Talbot Rothwell had merely adapted a previously written screenplay by Sid Green and Dick Hills (then best known as writers for Morecambe & Wise). It wasn't until the subsequent movies that Rothwell had full creative control of the screenplays which heralded a change of direction for the series, which makes Carry On Cabby, In my opinion, the last of the early Carry On's.Carry On Cabby may have been the end of the beginning, but it certainly wasn't the beginning of the end.Enjoy.