Many of you seem to really like the charm and innocence of the early black and white, Carry Ons. They are shown as often as some of the later Rothwell films but I think they deserve as much praise for what they achieved. There is a real heart to those early pictures and they are both beautifully written and played by our regular cast of comedy misfits. I'm ending this week of blogs with a clip from my all-time favourite Carry On, 1963's Carry on Cabby.
Cabby was the first film in the series to be written by Talbot Rothwell. It was also not even originally meant to be a Carry On, instead a separate title, Call Me A Cab. At the last minute it was decided, given a familiar cast including Sid, Hattie, Charles, Kenneth Connor, Liz Fraser and Esma Cannon, that it should be renamed Carry On Cabby and the rest is history. The film is very much a kitchen sink Carry On and there is real emotion in the sad break up of Sid and Hattie's marriage and her frustration with her workaholic husband. Starting up her own rival firm, Glabcabs only employs glamorous young female drivers, her fight back begins!
The scene below is some prime Carry On slapstick involving the glorious Charles Hawtrey as new recruit, Pint Pot! Charles Hawtrey couldn't actually drive a car before filming began so he was given a crash course (not literally) in the Pinewood car park and eventually passed his test! Another Carry On story which has gone down in British film history! The clip features a very nervous Sid playing passenger to an over-enthusiastic Pint Pot! Enjoy!
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