The best of the pre-colour ‘Ons, and indeed a strong contender for all-round champine. Sid James’ down to Earth Speedy Taxis firm (complete with old banger with nailed-down wooden chair for a driver’s seat, as was the style at the time) is put to the test by moping, fur coat-denied wife Hattie Jacques’ saucy, saxophone-backed Glamcabs operation, and bitter rivalry ensues until the climactic cab hijack brings the two sides together to “head ’em off at the pass”. But never mind the hackneyed plot, there’s feisty female cabby Esma ‘Flo’ Cannon, loopy moped-riding trainee Charles ‘Pintpot’ Hawtrey, Cyril Chamberlain as old military stuffed shirt Sarge (whose unbending parade ground throwback ways naturally come in handy at the end), Kenneth Connor, Bill Owen, Liz Fraser, Milo O’Shea, Jim Dale, Amanda Barrie in a quaint little pillbox hat (the closest thing you were going to get to feminism in mainstream cinema in 1963, let’s face it) and Frank Forsyth.
Richard Davies
December 24, 2010 at 11:18 am
The prodcution team were lent a job lot of early Cortinas by Ford for the Glam Cabs.
Uncle Henry’s Dagenham branch were good at getting their current models into films & TV.