There is currently a swagger of the old Carry On films being released on DVD. At their initial time of release they were huge box office hits in the UK, offering a very risqué formula for their time. Over a 20 year period, more than 30 films were produced, many of them using the same actors throughout. This one includes regulars Sid James and Hattie Jacques, however many of the better known stars are missing.

Oh dear!

Carry On Cabby is the seventh in the series and was made in 1963 in black and white. The story revolves around husband and wife Charlie and Paggy Hawkins (Sid James and Hattie Jacques). Charlie runs a cab company called Speedy Taxis and is a workaholic, constantly neglecting his wife. She decides to enlist some help and form her own cab company called Glamcabs, consisting of women drivers. Did they really think women drivers were good back then? Sorry ladies, just kidding. Charlie’s loyal customers soon take their business to the rival company, leaving Charlie with little alternative than to try some underhanded tricks to win them back, the whole time unaware that his wife is the owner of the rival company. Can their marriage survive this test?

Cabs in formation.

This is the standard formula for Carry On films, but it does seem to lack something that many of the others do. Personally I really missed seeing Barbara Windsor and Kenneth Williams as they were always my favourite Carry On characters. This is really one for the purists. It is entertaining but, unless you planned to buy all the films on DVD, then this one would have to be low on the list. There are some very good qualities on show here, such as the performance of Sid James and the impressive choreographed car scenes, but overall this film lacks the sauciness of films later released in the series.

Carry On Cabby is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and is not 16:9 enhanced. Although it was made in 1963 and is in black and white, it scrubs up quite well. The cabs all look a lovely shade of grey, driving over the lovely grey grass into the grey towns. But seriously, black levels are not great but they are OK and although the image is generally clean, it does suffer from some softness. There are occasional film artefacts, but these are far less an intrusion than expected. There is some annoying telewobble but, again, this is acceptable really. Grain is also not too noticeable and detail is above average, especially for a film of this age.

Moving in for the kill.

Audio is supplied in the glorious Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, now what did you expect, a DD 5.1 mix? Seriously though, this does the job more than adequately. It is a dialogue-driven film and this is delivered clearly. There are no annoying hiss or distortion noises to contend with so as long as you don’t expect a reference quality soundtrack, this is fine.

There are no extras with this release.

If you are a fan of the Carry On genre and intend to purchase all of the titles released then this is not bad. If you are a Carry On fan but wish to be selective in which titles you purchase, there are many better titles available. If you don’t like Carry On films at all, well you won’t really care I guess.