01/03/08: CONAN THE DESTROYER (Richard Fleischer, 1984)
Even before I reacquainted myself with its predecessor, I knew this would basically prove to be an unassuming comic-strip effort – which may have been closer to Robert E. Howard’s source material than the more realistic first film (which perhaps drew more on the famously stark illustrations of Frank Frazetta for its look).
Anyway, while this emerged a somewhat more engaging adventure than RED SONJA (1985), the plot of both films is strikingly similar – in that the mission in each involves a girl in peril (here, however, she’s an innocent rather than a warrior) helped by he-man Arnold Schwarzenegger to fight an evil queen/sorceress and her legions – even if the obligatory comic relief is perhaps even less welcome this time around (via Conan’s diminutive and cowardly sidekick Tracey Walter)! The action highlights are also more elaborate (though they’re far from the stylized ones featured in the 1982 CONAN THE BARBARIAN – and, consequently, less impressive): these include the oft-seen trick involving a wizard defeated by shattering his multiple reflection in a hall of mirrors, and the climax where Conan (with the dubious help of Walter) battle a Toho-style monster(!) called Dagoth.
Despite employing director Fleischer and legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff (both of whom had worked on THE VIKINGS [1958], one of the most impressive – and evocative – epics from the genre’s heyday), the film can hardly be compared to that magnificent achievement. For starters, Schwarzenegger’s Conan comes off rather buffoonish at times, especially during a drunken reverie in which he stumbles clumsily into rockfaces and in an unintentionally hilarious shot when villainess Sarah Douglas asks Conan to think and we cut to a close-up of wide-eyed Arnie! The cast is made up of veteran character actors (Mako, Jeff Corey and Ferdy Mayne) and supporting newcomers (Grace Jones, Olivia D’Abo, Wilt Chamberlain) and Basil Poledouris once again provides stirring musical accompaniment. Although I revisited the film via the UK R2 DVD, unfortunately it was the original, bare-bones and slightly censored disc rather than any of the two subsequent SE DVDs which include Audio Commentaries with Fleischer, Douglas, D’Abo and Walter!
01/04/08: CONAN THE BARBARIAN [Extended International Version] (John Milius, 1982)
I still have vivid memories of watching this one on Italian TV, with several of its images (alternately sexual, violent and scary) remaining memorable to this very day - particularly the sequence in the giant snake’s lair and the shooting of snakes as arrows!; I also recall catching some of its lowbrow imitators like the Italian-made ATOR movies and THE BEASTMASTER (1982) on TV or VHS, not to mention playing the “Barbarian” computer game with its theme and music clearly inspired by this movie. As a matter of fact, the awe-inspiring visuals and Basil Poledouris’ now-classic score still constitute the film’s mainstays, smoothing over a rather wooly plot and the inherently ponderous nature of the whole enterprise – since what humor there is throughout is quickly stifled by its overpowering sense of gloom. This third viewing of the film – via the Extended (but also slightly censored) version on R4 SE DVD proved to be the most satisfactory so far; I guess it helped that it followed on the heels of several similar “sword-and-sorcery” outings which enabled the inherent superiority CONAN THE BARBARIAN to fully emerge.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is the perfect embodiment of a brawny medieval action hero; Sandahl Bergman (who would eventually turn villainous for RED SONJA [1985]) is equally impressive as Valeria, Conan’s blonde female counterpart – their rapport is genuine enough as to make his being shown still pining for her throughout CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984) credible, the villainess of that film (Sarah Douglas) having promised to resurrect Valeria if he lends his services to her ‘cause’!; also on the side of good are Mako as Akiro The Wizard (who returns in the sequel and actually provides the narration in both Conan ventures) and surfer Gerry Lopez as a Mongol thief.
Incidentally, the project originated with Oliver Stone – who’s still credited as co-writer: incongruously for him, he had stressed the fantasy elements of the tale (which writer/director Milius subsequently de-emphasized after taking over); perhaps to lend the film some artistic gravitas, the latter selected powerful and well-known actors for some of the leading characters: James Earl Jones makes for a very sinister Thulsa Doom (playing the last surviving member of an ancient cannibal civilization, he’s made to turn into a giant snake!) and Max Von Sydow (as a king given the Shakespearean name of Osric, even if only one of the sequences filmed with him made the final cut!); a surprising, albeit all-too-brief, presence in the film is that of Jess Franco regular Jack Taylor – here playing one of the priests at Jones’ temple.
In the accompanying documentary (see below), Milius admits to being influenced by Masaki Kobayashi’s classic ghost story compendium KWAIDAN (1964): this can be seen in the love-making scene with a woman turning into a witch (complete with similar use of blue gels) and the protection of an ailing Conan from evil spirits by having several chants written all over his body. Also in the documentary, there is a reference to Milius’ amusing cameo which eventually found itself on the cutting floor!
01/04/08:
CONAN UNCHAINED: THE MAKING OF "CONAN THE BARBARIAN" (V) (Laurent Bouzereau, 2000)
This is a competent, fairly lengthy but hardly exhaustive documentary on the subject by renowned film-maker/historian Bouzereau. It should perhaps have dug deeper into the history of Conan – creator Robert E. Howard (and his personal demons) is only mentioned in passing; ditto for the influence maverick illustrator Frank Frazetta had on the mythology behind the character (and the fictionalized era which he inhabited) – not to mention the film’s sequel, or its own place within the whole sword-and-sorcery cycle prevalent during the early 1980s!
Still, several of the main contributors (both behind and in front of the camera) have their say about the film: at the forefront, of course, are John Milius and Arnold Schwarzenegger – but it also goes on to interview Oliver Stone and Max von Sydow (who, of his performance, recalls best his bloody death scene which remained on the cutting-room floor!). The documentary also deals with the painstaking production – from the film’s elaborate sets to its choreographed swordplay, and even touches upon the creation of CONAN THE BARBARIAN’s special effects (here the speakers felt the need to remind the audience that these were done in the days before CGI). However, some discussion on critical reaction to the film at the time of its release – and how it has worn the passage of time – should not have been amiss.
01/06/08:
TARZAN, THE APE MAN (John Derek, 1981)
Surely one of the most ill-advised remakes of a classic in film history – especially since the promise of its tag-line, “The most beautiful woman of our time in the most erotic adventure of all time”, isn’t even properly exploited! Although this film was regularly shown on TV in my neck of the woods since my childhood days, its notoriety (for awfulness not erotic content, mind you) kept me away from it until now – and I only relented because I have recently enjoyed Bo Derek’s previous film, 10 (1979), and have been watching a lot of fantasy stuff as well over the Christmas period.
Lead actress/producer Bo Derek is rather ridiculous playing the schoolgirl-ish sexual innocent (witness the inept banana scene) and, as was to be expected, she is made to get her clothes off a few times but, as welcome as these scenes were, she came off as far more sensual in 10 than she does here; Richard Harris, then, chews the scenery incessantly as Jane’s obsessed explorer father, but John Philip Law barely registers as his aide who meekly shows some initial interest in Jane herself; newcomer Miles O’Keeffe has the title role and he only makes his entrance 45 minutes into the movie, is completely silent throughout except for his famous yodel (which is probably lifted from Johnny Weissmuller anyway!) and, furthermore, is as inexpressive as one of the trees he dangles from at regular intervals throughout the film’s second half!; for the record, he later starred in two ATOR movies (or would-be CONAN imitators) for Joe D’Amato and the King Arthur-era set, SWORD OF THE VALIANT (1984).
When still an actor, director John Derek (who also serves as his own cinematographer here) had worked with some good film-makers (Cecil B. De Mille, William Dieterle and Robert Rossen) and a few great ones (Otto Preminger, Nicholas Ray and Don Siegel) but he clearly learned zilch from them as his direction of this one is a major liability: appallingly pretentious at times (witness the perfectly horrid python attack sequence) with a senseless overuse of the slow motion technique and cheesy transitions; this was Derek’s seventh film as a director (and his second of four with wife Bo) and, eventually, he would only get to make two more.
The film’s utter failure only needs to be gauged by the fact that the Tarzan legend was tackled once more on film – in GREYSTOKE: THE LEGEND OF TARZAN, LORD OF THE APES (which, surprisingly enough, I haven’t watched myself yet) – a mere three years later!! Nominated for six Razzie Awards (including John Derek, Richard Harris and Miles O’Keeffe) and winning one for Bo Derek herself, TARZAN, THE APE MAN was co-written by Gary Goddard, the future director of another highly anticapted but ultimately disappointing transposition to the silver screen of a (this time animated) heroic figure, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE (1987) which I will be revisiting presently as well (yay)! Despite a charming closing credit sequence showing Tarzan and Jane playing with around with an orang-utan and a music score that is not half bad actually and quite rousing on occasion, any belated good intentions are defeated by an extremely silly climax involving natives painting Bo completely white and, fatally, John Derek’s clear disinterest in the character of Tarzan himself which makes him come off as an unimportant supporting character in his own self-titled movie!!
01/10/08:
EASTERN PROMISES (David Cronenberg, 2007)
First of all, my
rating is rather misleading because that’s how I also rated Cronenberg’s previous (and superior) film, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005) – in fact, my twin brother tried to talk me into giving this one a lower rating but I vetoed the idea; still, quite good, therefore, but not great – in view that the maverick director has apparently forsaken the horror genre for good and set his mind on becoming the successor to Martin Scorsese! In itself, the film is essentially well made but surprisingly cliché-ridden resulting in stereotyped characters and a predictable plotline.
While none of the principal actors are Russians, the cast is generally excellent: Viggo Mortenson’s role is practically a reversal of the one he played in A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (though, again, he was more impressive there) – even so, he is to be applauded for consenting to play the tense bath-house assault (the film’s undeniable highlight) fully unclothed – though one wonders what the rabid fans of THE LORD OF THE RINGS films think of him now!; Naomi Watts is fine as always and delivers perhaps the best performance in the film (in spite of the fact that her character isn’t really given much to do); Vincent Cassel, however, is positively annoying as the typically arrogant but ultimately inadequate offspring of a Mafia Godfather (incidentally, if he was such a wimp that his father had to show him how to make love to a woman – even if it happened to be a 14-year old girl – why does the father later be angered that his only son has been branded a “drunken queer”?); Armin Mueller-Stahl portrays the latter and he’s quite good as always – though his ruthless (even inhuman, in view of the revelation about the dead prostitute’s fate) crime lord – hiding under a deceptively innocuous exterior – is anything but a novel concept; Sinead Cusack (whom I’ve recently watched in her prime alongside Peter Sellers in HOFFMAN [1970]) appears as Watts’ mother – the actress is the wife of Jeremy Irons (who made DEAD RINGERS [1988] and M. BUTTERFLY [1993] for Cronenberg…but also MOONLIGHTING [1982], which was directed by Cusack’s co-star here, Jerzy Skolimowski!); the latter has a nice part as Watts’ effusive ex-secret agent uncle (he isn’t afraid to face the Mafia but his amusing fate virtually supplies the film’s lone respite from the prevailing gloominess). Incidentally, coming back to that nude fight scene, Skolimowski himself set one of his best films as a director, DEEP END (1970), in a London bath-house – now there’s a unique film, with a tragic finale one doesn’t see coming!
To get back to the predictable elements in the film: the Russian gangsters pose as restaurant owners and, sure enough – in true GODFATHER-style – we are treated to a group of elderly Russian diners chanting the proverbial “Oci Ciornie”; the explicit throat-cutting sequence which effectively opens the film is virtually repeated halfway through (as if one needed an illustration of the age-old “an eye for an eye” code of ethics adhered to in underworld circles!); even the late reveal of Mortensen’s true identity is a much abused model and shouldn’t surprise anyone who read the earlier signs correctly – the sudden promotion of Mortensen from a lowly if trusted chauffer/clean-up man (yet another oft-used characteristic) into a fully-fledged member of the Russian mafia solely for the purpose of being sold out by Mueller-Stahl while passed off as his son; Cassel humiliates Mortenson by ordering him to have sex with one of the girls as he watches on: the sheer fact that we’ve seen this type of behavior in boss-henchmen relationships many times before makes the graphic scene itself seem gratuitous, etc.
Throughout the film, I was reminded of a very similar recent case (in the same genre, no less) where the sum of the undoubtedly good parts add up to a less than completely satisfactory whole – Sam Mendes’ ROAD TO PERDITION (2002)…
01/07/08:
CARRY ON NURSE (Gerald Thomas, 1959)
The second in the popular series is one of the best, but also the first in a quartet of medical lampoons from this stable – the others being CARRY ON DOCTOR (1968), CARRY ON AGAIN, DOCTOR (1969) and CARRY ON MATRON (1972); I’ve watched the latter but not the other two, though I should be able to get to them fairly soon…
Anyway, coming very early in the series, CARRY ON NURSE – which manages to make the most of its single setting – isn’t as crude or as slapdash as a good many of the later entries regrettably proved to be: in fact, it’s pretty much in the vein of classic British comedy of the time (such as the satirical films by the Boultings). The cast brings together several practiced performers in the field: Kenneth Connor (his “Cor, Blimey” attitude as a boxer with a broken hand is somewhat reminiscent of Norman Wisdom), Kenneth Williams (having a less central role than would be the case later but in quite good form as a bookworm nuclear scientist who’s also something of a misanthrope), Charles Hawtrey (playing a radio fanatic, where his prissy antics are already a bit over-the-top), Joan Sims (as an accident-prone nurse), Hattie Jacques (as the fearsome Matron – which became her trademark role), Wilfrid Hyde-White (as an old man whose military record allows him privileged service at the hospital but hasn’t rescinded his gambling mania!), Leslie Philips (as a fun-loving sort who in a drunken binge with his fellow patients decides to have them perform his delayed operation themselves – the latter scene is the film’s hilarious highlight where, predictably, laughing gas is let loose at the most inopportune moment).
The nominal leads here are actually Terence Longdon as a recovering reporter and gorgeous Shirley Eaton as the idealized nurse, who provide the obligatory romantic interest; Jill Ireland (the future Mrs. Charles Bronson) has one of her earliest roles as the girl who finally ensnares Williams, while both Michael Medwin and Norman Rossington appear briefly – as, respectively, Connor’s manager (a self-proclaimed showman) and a punch-drunk remnant of the boxing profession. Other gags revolve around a snob patient who’s continually embarrassed by his commoner wife, another who’s occasionally compelled to run riot in the corridors, and an impossibly solemn-looking student nurse. Apart from throwing Longdon and Eaton in each other’s arms, the
denouement sees the release of several of the ‘star’ patients from the hospital – and culminates with the long-suffering nurses’ revenge on the fastidious Hyde-White, by fitting a daffodil in his rectum instead of a thermometer just as the Matron is making her rounds!
01/08/08:
CARRY ON COWBOY (Gerald Thomas, 1965)
This is not only one of the best sustained efforts from the “Carry On” crew but a classic film in its own right. I had mentioned it as a rare example of a British Western spoof when I recently watched THE FROZEN LIMITS (1939) with The Crazy Gang; incidentally, the film’s style is pretty close to that of BLAZING SADDLES (1974) – but it actually anticipates Mel Brooks by almost a decade!
There are so many inspired gags in this outing (right from the opening sequence with the black-clad Rumpo Kid arriving in town and immediately gunning down three men, only to then ask himself “I wonder what they wanted?”) that it’s hard to remember them all – even a mere couple of hours later. Notable, however, is the merciless lampoon of the Wyatt Earp legend by making its namesake here (played by soon-to-be Dr. Who Jon Pertwee) – and whom the Mayor even addresses as Twerp – completely useless, being both short-sighted and hard of hearing!
The “Carry On” stalwarts are in top form, foremost among them Sidney James (as the afore-mentioned Rumpo Kid, amiable outlaw leader – in urgent need of cash at the saloon, he excuses himself to casually hold-up the bank situated just opposite!), Kenneth Williams (as the Mayor of Stodge City – reportedly, he lifted his American accent from legendary comedy producer Hal Roach), Jim Dale (as Marshall P. Knutt, a sanitary engineer mistaken for the new sheriff because of his name!), Charles Hawtrey (as the unlikeliest Indian Chief ever – he’s actually introduced emerging from a tepee-cum-lavatory!) and Joan Sims (as the traditionally sultry saloon hostess); besides, Angela Douglas (who subsequently appeared in three more “Carry Ons” and would later become Mrs. Kenneth More!) – playing the real-life Annie Oakley – makes for an extremely charming gun-toting heroine.
The last third of the film turns into a spoof on the seminal HIGH NOON (1952) – with Dale left to face James and his gang alone in a delightful, and most original, climax. Incidentally, the sheriff’s heroic resistance of a stagecoach raid by Hawtrey’s Indian warriors (ending with James – who engineered it – disappointingly quipping, “I’ve met braver cowards than you braves!”) was actually the work of Douglas i.e. in the vein of THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962); Dale’s subsequent awkward coaching in the handling of firearms, then, is hilarious. Another influence from classic Westerns is in the catfight between Sims and Douglas – in this case drawing on DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939).
While CARRY ON COWBOY’s send-up of a popular genre easily makes it one of the gang’s best-known entries, I was surprised to learn that it’s not held in highest regard by even staunch fans of the series – such as the people behind the official “Carry On” website, citing its (deliberate) lack of authenticity as a major drawback; I couldn’t disagree more since, to my mind, the level of humor and ingenuity displayed throughout is soaring indeed for this erratic (and idiosyncratically crude) brand-name…
01/09/08:
CARRY ON TEACHER (Gerald Thomas, 1959)
This one seems to me to be an underrated “Carry On” film – which, again, the series website mini-review puts down by labeling it atypical (the school setting making CARRY ON TEACHER feel more like an unofficial entry in the contemporaneous “St. Trinian’s” franchise, which I’m only vaguely familiar with and has actually just been revived)!
While there are some flat spots on occasion, and a few of the gags are extended to their ultimate detriment, the film is generally hilarious (with a fair share of side-splitting moments); besides, the series’ notorious lewdness – mainly evident in the previous entry, CARRY ON NURSE (1959), during its closing moment – is inescapable here, given that Joan Sims’ physical education teacher has been suggestively named Allcock (which Leslie Philips’ character keeps harping on, having fallen for her at first-sight)!
Several of the actors from NURSE return here: these include unacknowledged series performers such as the afore-mentioned Philips (again, incarnating the playboy type but who also happens to be a child psychologist!), Rosalind Knight (her small role as the studious nurse has been amplified here to the similarly workaholic school auditor – though she’s made to share a hesitant romance with Kenneth Connor, playing the nuclear scientist this time around but relentlessly flubbing his lines in anxiety) and Cyril Chamberlain (the delusional patient of CARRY ON NURSE is now the school janitor).
Kenneth Williams, then, is the English Literature teacher (he’s been assigned to stage “Romeo & Juliet” for the annual prize-day – the students, however, are disappointed that the text has been significantly ‘cleaned-up’!); Charles Hawtrey is the music instructor (who is also to provide accompaniment for the play – the constant bickering between both teachers over whether predominance should be given to Shakespeare’s words or the dramatic emphasis allowed by the score is one of the film’s mainstays, with Williams questioning Hawtrey’s very talent by comparing the latter’s work to a dirge…and, sure enough, that’s what his eventual ‘incidental music’ sounds like on the day of the performance!); corpulent Hattie Jacques is once again the indomitable female type, playing the maths professor.
Ted Ray – whom I’d never heard of, but is supposedly a comedy institution in Britain – is the long-suffering acting headmaster. He’s against punishing students, though he’s almost driven to it after the children turn the school – the address, by the way, is on Maudlin Street! – upside down during the inspectors’ one-week stay…except that this transpires to be a deliberate scheme on their part to quash Ray’s chance at a position in another college, because they don’t want him to leave!! The latter element actually leads to an uncharacteristic, sentimental GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS-style ending.
Among the highlights are Connor’s hand-made rocket going through the roof during science class, Hawtrey falling through the floor of a room, Sims’ judo attack on the persistent Philips, the students’ various pranks on their instructors (such as having the tea spiked with alcohol, spreading itching powder in the teachers’ room, or faking a bomb plant), and the disastrous climactic performance of “Romeo & Juliet”.
P.S. Incidentally, a British comic who excelled in playing schoolmasters was Will Way – and in one of these, THE GOOSE STEPS OUT (1942), Charles Hawtrey himself was featured as a student!
01/10/08:
CARRY ON, CONSTABLE (Gerald Thomas, 1960)
I wasn’t as taken with this one as the three previous “Carry Ons” I watched: truth be told, law and order is one of the most popular themes with star comedians (Chaplin’s EASY STREET [1917], Keaton’s COPS [1922], Laurel & Hardy’s THE MIDNIGHT PATROL [1933], Will Hay’s ASK A POLICEMAN [1939], Norman Wisdom’s ON THE BEAT [1962], etc.), so it couldn’t very well fail to find an audience – but I also felt the level of gags this time around to be curiously uninventive!
The film marks the series debut of Sidney James as a police sergeant under duress (and constantly threatened with a transfer by Inspector Eric Barker) during a flu epidemic who’s assigned a quartet of rookies to help him – the trouble is that these are none other than Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Leslie Philips and Charles Hawtrey (the station, apparently, is so hard-up that the prison cells are to serve as their quarters)! The boys deliver their typical schtick: Connor is nervous as the constable whose last name happens to be Constable (and especially given his uncommonly superstitious nature), Williams is a snobbish know-it-all (he figures himself an expert in picking out criminal types – except that the one he approaches to steer on the path of righteousness turns out to be Scotland Yard man Victor Maddern!), Philips the lothario (he falls for a pretty blonde policewoman – but who conveniently comes down with the flu to make way for series stalwart Joan Sims – and then offers advise to guest star Shirley Eaton on matters of romance), while Hawtrey is the prissy but wisecracking member. Cyril Chamberlain is on hand once more, and CARRY ON NURSE (1959)’s Terence Longdon cameos as a confidence trickster plying his trade on rookie Williams.
Again, there’s some tentative romance among the regulars – with James hitting it off with female sergeant Hattie Jacques and, as ever, Connor aching to attract the attention of a serious-minded colleague (in this case, Sims). As for flaws, I guess it boils down to a basic lack of plot: the film practically resolves itself into a series of sketches, some of which even turn repetitious – such as the rookies walking Barker’s dog or bursting into houses only to be met by scantily-clad females (which is how Eaton herself is belatedly introduced), while their helping old ladies in various ways is either unappreciated or greeted with outright hostility. Predictably, too, the quartet finally makes amends by taking the initiative to capture a gang of crooks. Incidentally, the film features some surprising male nudity as the rookies – intending to take an early-morning shower – are scalded and run out in panic; in the same vein, there’s definite camp value to seeing Williams and Hawtrey in drag (having gone undercover to catch potential shoplifters)!
All in all, however, I must admit that I’m having a great time with these early “Carry Ons” – which I find generally more rewarding than the later bawdier, i.e. rather tasteless, entries.
P.S. For some reason, the on-screen title of this one includes a comma after the “Carry On” epithet.
01/11/08:
CARRY ON CABBY (Gerald Thomas, 1963)
This is another solid entry in the popular series which, again, recalls earlier classics of British comedy – such as the Ealing and Boulting Brothers films.
Kenneth Williams’ presence is missed here: apparently, he turned down the role of the shop steward (probably influenced by Peter Sellers’ similar, award-winning characterization in I’M ALL RIGHT, JACK [1959] and eventually played by Norman Chappell) because he felt the script was substandard – I disagree and, in fact, Talbot Rothwell became the series’ official writer from this point on! Joan Sims is also conspicuous by her absence (the “Carry On” stalwart’s typical role is played here by the slimmer Liz Fraser – incidentally, also a cast member of JACK).
Sid James, however, is clearly in control – with Hattie Jacques as his female counterpart; even Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey’s characters feel subsidiary here, the film being heavier on plot than the previous series outings I’ve just watched, though both get their big scene (more on this later). The narrative concerns Jacques’ elaborate way of dealing with husband James’ slacking attentions: he’s a cab-service owner and totally absorbed in his work so, unbeknownst to him, she contrives to open a rival business – but with the advantage of young and attractive women drivers! Connor is James’ sidekick (involved with Fraser, tending bar at the cab-driver’s café) who, at one point, appears in drag when he’s made to infiltrate the ‘enemy camp’ (as part of a plan by James to get at the competition); Hawtrey is an accident-prone novice driver (his ‘baptism of fire’ is unsurprisingly fraught with disaster); Jim Dale appears in his first “Carry On” as well, in a bit as an expectant father who takes cabbies James and Connor ‘on a ride’ and causes the former to miss his anniversary celebration!
While there’s some tit-for-tat routines between them (the women – knowledgeable of the fact that the men have intercepted their radio signals – deliberately give out fake addresses, while James & Co. show their force by tampering with the vehicles driven by the ladies…except that the latter still get the upper hand, because their passengers are all-too-willing to lend a helping hand!), the companies finally get together when one of Jacques’ cabs – with her, Fraser and the girls’ payroll inside – is abducted by a gang of crooks. All the various vehicles set out in co-ordinated pursuit and manage to corner the ‘stray’ cab in open-country; the final gag, then, sees Hawtrey driving James’ car into a tree – so that the boss has no alternative but to hail a cab for himself!