Calling All Cars (1954 film)

Calling All Cars is a 1954 short film directed by Maclean Rogers, starring Cardew Robinson and John Fitzgerald. The film also features Spike Milligan voicing the thoughts of "Freddie", an old taxicab featured in the film.

Something of a curiosity, the film is a mixture of semi-documentary about the port of Dover and a comedy about two young men who decide to chat up two girls and follow them to Dover in an old taxicab.

Cast

 * Spike Milligan as Freddie, the taxi (voice)
 * Cardew Robinson as Reggie Ramsbottom
 * John Fitzgerald as Tom Lester
 * Adrienne Scott as Beryl Grant
 * Pauline Olsen as Marjorie Grant
 * Margot Bryant as Mrs. Flit
 * Gloria Brett as Mavis Grant

Production
The two principal actresses stop for tea, en route to Dover, at the former "Fantail" restaurant building in Locksbottom, Kent.

Critical reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This second feature wavers curiously between farce and sequences which look as though they were devised to publicise the Dover Harbour car terminal. A fairly lengthy section, accompanied by some painfully facetious cross-talk between Reggie and his friend, deals factually with the construction of the terminal; for the rest, the film provides some remarkably unamusing adventures on the Dover Road."

Chibnall and McFarlane in The British 'B' Film called the film: "a poor man's Genevieve (1953) filmed at the Dover Harbour car terminal."