Taxi for Two

Taxi for Two (1932)

** (out of 4)

Flat entry in Hal Roach's "Taxi Boys" series finds Ben Blue playing a cab driver who is taken along by a man planning to elope with his girlfriend but first they must try and get past her father. The second portion deals with Blue and another cab driver (Billy Gilbert) starting a panic in the street when they innocently try to push a taxi off the road and don't realize they're wrecking into countless other cars. There are a couple funny bits here but for the most part this short falls flat on its face in terms of laughs. The highlight has to happen early on when the boyfriend is throwing small rocks at a window trying to wake the girlfriend up when Ben throws a large rock, which not only breaks a window but bashes the father upside his head. The second portion deals with a neat stunt of countless cars being pushed as one but not once did I find it funny nor did the ending inside the court make me laugh. I had heard quite a bit about the "comic style" of Ben Blue but this was my first chance to actually see him. He wasn't nearly as annoying as I had heard but I can see why many would probably hate him as annoying is certainly the type of comedy he's going after. Gilbert is pretty good in his role and manages to get a couple laughs with his stuttering problem.

Note: In 1928, Del Lord ALSO directed another short by the same name. Whether or not this 1932 film is a remake is uncertain--but highly likely.

This is one of the Taxi Boys shorts--a series I had never heard about until tonight--and I am surprised as I am a huge early comedy buff. It seems that the actors playing these parts varied quite a bit but all the films short comedies involving cab drivers. In the previous Taxi Boys film, the stars were Clyde Cook and Franklin Pangborn--here they are Ben Blue and Billy Gilbert (who played the heavy in the other film I saw from the series). While the results weren't bad at all, Blue's odd delivery and effete manners were a bit off-putting. But, there were some nice sight gags (and a very weird courtroom gag at the end) and a decent number of laughs over all. Considering that few Taxi Boys comedies were made, however, they needed these films to be a lot better than "not bad".

By the way, the car pushing bit is from the silent days, as I saw a variation on it from the silent comedy compilation "When Comedy Was King". However, liberal 'borrowing' of ideas from previous films was not uncommon in the good old days!

This Hal Roach "Taxi Boys" short subject is quite funny and charming, and a cut above the two other entries in the series that I've had a chance to see. It has areas where it lacks cohesion (the entire beginning segment, for instance, to do with the elopement, seems to add nothing to the short and could have been removed) and some attempts at humor that simply don't work (Ben Blue's valiant efforts to make his "Well, I'm a..." lines into a catchphrase), but overall it's a very pleasant film.

Largely this is because instead of trying to build the film on the never-quite-right comic chemistry of the comedy team Roach studios was trying to create out of Billy Gilbert and Ben Blue, the filmmakers allow it to process logically but absurdly -- like the better Charley Chase or Laurel and Hardy films -- off a single good gag idea (Billy and Ben pushing the chain of cars). A lot of legitimately good gags follow from this, including an excellent one involving a cameo by Roach Studios' inveterate drunk Charlie Hall, and one that gives Billy Gilbert the opportunity for his well-known sneezing routine. Worth a look if you get the opportunity.

BEN BLUE is the chief laugh-getter in this zany Hal Roach short about a man who wants to elope with this sweetheart without arousing her father from slumber. He and Ben Blue manage to waken the girl and set out to keep a good distance between themselves, the law and the girl's irate father.

Scenes involving a chain of cars being pushed by Billy Gilbert and Ben Blue are full of comic delights, but overall this one lacks the punch of similar "taxi" movies featuring the twosome.

Good for a few chuckles with the usual dash of slapstick humor present in all of these Hal Roach comedies.