Taxi!

James Cagney plays a cab driver whose quick temper causes problems in his relationship with Loretta Young, who hates violence. When his kid brother is killed, Cagney is out for vengeance. But getting it may cost him the woman he loves.

Jimmy's great. He makes a sometimes unlikable character relatable. Loretta is very pretty and endearing. George E. Stone, Guy Kibbee, Leila Bennett, and David Landau are part of the nice cast. George Raft has a bit part where he gets socked out by Cagney. Opening scene where Cagney speaks Yiddish is a classic. This is the movie where Cagney yells at his brother's killer "Come out and take it, you dirty yellow-bellied rat, or I'll give it to you through the door!" This would later be misquoted as "You dirty rat, you killed my brother!" and would become a staple of Cagney impressions.

Matt Nolan (James Cagney) is a cab driver, but a group of new cabbies are trying to muscle into the area. They use intimidation and force when they feel it is necessary which tends to be sooner rather than later. Take Pop Riley (Guy Kibbee) for example. He'd been running the same route for years until the new gang came to town and decided they didn't want the competition. They totaled his car and got him sent to prison when he retaliated. His little girl Sue (Loretta Young) doesn't want to see anyone else suffer the same fate, so when she falls in love with Matt, she does her best to keep his temper under control. It isn't easy, especially when the opposing group starts harassing him.

Roy Del Ruth keeps the story exciting with the typical Warner Brother's format. Taxi! features a great cast, quick dialogue, fast action, and a short run time. Cagney is the true star of the movie; he can lay it on thick with the romantic scenes, pop out the cocky one-liners like no other, and even dance around like a pro. (We are treated to a preview of his talents; they would not be utilized in film until a few years later.) Young is absolutely beautiful, as she is in all of her pre-code movies, and her acting abilities hold up against Cagney's. Also notable are the sidekicks of the two leads: Leila Bennett and George E. Stone who play great backup.

This movie is definitely worth catching late night on TCM.

Good gangster movie set in the world of taxis. The movie is really a character study of one and a half men and one and a half women. Two rival taxi companies are in a war to gain turf and territory. When the turf wars end, people die and revenge or forgiveness is the scorecard. The women represented by Loretta Young are willing to forgive and move on but the men represented by Jimmy Cagney won't and are on course to set their lives back. The love story is unequivocally well-written and the final scene escapes certain cliches that have come before within the movie to pack a powerful punch. It was a big hit for WB in 1932, and is definitely worth a see.

Nothing could be more typical of early 30s Warner Brothers than this. Daryl Zanuck was pumping out about fifty motion pictures a year - not for the learned, not for the artists, not for the sophisticated dinner party sets but for the ordinary people whom The Depression had chewed up and unceremoniously spat out. These films were about people and for people whom society, authority and big business had treated like dirt. Zanuck's Warner Brothers was the people's studio and James Cagney was the people's actor. TAXI is not as powerful as the more 'campaigning' WB films of that era but it still has Zanuck's familiar: "we're on you side, boys" feel about it which when watched today still feels warm and caring.

What's fascinating watching this today is realising what a different race of people we are compared with those who lived here ninety years ago. It's amazing how different our attitudes were: how violence was so much more widespread and normalised. One could not imagine a scriptwriter today having a gentle old man (Guy Kibbee ) gunning down someone simply because he destroys his taxi - let alone the general casual use of guns, knives and fists used in response to things which today might just elicit 'a hard stare' (in the case of Paddington anyway!) Equally fascinating is how our attitudes, the way we treat each other - especially the relationship between men and women has changed. This is one of Cagney's least likeable characters, he's a violent, uncouth yob who treats Loretta Young absolutely horribly and yet he's the hero of the film. Loretta Young's feisty, self-assured character, Sue, is very much a modern woman and yet she simply accepts that that's just the way he is, this is how things are and so loves him just the same - different times!

As stupid as it is, I find myself comparing this with Scorsese's masterpiece TAXI DRIVER. Of course that's an idiotic thing to do but there are some similarities (besides the obvious). They're both broken people struggling to survive and struggling to have a relationship. However whereas Robert De Niro is a lonely repressed psychopath about to explode, James Cagney's psychopath's pressure is constantly leaking out through his uncontrollable temper. This temper is uncontrollable and although all the misfortunes which befall him are all because of it, he shows no remorse, no acknowledgment that all this is his fault, no realisation that he needs to change his ways.

However many times I see Loretta Young in these early 30s movies I am always shocked, amazing and astounded at how unbelievably pretty she is. Not in a sexual or saucy way, she's almost like a painting come to life. That aside, she seriously is an exceptional actress and portrays a very authentic believable young woman we can instantly empathise with and she is only 18! Can she change Cagney's character, if anyone can reform him, surely someone as optimistic, positive and sensible as she can? No, it's a hopeless task. The violence, the uncontrollable temper is as much a part of him as his own blood and bone. Like De Niro, where Cagney has come from, that cruel and brutal world has made him who he is. Growing up in the squalid slums of New York at the beginning of the century was especially tough for the Irish kids.

Overall this is entertaining and reasonably exciting upbeat movie. It is snappily directed and as it's a cost conscious WB production where every millimetre of film has to be used efficiently, there no time wasted on padding so it zips along. It's well acted by everyone, even the bit players - Leila Bennett as the annoying friend who never shuts up is particularly good and offers a good contrast with Loretta Young's quiet and considered persona. Worth an hour of your time.

TAXI takes the James Cagney persona to extremes in the context of showing him as a tough guy with a fist in love with a girl (Loretta Young) who abhors violence. The love you/hate you relationship between Cagney and Young is what keeps the movie interesting as the story develops, but the stupid things that Young's character does to keep her man from killing the thug who killed her brother-in-law is too incredible to swallow.

Thankfully, we have some funny and romantic moments that Cagney and Loretta Young manage to do beautifully. She looks lovely throughout and it's her sweet natured temperament that makes it hard to understand why she would be attracted to a man like Cagney in the first place. He's promising to stop his hot tempered violence in an attempt to convince her to marry him, but never manages to cool it.

Despite all the loopholes in the script and many flaws, this is a tidy little melodrama, very dated in its subject matter, with Cagney stealing the spotlight all the way through. Most annoying feature of the film is the so-called comic relief of Leila Bennett whose nasal voice and flat one-liners are supposed to invoke laughter. It doesn't work.

Worth a view to see early Cagney, but the motivations for Young's character are unbelievable.