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Born Reckless (1937)

** (out of 4)

Silly Fox film has gangsters running a taxi service and trying to bump off another taxi service in town. Then an auto racing champion (Brian Donlevy) joins forces with the good guys to wipe out the gangsters. This is a rather strange film throughout its 59-minute running time because at times the thing tries to be very serious but at other times its so over the top that it comes off very campy. There are several "bumper cars" type action with taxis running into one another and this is fun but it takes away from later scenes, which, again, are trying to be serious. Donlevy is good in a role where you can tell the studio would have preferred James Cagney. The supporting cast includes Rochelle Hudson, Robert Kent, Harry Carey, George Walcott and Pauline Moore.

I agree with the last reviewer, this has that two fisted feel of a Warner Brothers B film, and a bit more.

In the driver seat is big guy Brian Donlevy, famous for tough guys, and he's rough and ready. A whole lotta' fun, produced by 20th Century Fox, cranking out the Charlie Chan films at the time.

Donlevy plays "Hurry" Kane, a race car driver whose at the top of his game one day, and then at rock bottom. He visits old pal Harry Carey, known as Dad, who runs a cab company and gets a quick job as a cabbie. Not so fast! It seems Dad is being pushed around by big shot slickster Barton MacLane (as Jim), who wants all the cab companies under his thumb --or else.

Reminiscent of TAXI (1932), an early James Cagney film all about a tax war, and is there ever. Lots of high speed adventure, and some romance with lovely Rochelle Hudson, playing Sybil. See if you can spot all the famous faces, such as Joseph Crehan as the district attorney, and Lon Chaney, Jr., in a bit role as a garage mechanic. Popular silent and early sound film star Jack Mulhall also has a bit.

Directed with style by Malcolm St. Clair, who did lots of comedy in his day. In fact, he was one of the original Keystone Cops. St. Clair was also toted as being the tallest (6 foot 7) director in the biz, and held a record, of sorts, for being fired a lot, in the early days of his long career, and then immediately re-hired, because nobody could handle a cast and crew as good as he could.

See this for Brian Donlevy at his best, veteran of such classics as BEAU GESTE and the GLASS KEY.

10 Stars. Finally released on dvd, also as a double bill remastered dvd box set.

Thank you so much to MOVIES Net for running this gem.

... a fast-paced one hour B from 20th Century Fox, although with its quick pace and tough protagonist, this could easily have been a Warner Brothers film of the same era with Cagney or Bogart playing Donlevy's part. Interesting parallel to Warner Brothers here - Warner Brothers would recycle the same plot ad nauseum under various monikers, but Fox often would give a film the same name as a past successful one and give it a plot that had nothing to do with the first. "Born Reckless", for example, was a John Ford film from 1930 about a gangster ordered to join the army by a judge.

Here Donlevy plays Bob 'Hurry' Kane, an auto racer that, in the first 5 minutes of the film, wins a race with a sizable purse, loses it all on wine women and song, then penniless hitches a ride in a freight car with some other hobos to see an old friend. Now that first five minutes is just to show that Kane is a wild and unpredictable guy of questionable character, and the fact that you're really not sure about his motives or his loyalty all through this short film is part of what holds your interest. That old friend's cab business is under attack by the mob for holding out against joining their protection racket - the mob is constantly crashing into the taxis of the non-member cab companies and claiming they were accidents. The mob is run by that baddie of 30's B's, Barton McLane as Jim Barnes. Kane, being a great driver, offers to give the bad guys a taste of their own medicine, and you've got to wonder how Barnes ever got as far as he did in the mob with some of the bone-headed moves he makes.

This one is lots of fun and I recommend it if only to see Donlevy playing it reckless and with a smile for a change, very much like Cagney's roles when he was on the right side of the law in the 30's. It's just a shame that Harry Carey as the owner of the family cab company Kane is trying to help didn't get more lines.

Although clearly Brian Donlevy is the star in this B-movie from Twentieth Century-Fox, somehow Rochelle Hudson received top billing.

When the story begins, Bob Kane (Donlevy) wins 'the big race' and soon blows all his winnings on a really good time. Now broke, he arrives in a new town to see an old friend (Harry Carey) about a job working as a cabbie...a huge demotion from race car driver. However, working the job is tough, as a 'protective association' is trying to gain control of the taxi businesses through beatings, 'accidents' and threats. In other words, it's an organized crime racket. So how does Bob figure into this? See the film.

The film is breezy and enjoyable...and worth seeing. However, at the same time much of it doesn't make a lot of sense...particularly towards the end. In fact, the ending is just sloppy...especially with the confrontation scene. Just be forewarned...it's fun but silly.

1937's "Born Reckless" speeds along at a breathless 59 minutes, not cut down from 78 as one author asserts, this was the original running time, meaning a rush job in the editing department resulting in the absence of Lon Chaney's unbilled role as a garage mechanic. Second billed Brian Donlevy was in familiar territory, having played a G-man in disguise earlier that year in the equally fine "Midnight Taxi" - here, he's champion race car driver Bob 'Hurry' Cane, who blows all his winnings and takes a job with the Martin cab company, as Dad Martin (Harry Carey) is an old friend. This brings all sorts of risks since the Excelsior company run by Jim Barnes (Barton MacLane) is not on the level, taking out every rival who doesn't pay into his lethal protection racket, at $5 per cab. Top billing goes to Rochelle Hudson as Sybil Roberts, Barnes' chief moll with expensive tastes and questionable motives, seemingly taking a liking to the new driver in town, trying to steer him in Excelsior's direction. So assured is Donlevy that the actor didn't let two injured fingers on his left hand impair his performance, a painful film to make but the results are first rate (shooting title "Armored Taxi"). Natural funny men Eddie Dunn and Syd Saylor are uncharacteristically among the bad guys, while Lon Chaney would also find himself on the cutting room floor in Fox features like "Love is News," "That I May Live," and "Walking Down Broadway," a rather forgettable period preceding his sudden stardom in 1939's "Of Mice and Men."