Taxi!

TAXI (Warner Brothers, 1932), directed by Roy Del Ruth, is not so much a tribute on the day in the life of taxi drivers and the involvement with their passengers, but solely on an individual cabbie out to avenge his brother's killer. While the story does start out with a taxi war, Gramercy vs. Consolidated Cabs, it shifts gears during its second half where the theme switches from "fare game" to "revenge is sweet." The cabbie in question is James Cagney, resident tough guy of Warners, still in the driver's seat after his triumph in THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931). He's not a gangster this time around but a guy on the side of the law, his law in fact, coping with hostility from others which cause his temper to constantly reach its boiling point. Loretta Young, very early in her career, plays the girl he marries who tries every which way to break him out of his quick-temper habit.

TAXI immediately gets underway as Buck Gerard (David Landau) an organizer who leads his men to create "accidents" for other taxi drivers in order to do away with his competition. He orders "Pop" Reilly (Guy Kibbee) to leave his corner, but when he refuses, has his hired truck driver (Nat Pendleton) smash into his taxi. Reilly shoots the driver, but because he took the law into his own hands, the old man is sentenced to serve ten years in the state penitentiary in Ossining. After Reilly dies, Sue (Loretta Young), his daughter, goes against Matt Nolan (James Cagney), a taxi driver forming a staff meeting in getting the other drivers to unite by fighting back. In spite of their differences, Matt and Sue eventually marry. While in a night club celebrating their union, the Nolans encounter the drunken Buck Gerard with his girlfriend, Marie Costa (Dorothy Burgess). After Buck speaks out of turn, sort to speak, by insulting Sue, a fight ensues causing Gerard to take out his knife aimed at Matt, but accidentally stabbing his brother, Danny (Ray Cooke), in his attempt to save Matt. While Sue feels it best for the police to handle the situation, Matt wants nothing more than to avenge Danny's killer. Their marriage nearly comes at wits end when Matt learns Skeets (George E. Stone), one of his taxi driver pals, that Gerard's girl was seen visiting Sue in his apartment, asking her for $100, leading Matt to believe Sue has betrayed him, unaware of her true reason in doing this.

A forgotten 67 minute programmer with fast-pace action is notable mostly for a couple of memorable scenes: Cagney speaking Yiddish to a policeman, and a dance contest at the Rainbow Gardens involving Cagney and Young with another dancing couple, the male partner being the up and coming George Raft. With this being a Cagney picture, it is Leila Bennett as Young's best girlfriend who not only stands out with her comedy relief and witty dialog, but gets the final fadeout. Look fast for Donald Cook (Cagney's brother in THE PUBLIC ENEMY) and Evalyn Knapp in the movie theater sequence playing leading players of "Her Hour of Love."

As with many movies of the early 1930s, TAXI has gone through the remaking process by the end of the decade under the new title and locale as WATERFRONT (WB, 1939) with Gloria Dickson and Dennis Morgan, both films that have never been distributed on video or DVD. For a quick joy ride, be sure to watch TAXI next the time this and WATERFRONT shows again on Turner Classic Movies. (***)

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.

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.

Other reviewers have covered main topics like plot, cast, etc. I'd just like to comment on some incidentals I enjoyed.

Cagney always uses such colorful language, as he does in this movie. When a fat man stands on Cagney's foot in an elevator (and I mean STANDS on it for several seconds) Cagney gets mad. Loretta Young tries to calm him down, and Cagney bursts out, "Over nothing?!? What do you expect me to do -- let a big hippo like that plant his clod-hoppers all over me?"

Incidentally, the elevator scene showed a good lesson for all would-be hat-wearers today. Young has to remind Cagney to take his hat off in the elevator -- a necessity of etiquette then, as was taking your hat off indoors, when you got where you were going. People who wear hats today, should wear hats like people who know HOW to wear hats.

Leila Bennett -- some people don't appreciate her flavor of humor, but I get a big kick out of her. She drones on and on in that adenoidal, nasal monotone, completely oblivious to whether anyone's listening or not. In fact, Cagney asks her at one point to button her lip, and Bennett just drawls, "Oh, I ain't said much," and goes on with her story. She's just droll and comical because of her personality. (In the restaurant, she says, "Well, the fish died an unnatural death. It isn't fit to eat -- even in a restaurant.")

And say -- isn't Buck Gerard a nasty, low-life villain! He's abominable! On Cagney's wedding night, he says, "I bet you HAD to marry the bim" (i.e., bimbo).

Little touches enliven this movie throughout -- like Cagney throwing his hat into Young's apartment when she's mad at him, to see if she'll leave it in or throw it back out. Charming incidentals add to the richness of the mosaic. (How poetical!)

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.