This of course is not the classic sitcom Taxi (Tankyouveddymuch) or the Jimmy Fallon turkey-burger of 2004 but an early Warner Bros crime-romance-action-drama, the kind of sprawling but contained movie that packs a ton into a short period. James Cagney is a cabdriver on the streets of New York during the taxi wars, a real-life battle for business that led to almost as much violence and strong-arming as shown in the picture.
First I have to take a moment to praise Cagney... he was a screen star in every sense of the word, and held a physicality that has never been matched since... whether fighting, dancing, or romancing, (all three of which he does in the movie) he's got a presence like no other. It becomes almost comically enjoyable in this movie to see him lose his temper and beat the living daylights out of anyone who looks at him funny. Not even Loretta Young- as his love interest and later wife- is spared the big fist.
This movie was made in the years before Hollywood had such strict rules about language and implications, and not only is violence a way of life but sex is openly and repeatedly referenced. It's not perfect... Loretta Young's character of Sue crosses the line about two-thirds into the movie and goes too far in preventing her husband from becoming a murderer. (She's willing to rat him out and have him locked up for attempted murder while protecting the man who killed his brother AND her father?) My only other question about the film was why Cagney's character Nolan never told Sue that Buck Gerard was the man who set up her father and had his cab destroyed... it would seem an obvious revelation in explaining his motivations and might have made her back off just a bit in her efforts to stop him.
Otherwise the movie is great... Young's monotone friend- whiny and horse-faced- is hilarious, and I'm amazed at the real New York vibe they got in a movie obviously made in Hollywood. Cagney and Young share a great chemistry, and the movie is definitely worth a look as an early-era Hollywood lost classic.
First I have to take a moment to praise Cagney... he was a screen star in every sense of the word, and held a physicality that has never been matched since... whether fighting, dancing, or romancing, (all three of which he does in the movie) he's got a presence like no other. It becomes almost comically enjoyable in this movie to see him lose his temper and beat the living daylights out of anyone who looks at him funny. Not even Loretta Young- as his love interest and later wife- is spared the big fist.
This movie was made in the years before Hollywood had such strict rules about language and implications, and not only is violence a way of life but sex is openly and repeatedly referenced. It's not perfect... Loretta Young's character of Sue crosses the line about two-thirds into the movie and goes too far in preventing her husband from becoming a murderer. (She's willing to rat him out and have him locked up for attempted murder while protecting the man who killed his brother AND her father?) My only other question about the film was why Cagney's character Nolan never told Sue that Buck Gerard was the man who set up her father and had his cab destroyed... it would seem an obvious revelation in explaining his motivations and might have made her back off just a bit in her efforts to stop him.
Otherwise the movie is great... Young's monotone friend- whiny and horse-faced- is hilarious, and I'm amazed at the real New York vibe they got in a movie obviously made in Hollywood. Cagney and Young share a great chemistry, and the movie is definitely worth a look as an early-era Hollywood lost classic.