A champion auto racer takes a job with a taxicab company being harassed by a gangster who wants to take over all the cab companies in town.A champion auto racer takes a job with a taxicab company being harassed by a gangster who wants to take over all the cab companies in town.A champion auto racer takes a job with a taxicab company being harassed by a gangster who wants to take over all the cab companies in town.
George Walcott
- Danny Horton
- (as George Wolcott)
Stanley Andrews
- Police Commissioner
- (uncredited)
Lon Chaney Jr.
- Garage Mechanic
- (uncredited)
Chick Collins
- Taxi Driver
- (uncredited)
Joyce Compton
- Dora - at the Race Track
- (uncredited)
Jimmie Dundee
- Martin's Mechanic
- (uncredited)
Eddie Dunn
- Garage Foreman
- (uncredited)
Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian
- Taxi Driver
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDue to an accident during filming in which he injured two fingers of his left hand, Brian Donlevy spends almost the entire film with the hand in in his pocket, heavily gloved, or otherwise out of sight. His bandaged hand is finally revealed late in the final sequence.
- GoofsWhen "Hurry" Kane drops Sybil off at the county jail, there is only minimal damage to the taxi. In the next scene, the taxi pulls into the garage with substantial damage.
Featured review
Brian Donlevy is a cocky cabby in ...
... 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.
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.
helpful•71
- AlsExGal
- Feb 16, 2013
Details
- Runtime59 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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