Brilliant and touching

A Disappointing Continuation

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The Yellow Cab Man is another of Red Skelton's madcap big screen comedies where Red plays an eccentric inventor who is also accident prone. So accident prone is he that he can't get insurance no way, no how. So what does he become in lieu of a modest settlement and for signing a quitclaim given him by agent Gloria DeHaven, a cabdriver for the Yellow Cab company.Because of his tendency for the unfortunate, Red's invented himself a version of plexiglass, a shatter proof glass he calls elastic glass. Can't break it short of a bullet being fired into it. But he hasn't copyrighted the formula. And some unscrupulous people led by bottom feeding shyster lawyer Edward Arnold and medicine show charlatan Walter Slezak will do anything to steal the formula. Red's a true babe in the woods in this film, but it's amazing how schnooks like him get some really good looking women to fall for him like Gloria DeHaven. Arnold and Slezak look like they're having a great old time. Usually both of them when they play villains exude a quiet menace, but here they are both outrageously overacting and the audience joins in on the fun.The Yellow Cab Man is a treat for Red Skelton's legion of fans.

Red Skelton plays a guy, oddly enough, named Red. Red is an accident- prone man and because he's often involved in accidents, he's worked on inventing some things to save lives. Most of them are pretty lame, but his unbreakable glass will easily earn him a fortune. Unfortunately a corrupt lawyer (am I being repetitive?) has decided to steal it--but the formula is locked in Red's mind. So, he comes up with a complicated plan to have him meet a phony psychiatrist who will try to pump Red for information. Along the way, Red falls for a pretty lady (Gloria DeHaven)--but soon the psychiatrist convinces Red that he has a death wish--and is a danger to people he loves. It may not sound all that funny, but the film abounds with wonderful pratfalls, stunts and cute scenes. The bottom line is that Skelton once again plays an extremely likable guy--and that makes all the silliness work. It reminds me of a Ritz Brothers film I just saw--you never liked them, so their antics were tiresome. But, with Skelton, you cannot help but root for him and are willing to put up with some extreme silliness. Well worth seeing and good for a few laughs.

Some belly laughs in this Skelton madcap. As usual Red plays a good-hearted schlemiel who stumbles from one mishap to the next, but somehow muddles through to win the girl (Gloria DeHaven) and the climax. Here he's an amateur inventor and Yellow Cab man battling veteran baddies Walter Slezak and Edward Arnold.A great job by the writers. The comedy set-ups are consistently funny and inventive from the mine-field opening of Red walking down the street to the whirlwind close at the L A Home Show . (Forget the muddled story-line which is just a handy post to hang the hi-jinks on.) This was just the kind of slapstick that Skelton could turn into a wild and crazy romp, and he does. .Catch the great comedic architecture in the early sequence that builds hilariously from the baby-sitting beginning to the nine-one-one close. Too bad this kind of engineering has largely disappeared from today's movie screen. Then too, the crib scene with Red playing both his toddler self and infant sister amounts to 60 second knee-slapper.In fact, there are a number of special effects scenes that work up more than a few chuckles. But the North Pole dream has something of a nightmarish undercurrent as does Red's getting shoved into the mixer.I guess my only complaints are the cheapness of the street sets and the dull-grayish quality of the filming (at least, in my copy). Coming from big-budget MGM, such cost-cutters affecting overall quality seem surprising.Nonetheless, this is a fine little post-war flick whose futuristic house at the Home Show expresses something of the surging spirit of a 1950's America then on the economic upswing.

The movies from my youth. This movie which I wish was on DVD! is a great ole movie for a rainy day. Red'd never been better getting away from the bad guys. And of course winning the girl and keeping Unbreakable Soft Glass he invented for his Cab!