Taxi! Taxi! (1927) User Reviews

Sadly, this one is lost

[moviessilently · 27 July 2014]

This film is considered missing and presumed lost, which means that no copy is known to exist in either archives or private collections.

Edward Everett Horton is famous for his voice. He is beloved by several generations of children for his wry narration in the classic "Fractured Fairy Tales" series. Not a lot of people realize that Horton started out in the silents.

This Universal Jewel release (in other words, high budget and high prestige) features Horton as well as silent stalwarts Lucien Littlefield and Burr McIntosh. Our befuddled Horton is trying to win the girl of his dreams, chaos ensues... Hey, we want to see this for the cast.

This is a lost film. Any review claiming to be based on first-hand viewing must be treated with suspicion unless the reviewer supplies the time, place and circumstances of the viewing.

Horton has a touching romantic scene, chased but chaste.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 5/10 · 24 June 2010]

"Taxi! Taxi!" (why the double title?) is a weak comedy: its only real merits are a performance by Edward Everett Horton in a rare (for him) romantic-comedy lead role, and good supporting performances by Burr McIntosh and the under-rated Lucien Littlefield.

Horton's character here is Peter, an architect ... which sounds impressive, except that he's merely one lowly draughtsman in Burr McIntosh's architectural firm. Also on the premises is McIntosh's niece Rose, played by Marian Nixon; an actress who was pretty and talented but not a huge amount of either.

There's a touching scene in which Peter sketches out for Rose the blueprints for their dream home. Horton is quite impressive here as the guy who gets the gal. For some reason, after 'The Terror' (in which he played a dithering nitwit who turned out to be a resourceful hero), Horton got side-tracked into fusspot and 'nelly' roles.

Rose's uncle is entertaining his big client Parmalee, and he wants Rose to come along ... implying that he wants Rose to date this man. She pulls a sickie, claiming to be ill. Then she goes out for the evening with Peter, who takes her to a nightclub cried Sweeny's.

SPOILERS COMING. At Sweeny's, of course, Peter and Rose run into her uncle and Parmalee. The two lovers try to flee ... but it's raining, so they can't hail a cab. In desperation, Peter actually *buys* a cab from a lout named Jersey who purports to be its owner. I had difficulty believing that Horton's benighted protagonist had enough money to buy a taxi, but this movie isn't very plausible anyway.

The cab is in fact the getaway vehicle from a jewel heist, and Jersey's criminal partner (Littlefield) left a valuable necklace in the cab. So, now the crooks high-tail it after the cab containing Peter, Rose and the hot rocks.

'Taxi! Taxi!' is much too slow — poorly paced and badly edited — in its early scenes, and takes too long to set up the eventual chase. Once the chase is finally afoot (or awheel), it simply isn't either funny enough or thrilling enough. Harold Lloyd could have made something brilliant with this script and a different director, except that the results would've been too similar to his film 'Speedy'.

As it is, 'Taxi! Taxi!' never shifts out of first gear, and this taxi is so slow and stodgy that it needs a Taxi!-dermist. I'll rate this would-be romantic-thrill comedy just 5 out of 10, mostly for the pleasure of seeing Edward Everett Horton play a role outside of his later typecasting.