THE YELLOW CAB MAN

US, 1950, 84 minutes, Black and white.
Red Skelton, Gloria de Haven, Walter Slezak, Edward Arnold, James Gleason, Paul Harvey, Jay C. Flippen.
Directed by Jack Donohue.

The Yellow Cab Man is a pleasing Red Skelton comedy from the late 1940s. He made a number of short comedy features at M.G.M. in the '40s and '50s before moving on to a successful career in television.

Red Skelton's comedy style was clowning. Here he has many opportunities as an accident-prone taxi-driver with all the best will in the world. Gloria de Haven is an attractive heroine and there are some good villains in the form of Walter Slezak and Edward Arnold. The film highlights Red Skelton's comedy routines and comic American style.

1. A funny and entertaining comedy? Echoing the '40s and '50s? Entertaining now?

2. Black and white photography, special effects? The M.G.M. production values? The star cast and the credits?

3. The comic style of Red Skelton: visual, action, verbal? The routines: the fat lady, the banana, the clock, the security apartment, his inventions, pratfalls, taxi passengers, the glass demonstration, the boy in the cab, the accident, the sprinkler system? The quality of the humour and the routines?

4. The clown hero, his sincerity, hopes? His complicated situations? Criminals? Romance? Winning out in the end?

5. Walter Slezak and his sinister presence, humorous touches? Billiards?

6. Edward Arnold as the villainous heavy?

7. The assorted range of villains?

8. Ellen as attractive heroine? Her work? Exasperation? Falling in love?

9. The climaxes and the humour? The blend of the crime film with comedy?

10. Red Skelton's presence as clown - ordinary American, niceness, sentiment, good intentions, inventions, victim of his own ingenuity, the innocent abroad against the criminals, the exasperation of bystanders (with the boy in the taxi), romance, misunderstanding? The quality of his clowning?