Born Reckless

Although clearly Brian Donlevy is the star in this B-movie from Twentieth Century-Fox, somehow Rochelle Hudson received top billing.

When the story begins, Bob Kane (Donlevy) wins 'the big race' and soon blows all his winnings on a really good time. Now broke, he arrives in a new town to see an old friend (Harry Carey) about a job working as a cabbie...a huge demotion from race car driver. However, working the job is tough, as a 'protective association' is trying to gain control of the taxi businesses through beatings, 'accidents' and threats. In other words, it's an organized crime racket. So how does Bob figure into this? See the film.

The film is breezy and enjoyable...and worth seeing. However, at the same time much of it doesn't make a lot of sense...particularly towards the end. In fact, the ending is just sloppy...especially with the confrontation scene. Just be forewarned...it's fun but silly.

Either cab driving was a violent business in the city, or someone from Warners slipped a script to someone at 20th Century Fox. "Born Reckless" from 1937 is a similar story to Warner Brothers' "Taxi."

Brian Donlevy plays Hurry Kane, a successful race car driver who isn't very good with money. After a huge win, he loses it all and ends up in a boxcar. He visits an old friend and takes a job driving a cab for his company.

It sounds like a good job for a race car driver, but taxi driving in those days seems to have been a job for a professional boxer. The cabbies are being brutally harassed by a local gangster (Barton MacLaine), who wants to take over the cab business in the city. As far as Hurry Kane is concerned, bring it on!

Rochelle Hudson plays the love interest, and she's lovely. Harry Carey Jr., also in the cast, turns in a good performance.

This movie kind of screams Warners, and the Cagney role screams for Jimmy Cagney. The acting is good, though, and even though Donlevy plays his role as a lighthearted, take life as it comes guy - this film is a lot tougher than "Taxi."

... 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.

This was an interesting film in which gangsters running a taxi service are trying to run those not paying them out of business. They don't seem to be above using some pretty heinous tactics...but the primary one seems to be running other cabs off the road and they have purchase an armored taxi to do so.

One of the good taxi companies left hires friend and famous race car driver Bob "Hurry" Cane to help save their company.

Bob gets to know the gangsters mol...who in a bit of a twist is also trying to tie one over on the gangster as he put her brother in prison.

Interesting conclusion, weird bumper car like chases...I had no idea that taxi cabs could be flipped over so easily, great costumes on the girls...and an inevitable romance.

I have to say, I think this film was worth the watch.

Born Reckless (1937)

** (out of 4)

Silly Fox film has gangsters running a taxi service and trying to bump off another taxi service in town. Then an auto racing champion (Brian Donlevy) joins forces with the good guys to wipe out the gangsters. This is a rather strange film throughout its 59-minute running time because at times the thing tries to be very serious but at other times its so over the top that it comes off very campy. There are several "bumper cars" type action with taxis running into one another and this is fun but it takes away from later scenes, which, again, are trying to be serious. Donlevy is good in a role where you can tell the studio would have preferred James Cagney. The supporting cast includes Rochelle Hudson, Robert Kent, Harry Carey, George Walcott and Pauline Moore.