Monsieur Taxi
1952 Comedy / Drama
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Credits
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Summary
Pierre Verger is an amiable Parisian taxi driver whose only worry is
his two grown-up children, who are on the verge of leaving the family
nest. His daughter Jacqueline is engaged to François, a
timid artist who earns his living selling flowers. His son
Georges, a journalist, is in love with Lily, an attractive dancer, but
is too ashamed to reveal the fact to his overly respectable
parents. One day, Pierre discovers a lady’s handbag in his taxi,
and faces a dilemma when he sees what it contains - a small fortune in
banknotes. Should he keep the money for himself or should he try to
find the person it belongs to...?
Review
Michel Simon is perfectly cast as a self-effacing taxi driver in this
engaging little comedy-drama, which provides a convincing portrait of
working class family life in France a few years after WWII.
Although a little dated, the films offers a few memorable sequences,
such as the one where Michel Simon is debating with his (remarkably
well-trained) dog what to do with the money he has found in his taxi -
Simon and dog make a terrific double act, making most of the rest of
the cast superfluous. The film was directed by André
Hunebelle, one of the most successful mainstream French filmmakers of the 1950s
and ’60s, best remembered for his Fantômas trilogy of
films, which starred Louis de Funès and Jean Marais. Louis
de Funès makes a very small appearance in Monsieur Taxi, as an irascible street artist,
one of his many, many small roles before he became a major star in the
mid-1960s.
© James Travers 2008 Write a review for this film... |
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