The Yellow Cab Man


The Yellow Cab Man is a 1950 American comedy film directed by Jack Donohue and starring Red Skelton, Gloria DeHaven and Edward Arnold. A brief sequence of distorted visual effects in the film is the work of the photographer Weegee, who also makes a cameo appearance as a cab driver.

Plot

The inventor of a form of unbreakable glass tries to sell it to a taxicab company, hoping that they will produce unbreakable windshields.

Cast

In a contemporary review for The [New York Times], critic Bosley Crowtherwrote: "The popular success of Red Skelton as a nominal Fuller brush man in the comedy of that title that came out a couple of years ago has obviously been the inspiration for the casting of Mr. S. in another familiar occupation—and in an equally familiar slapstick role. In 'The Yellow Cab Man,'... the costume is slightly different but the fellow who's in it is the same. And the stuff that he does, while not as humorous, is similar, too."
Critic Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Skelton's is the kind of slapstick farce that is all too scarce these days, at least with legitimate slapstick farceurs in the leads, and is every bit as funny as 'The [Fuller Brush Man].' What if more than one of its gags date back to the old two reelers? The marvel is that there is anybody left at the studios to remember them. Old or new, the film's inventiveness seldom flags.... Skelton always comes up smiling, quick to forgive and ready to believe the best of his fellow men. He is the servant of the people, the courteous Yellow Cab Man."
According to MGM, the film earned $1,951,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $648,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $545,000.