Posts

Showing posts with the label George Raft

HOT & BOTHERED — The Films of 1932 Blogathon: Taxi!

Image
Directed by Roy Del Ruth, Taxi! (1932) begins when veteran cab driver Pop Riley (Guy Kibbee) is forced to abandon his prime soliciting location by a company trying to control the taxi business in New York. While defending himself, Pop shoots and kills one of the company's gang and is sentenced to prison, where he subsequently dies. Some of the independent drivers call a meeting and ask Pop's daughter Sue (Loretta Young) to speak. Hot-tempered Matt Nolan (James Cagney), another independent cabbie, is furious with Sue when, instead of urging the drivers to fight back, she tells them that violence will not be effective. Despite his anger, Matt starts dating Sue and eventually marries her. After their marriage, the couple goes out to a nightclub with their friends Skeets (George E. Stone) and Ruby (Leila Bennett), as well as Matt's younger brother Dan (Ray Cooke). While there, Matt and Sue are insulted by Buck Gerard (David Landau), the man responsible for the attacks on the...

Film Friday: "Some Like It Hot" (1959)

Image
In honor of Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis, who both had birthdays this week, I thought that for this week's "Film Friday" I would bring you the only film they made together. Theatrical release poster Directed by Billy Wilder, Some Like It Hot (1959) follows the crazy adventures of Joe (Tony Curtis) and Jerry (Jack Lemmon), two hapless Chicago jazz musicians who accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in February 1929. In a desperate attempt to get out of town after being spotted by gang leader "Spats" Colombo (George Raft) while fleeing the scene of the crime, Joe and Jerry disguise themselves as women, "Josephine" and "Daphne," and take a job with an all-female band headed to Miami. During the train trip, they meet the beautiful Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe), the band's vocalist and ukulele player . Both J oe and J erry are immediately smitten with her, but keep their true identity a secret. Once ...