Monsieur Taxi (1952) - film review

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...?

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

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