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As Good As It Gets

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This picture reminded of the 1932 programmer "Taxi!" starring Jimmy Cagney, but in reflecting on what happened in this one, it's a little baffling. I can see two rival cab companies going up against each other to try and steal the other guy's customers, but how does it work with a cab company versus a bus company? It's really two different types of customers, one presumably for the long haul and one for getting around town. Even back in 1940, I can't imagine a cab company being so hard up for business they'd have to knock off a bus company. It just doesn't make sense to me. Especially when you consider that both companies were vying for passengers on an LA to San Francisco run!But you know what floored me even more? When Ted Dawson (Fay Wray) took matters into her own hands to investigate possible sabotage on the part of the cabbies, she got a quote of four dollars to make the trip, and chiseled foreman Casey down to three and a half! How crazy is that? Things wound up a bit more believable at the finale with the reveal that the cab company was run by Ma Talbot (Leona Roberts), whose husband was fired by Federated owner Dawson (Oscar O'Shea) for stealing. Ma called the shots on when and where her goons would sabotage the buses causing them to crash, thereby creating a financial burden on Federated.Say, pay attention to that scene when Casey pays off Jerry Waters (Charles Lang) when he quit. Casey said he owed Jerry two dollars, but handed him more than two bills! But the better goof was when driver Donovan (Paul Guilfoyle) crashed his bus after a Federated thug ran him off the road. When Casey made his way into the bus, all the passengers were gone!!?? What!!?? Well even if a story doesn't have much going for it like this one, I get a kick out of that kind of goofy stuff that no one ever picked up on while making the picture. It always makes me wonder why no one thought things through to consider whether events written into the script were believable or not.

Looking more like it came from "B" action specialist Breezy Eason at Warners than little-known Frank Woodruff at RKO, this quickie little time-filler about crooked limo drivers trying to drive a bus company out of business accomplished what it set out to do, no more or no less. The script is serviceable, at best, if too talky at times, and leading man Charles Lang--in only his second picture--is rather colorless and bland and has no chemistry whatever with star Fay Wray, though she tries hard. There's some action on the road, and if you're a vintage-car enthusiast you'll really like all the shiny new--at the time--Packards, Chevys and other models sprinkled throughout the picture, and there's a pretty good though brief brawl near the end. Wray is still as beautiful and sexy as she was seven years earlier in "King Kong" and, as other reviewers have stated, is probably the best reason to watch this picture. It's OK, nothing more, and a decent way to pass the time. Nothing special, though.

Crooked racketeers are using passenger cars to take customers away from a legitimate bus company. The daughter of the owner (Fay Wray) investigates and helps break up the racket with one of the members of the crooked gang who has found out first hand what they are capable of. This is a typical RKO programmer of this era, 90% of their annual releases. Rarely seen until Turner Classics brought them out from mothballs, these features are a mixed bag, and this one, which has a few redeeming values, is like many others of the golden age of cinema. Somewhat violent, not as fast moving as similar crime dramas made at Warner Brothers, they've got all the necessary ingredients to be nothing more than just forgettable bottom-of-the-bill features that ended when television came along. Wray is feisty, and Leona Roberts, as a slovenly landlady with a secret, adds spark to what otherwise would be simply ordinary.

This rather poor RKO programmer manages to keep some interest going, mostly due to Fay Wray, who struggles with the poor material, but who is canny enough to make the most of her close-ups, and to Paul Guilefoyle who is pretty good is his supporting role as the hot-tempered moral center of the piece. Leading man -- actually, leading chump -- Charles Lang suggests, if anyone, a rather clueless Dan Duryea.The plot, about a struggling bus line, owned by Miss Wray's father and run by her, despite the efforts by wildcatters to put it out of business by faking accidents, has hints of screwball comedy about it at some points, but it is rarely played for laughs. Lang, the newly indigent ex-playboy, is down to his last limousine, which has its potential, but the effect is not funny, merely incongruous. Not a terrible piece to watch, but not to go out of your way for.