The Girl in the Taxi (1937)

 

Frances Day

Here's another of those short, sharp films that were so prevalent in the UK in the 1930s: The Girl in the Taxi is a genuinely funny farce about a pompous Baron (played by Lawrence Grossmith, the son of George Grossmith, author of Diary of a Nobody) ...

Lawrence Grossmith

... who believes that Rene (Henri Garat) ...

Henri Garat

... is a drunken playboy, undeserving of marrying his daughter (Jean Gillie):

Jean Gillie

As the head of a Parisian society promoting virtue, the Baron is a great believer in hereditary virtue who makes the argument "like father, like son."

Of course, once we meet his son (MacKenzie Ward) ...

MacKenzie Ward

... we know that this is either a falsehood or the Baron is hiding something. He's the archetypal cinematic idiot son of the aristocracy, who is hopelessly in love with a married woman, Suzanne (Frances Day):



Frances Day and MacKenzie Ward: "Feel how my heart beats." 

The trouble is that the Baron is also in love with her and, when she accidentally receives a letter announcing her to be the unlikely winner of a prize for virtue (it having been mistakenly swapped for one of the idiot son's love letters), chaos ensues.

We soon discover that the Baron actually has a taste for nightclubs and what he calls "fun, frolics and fair ladies", leading us into the inevitable nightclub scene complete with an obligatory underwear flashing Can-Can dance:

Upon arrival at the club the waiting ladies are rather excited to hear that the Baron is there with one describing him as "the original sugar daddy."

"Good" her friend replies "I've got a sweet tooth."

The Baron (Lawrence Grossmith) and his admirers

Naturally, the farce runs wild and everything is resolved in the end, but not before a visit to the police station where we discover the truth of the Baron's words:

"Like father, Like son."
(MacKenzie Ward and Lawrence Grossmith)

Let's have a look at the rest of the cast:

Helen Haye

John Deverell

It's currently available on Volume 6 of Network DVD's The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection: