MartinHafer Red Skelton plays a guy, oddly enough, named Red. Red is an accident- prone man and because he's often involved in accidents, he's worked on inventing some things to save lives. Most of them are pretty lame, but his unbreakable glass will easily earn him a fortune. Unfortunately a corrupt lawyer (am I being repetitive?) has decided to steal it--but the formula is locked in Red's mind. So, he comes up with a complicated plan to have him meet a phony psychiatrist who will try to pump Red for information. Along the way, Red falls for a pretty lady (Gloria DeHaven)--but soon the psychiatrist convinces Red that he has a death wish--and is a danger to people he loves. It may not sound all that funny, but the film abounds with wonderful pratfalls, stunts and cute scenes. The bottom line is that Skelton once again plays an extremely likable guy--and that makes all the silliness work. It reminds me of a Ritz Brothers film I just saw--you never liked them, so their antics were tiresome. But, with Skelton, you cannot help but root for him and are willing to put up with some extreme silliness. Well worth seeing and good for a few laughs.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** Red Skelton is at his hilarious best as goofy and accident pron inventor Augustus "Red" Pirdy. A man who just can't get, or stay, out of the way of both falling and moving as well as stationary objects. We get to see Red's troubles right at the start of the film as he slips and falls down a fight of stairs as the movie credits are displayed on his body cast at the hospital.It's when Red walking into traffic gets hit by taxi-driver, for the Yellow Cab Co, Mickey Corkins, James Gleason,that his life takes a sudden turn for the better. It's then that Red is given a chance to display his newest invention a sheet of unbreakable glass for automobiles. This has ambulance cashing lawyer Martin Creavy, Edward Arnold, who was at first interested in getting Red to sue the Yellow Cab Co. a bright idea in stealing the patent, which an absent minded Red forgot to file, from him as well as the sheet of glass itself! As things turn it's both Mikey and Yellow Cab insurance adjuster, who was investigating Red's accident, Ellen Goodrich, Gloria DeHaven, who really came to Red's rescue in preventing him from getting involved with shyster Creavy and his crew of crooks that included the fake headshrinker, psychiatrist, and kitchen appliance and carnival barker "Dr."Byron Dokestedder, Walter Slezak.Mickey getting Red a job at the Yellow Cab Co. after he almost brained the company's owner, by demonstrating his unbreakable glass windshield, Person Hendrick-Paul Harvey-turned out to be a stroke of genius on Mickey's part. This in fact gave Red the mobility that he needed to keep his distance from the Greavy Mob. It also got him close to who turned out to be his love interest in the movie pretty Ellen Goodrich. It's when Yellow Cab Co. manager Willis Tomlin, Guy Anderson, who was blackmailed by Greavy to switch Red's unbreakable glass, that resulted in Hendricks getting beaned by Red throwing a baseball at him, was about to spill the beans on him is when things started to get real deadly.All out free for all ending with both Red and Ellen stuck at a local L.A modern house and kitchen exhibit as Creavy and his boys try to do them it as well as steal Red's unbreakable glass formula. In the end Red not only foils Creavy and his gang from getting their hands on his secret formula but gets Dr.Dokestedder to have a taste of his own medicine which he infected on Red all throughout the movie: A hypodermic needle filled with a combination of truth serum and a for-runner to LSD rammed into his big fat butt! This combination chemical cocktail was administrated not by Red or Ellen but by a toaster that fat a** Dokesstedder hid the needle in to keep the police as well as the entire fleet of Yellow Cab drivers, who came to Red and Ellen's rescue, from finding!

dougdoepke Some belly laughs in this Skelton madcap. As usual Red plays a good-hearted schlemiel who stumbles from one mishap to the next, but somehow muddles through to win the girl (Gloria DeHaven) and the climax. Here he's an amateur inventor and Yellow Cab man battling veteran baddies Walter Slezak and Edward Arnold.A great job by the writers. The comedy set-ups are consistently funny and inventive from the mine-field opening of Red walking down the street to the whirlwind close at the L A Home Show . (Forget the muddled story-line which is just a handy post to hang the hi-jinks on.) This was just the kind of slapstick that Skelton could turn into a wild and crazy romp, and he does. .Catch the great comedic architecture in the early sequence that builds hilariously from the baby-sitting beginning to the nine-one-one close. Too bad this kind of engineering has largely disappeared from today's movie screen. Then too, the crib scene with Red playing both his toddler self and infant sister amounts to 60 second knee-slapper.In fact, there are a number of special effects scenes that work up more than a few chuckles. But the North Pole dream has something of a nightmarish undercurrent as does Red's getting shoved into the mixer.I guess my only complaints are the cheapness of the street sets and the dull-grayish quality of the filming (at least, in my copy). Coming from big-budget MGM, such cost-cutters affecting overall quality seem surprising.Nonetheless, this is a fine little post-war flick whose futuristic house at the Home Show expresses something of the surging spirit of a 1950's America then on the economic upswing.

magicalmouse I think that so many people only think of Red Skelton from TV and I think they forget that he did movies and in fact very funny movies. I scrounged around until I could find most of them on VHS but now I long for a good DVD set. The Yellow Cab Man has got to be my favorite, I laugh so hard at parts of it that I have to actually pause the film so that I can catch my breath. I usually don't care that much for physical comedy but he and Danny Kaye seem to be the masters of the art and their movies have me rolling on the floor every time. The plot in here is really not that great but it is just what is done with a simple idea -A nice guy that is totally accident prone trying to be a cab driver and show his new invention. Just wind Red up and let him loose.