Taxi Dolls
About Taxi Dolls
Oscar drives for the Owl Taxi Company. Professor Schmidt, a vaudeville inventor, has a mechanical woman named Beatrice who can pass for a living passenger. She wanders off into Oscar's cab, and Schmidt comes after her. In the confusion the superintendent's wife, a real woman, is mistaken for the doll.
Cast & crew
More about Taxi Dolls
Del Lord directed and Mack Sennett produced. Harry McCoy and Robert Eddy wrote the story. Pathé Exchange released it on April 14, 1929. Jack Cooper plays Oscar. Otto Fries is the Owl superintendent. Virginia Vance plays both the superintendent's wife and Beatrice. Jack Lloyd is Professor Schmidt. Glen Cavender is the detective. Silent Era lists it as two reels.
Themes
Making
Lord, a Sennett director who built gags out of vehicles, uses the cab as the place where the doll and the wife get swapped.
Preservation
A print survives. Silent Era lists the short as public domain in the United States.
Notes
- Vance's double part is the engine of the mix-up: one actress is both the wife and the machine.
- The company name in the cast list is the Owl Taxi Company.
- Silent Era records that a print exists and that the film is public domain in the United States.
- Internet Archive has a copy under the identifier IA_35000419.
- Sennett's other 1929 taxi short with Cooper is Taxi Spooks.
Scenes
- Beatrice leaves the inventor and gets into Oscar's cab.
- The superintendent's wife is handled as if she were the doll.
Also available
- Internet Archive (IA_35000419)
