They Met in a Taxi: A weird little detour

Should you watch They Met in a Taxi? If you have seventy minutes to kill and a soft spot for actors who look like they’ve been working on a studio lot for twenty years straight, then sure. It’s light, it’s breezy, and it’s completely forgettable in the best possible way. If you’re looking for a serious crime thriller, you’re going to be bored to tears by the middle.

The whole premise is just an excuse to get people talking in small rooms. A taxi driver, a girl who probably shouldn’t be in a taxi, and a necklace that everyone is shouting about. It feels like a radio play that they just happened to film.

Fay Wray is in this, which is always a treat, even if she isn't exactly doing her best work here. There’s a scene where she’s trying to look stressed about a stolen necklace, but she mostly just looks like she’s trying to remember where she left her car keys. It’s funny in a way that feels unintentional. 🚕

The pacing is genuinely strange. Sometimes the movie just stops dead so two characters can argue about nothing for three minutes. Then, suddenly, someone is running down an alleyway and the music goes all dramatic. It’s like watching two different films stitched together by someone who was falling asleep at the editing desk.

If you've seen something like Midnight, you’ll recognize the vibe immediately. It’s that same frantic, "we need to finish this before the set gets torn down" energy.

There’s this bit with a minor character—I think he’s a cop?—who keeps adjusting his hat every single time he speaks. Once you see it, you can't look at anything else. It’s the kind of tiny, weird detail that makes these old movies so much more fun than the polished stuff we get today.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good mystery. But it’s got a rhythm that feels human and messy. It’s the kind of thing you put on while you’re folding laundry, and you find yourself actually paying attention because the dialogue is so snappy it’s almost distracting.

• The dialogue feels like it was written in a single afternoon.
• Lionel Stander is doing a lot of heavy lifting with just his eyebrows.
• The "stolen necklace" is barely a plot point; it’s just a prop to keep people moving.

Honestly, the movie gets better once it stops trying to solve the crime. When everyone is just sitting around being grumpy, the film has a real personality. It’s a shame they bothered with the plot at all. 🕵️‍♂️