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Happy married couples still act like frisky strangers, cab driver (Spencer Tracy) and immigrant wife (Luise Rainer) demonstrate with a bit of role-playing that is nearly broken up by a concerned flatfoot. "Honey, if you ever wondered why a mug like me married a homely little dame like you, it's because of the way you cook a meatball." A garage war, cf. Del Ruth's Taxi!, strongarm tactics between companies and independents. The security chief (William Demarest) is not above planting bombs and blaming the underdogs, the heroine faces deportation after her brother (Victor Varconi) dies in the crossfire. Communal solidarity keeps her concealed, to the chagrin of authorities. "After all, it isn't an easy job, like picking up some gunman or a maniac full of hop." Frank Borzage running the gamut from ticklish to despairing and back, a choice little item that feels like a Warners pre-Coder in the guise of an MGM bauble. Proletarian scrappiness and romantic radiance in continuous play, a gag about a recycled birthday cake with a different name in frosting ("It takes the same") gets softened by Rainer smiling by the glow of the candles. (Tracy surprises her in the middle of the night with an ice cream cone outside the window of her hiding place: "I was just walking up and down the fire-escape and thought I'd drop in.") The surreal climax is a dockside rumble with tuxedoed athletes as reinforcements, bullies mix it up with Jack Dempsey and Jim Thorpe and Mountain Man Dean while the Mayor (Charley Grapewin) enjoys the spectacle. "Very irregular." Lang reveals a surprising kinship in You and Me. With Janet Beecher, Eddie Quillan, Oscar O'Shea, Helen Troy, John Arledge, Irving Bacon, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Regis Toomey, Edgar Dearing, Paul Harvey, and Clem Bevans. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |