The Great Taxicab Stampede
McCloud
is framed for the murder of a drug-dealing hack, and exposes the ring.
Whoa, Taxi... Hyaw
Murray
Gutman is a cabbie for a small firm founded after the war, but “things change,
new people take over,” and now he fears for his family should he tell what he
knows.
The
new proprietor, Keith Hampton, is a suave sophisticate who brings in drivers
from overseas, gives them phony documentation, and now lives in a high-rise
apartment on the proceeds from the heroin they distribute around New York. One
of them, David Kessler, wants out, he came from Israel and fell into the
rackets. Hampton kills him in Central Park, then manages to blame McCloud
(tailing Hampton with Sgt. Broadhurst) when a shootout takes place.
Hampton
laughs his way past all allegations (he doesn’t even own a gun), and
McCloud is pilloried on the Action 4 News.
Kessler’s
sister, Nidavah Ritzach, flies in from Israel to see justice done. She flatly
tells McCloud she means to kill him, police and press being convinced no other
gun than a .45 or a Magnum could have drilled her brother.
In
the park by broad daylight, McCloud is fired on by two hit men as he searches
for and finds Hampton’s large-caliber bullet (Nidavah has followed him there,
too, but thinks he’s to be eliminated as “no longer useful” to his bosses in
the drug trade).
McCloud
traces another cabbie to his home and finds him dead. Action 4 swings into
action, Chief Clifford takes his badge and gun.
Nidavah
gets hired as a cabbie, but can’t find a convenient spot to kill Hampton (she
wants “everyone responsible”). McCloud doesn’t even know Hampton runs the cab
company, and when he learns this from her he understands the whole setup, and
so does she.
The
tragedy of all this finds its continuance in Det. Simms, whose wife is in the
hospital, six months at five hundred dollars a day, he’s desperate, he goes on
Hampton’s pad, detailing police movements. He’s finally ordered to kill
McCloud, but at the confrontation resolves to redeem himself.
Redemption
comes at the Arches, where Det. Simms arrests everybody in the middle of a
final shipment before Hampton moves along in the hierarchy. There is a
shootout, Det. Simms is hit, Hampton escapes in his
gray Mercedes coupe. McCloud driving a cab pursues, along with Nidavah, whom he
calls “Nida.”
The
finale takes place on the rainwet streets of Manhattan. Murray calls the
cabbies, McCloud directs them, they all converge (jostling or abandoning
passengers) on Times Square (down 53rd and through the tunnel).
These night exteriors are Dixon’s best work, unless it’s the fine summery shoot
on, around and under Bow Bridge in Central Park, with a POV as McCloud hides
under it in water over his knees, methodically emptying spent shells from his
.45 six-shooter, one at a time.
“Who
says ya can’t get a cab in this city when ya want one,” says Marshal McCloud,
after Hampton’s coupe is surrounded.
It
will be seen that this is closely related to “Bonnie and McCloud” that same
season, and a marvelous reflection of the theme.
Nowhere,
I think, is it more clear that McCloud is the Western
hero come to life in a dangerous, lawless city, like Wyatt Earp in My
Darling Clementine. Anyway, he has a fine way to get a cab, one quick
whistle and “hey!”
|
George Hamilton Keith Hampton |
Story by Gregory S. Dinallo Directed by Ivan Dixon |
45602, 1.16.77
The actor playing TV Action 4 newsman Jim Sullivan is
uncredited.
(Keith Hampton is questioned and released.)
KEITH HAMPTON: No apologies?
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: Yes. I’m sorry we didn’t nail you.
KEITH
HAMPTON: You’re gonna be a lot sorrier, Clifford, if there’s any further
harassment. (Pause.) Frightening! (Laughs.
Exits.)
(McCloud’s Central Park shootout makes the front page and
excites TV criticism.)
CHIEF CLIFFORD: McCloud, I have no choice but to take you off the case,
and by off I mean OFF. I don’t want to hear about it, I don’t want to
talk about it, I don’t want to feel that you’re even
thinking about it.
(Nidavah Ritzach knows her way around New York.)
MURRAY GUTMAN: Ever drive a cab?
NIDAVAH
RITZACH: No. Only tanks.
MURRAY GUTMAN: (On the murder of his colleague David
Kessler, to Nidavah Ritzach.) Waste. But that’s the city. Waste.
NIDAVAH RITZACH: (To McCloud.) It was
easy for you to kill my brother. You’ll not find it so easy to kill a soldier
in the Israeli Army.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: (To McCloud, unhappily.) How many
times do you have to be taken off a case before the message comes through?
MURRAY GUTMAN: (To Nidavah Ritzach.) You know,
it normally takes quite a while to get a license to drive a cab in New York.
MURRAY GUTMAN: (To Nidavah Ritzach.) Look,
I’ve been with Lomto Cabs for thirty-one years, come this June. It was great in
the old days, right after the war, a small independent company tryin’ to make it. Things change. New people take over.
(In a diner, after a call for help in the middle of the
night.)
McCLOUD: Joe, ‘preciate ya meetin’ me here.
SGT.
BROADHURST: Yeah, I’m a nice guy, don’t forget to
testify to that at my divorce.
KEITH HAMPTON: (On his balcony overlooking the city at
night, to Det. Simms.) The only reason I’m up here is because they’re down
there, grabbing for a pinch of ecstasy. Fast rush. (Winks.) Nickel
ride. Only difference is, I have an expensive way to live,
they have an expensive way to die.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: (As McCloud enters his office.) Come on
in, McCloud. I didn’t think the night could get any worse, but I—forgot
the unexpected.
(McCloud makes a telephone call, no answer, he rushes out.)
CHIEF CLIFFORD: Where’s he going in such a hurry?
SGT.
BROADHURST: He didn’t say.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: Who was he calling?
SGT.
BROADHURST: He didn’t say.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: What did he say?
SGT.
BROADHURST: Nothing.
(McCloud “arrests” Nidavah Ritzach to keep her from killing
Keith Hampton.)
KEITH HAMPTON: What’s the charge?
McCLOUD: Il-legal
entry into the United States.
(Nidavah Ritzach introduces Marshal McCloud.)
MURRAY GUTMAN: You’ve made quite a reputation for yourself in this town,
Marshal.
McCLOUD: Well,
it’s blown up quite a bit.
NIDAVAH RITZACH: I like you, Marshal McCloud.
McCLOUD: Well, feelin’s mutual.
MURRAY GUTMAN: (On cab radio.) Marshal,
this is Murray. I got the boys out. Where is he now?
McCLOUD: Headin’ down Fifty-Third.
MURRAY GUTMAN: (On cab radio.) You drive
like a real cabbie, Marshal.
McCLOUD: Much
obliged.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: (The stampede. To Sgt. Broadhurst.) This is
his work. I can feel it. There’s a lump in the pit of my stomach that’s got
McCloud written on it.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: (On the way to Times Square.) Faster,
Broadhurst. Hell for leather!
(Keith Hampton’s gray Mercedes coupe is cornered by taxicabs
in Times Square.)
McCLOUD: (Holding Nidavah Ritzach’s .45 on Keith Hampton.) Who says
ya can’t get a cab in this city when ya want one?