Tonight's cabbie movies

Tonight's TCM lineup is focused on taxicab drivers, and I should probably mention the last one, Night on Earth at 3:45 AM. I think it's a TCM premiere

It's an anthology of five stories of cab drivers and their fare, all set at the same time. Except that they're in various time zones, so the first story, in Los Angeles, is set at the beginning of the night, while the last one, in Helsinki, Finland, is around daybreak. In between, we have stories in New York, Paris, and Rome.

The one in Rome is worth mentioning because it's got Roberto Benigni, playing a taxi driver who picks up a priest and then starts telling the sort of stories he'd usually tell. Except that thos stories are incredibly bawdy. And things go badly. I'd also mention the last one, as there is in many ways nothing going on here. A couple of drunk guys get in a cab, and tell the driver they've just been laid off and how sad their lives are. The cabbie responds by telling his passengers an even sadder story. That's it. And yet the story will stay with you.

Unfortunately, this is one I haven't seen in ages, since back in the days when the old IFC was commercial-free, and actually showed independent films. So that's probably a good decade. I don't have quite as strong memories of the second and third stories as of the last two, and that's part of the reason this one isn't getting a longer review. But this is certainly worth watching, and I think I've finally got the room on the DVR to record it.