As world famous racing driver Marc “High Gear” Sherrod finishes a test run before the next day’s race, his mechanic, Ed Evans, says that if they win, he will use the prize money to send his son Jimmy to military school to comply with a promise he made to his wife before she died. As Marc showers, reporter Anne Merritt invades his hotel room to get an interview. When he sees her, he agrees to the interview if she will break her dinner date. At the restaurant, Anne’s rejected date, Larry Winston, a fellow reporter and radio broadcaster, sees her with Marc and trades insults with him. During the race the next day, after a tire is replaced in the pits, Ed warns Marc that the steering arm looks bent, but Marc convinces him to continue for the remaining six laps. They crash and Ed dies, and after Jimmy agrees to stay with Marc, he puts the boy in an expensive military school. When Marc tests his repaired car, he remembers Ed’s voice, gets shaky and goes into a spin. He tells his new mechanic that he has lost his nerve and gets a job as a taxi driver. Marc breaks a date with Anne and moves from his hotel to stay with his friends, the Cohens, leaving no forewarding address. After Marc pays a ten-dollar bribe in order to be allowed to pick up passengers in front of an exclusive hotel, drivers who already have paid for that privilege become incensed. Marc slugs one, who then threatens him. After Anne traces Marc to the Cohen’s residence, she agrees not to tell anyone that he now works as a taxi driver, and they plan a date, but Winston sees Marc leave Anne off at the office and broadcasts a story that Marc, having turned “yellow,” is now, appropriately, driving a yellow cab. The kids at the school laugh at Jimmy, while Marc accuses Anne of double-crossing him and punches Winston. Jimmy runs away from school and finds Marc, who yells at him to return. In the middle of their conversation, Marc learns that two drivers are wrecking his cab. He and Jimmy fight them, and Jimmy is hit on the head by a hammer thrown at Marc. Anne arrives just before the doctor, who says that Jimmy’s skull is crushed and that he must get to the hospital in minutes. At Anne’s suggestion, Marc, overcoming his phobia, speeds Jimmy to the hospital in an ambulance. Jimmy gets well, and when his friends from school visit, they listen over the radio to a race that Marc wins, setting a new record. After accepting the award, Marc kisses Anne. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch High Gear aka The Big Thrill (1933)
