1940 Checker Model A Landaulet Taxi
1940 Checker Model A in Alias Boston Blackie, Movie, 1942
Class: Cars, Sedan — Model origin: 
00:33:33 ![[*]](/res/star.png){kind=small}
Minor action vehicle or used in only a short scene
Comments about this vehicle
| Author | Message |
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◊ 2007-01-29 21:01 |
![[Image: xx32hj4.5243.jpg]](http://pics.imcdb.org/0is235/xx32hj4.5243.jpg) |
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◊ 2007-01-29 21:10 |
Looks like it has been modified for the film. |
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◊ 2007-01-29 21:15 |
These were pretty low budget films and I doubt that they would have gone to the expence of modifying a car for a one scene taxi. |
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◊ 2007-01-29 21:27 |
I will wager that's not a production car. I don't know what it was when it was built, but it wasn't wearing that front end. I like how they gave it suicide front doors...they even left the original door handle hole -- Last edit: 2007-01-29 21:28:41 |
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◊ 2007-01-29 21:32 |
You may be right. At any rate, its a weird looking thing and I have never seen anything like it. |
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◊ 2007-01-29 21:35 |
It looks like some sort of Chrysler. The front looks similar (but not exactly) like a 1939 Chrysler, and it has suicide doors like an Airflow. I'm thinking it's customized, although I'm also wondering why they'd customize a car to be used in such a minor role. |
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◊ 2007-01-29 21:39 |
It was probably customised for a different film and retained by the studio. The old Hollywood studio system was still in force up until the 1950s. Most films were shot 'on the lot' (in soundstages or on outdoor backlot sets). The studios had large collections of costumes and props, and anything made or acquired for a particular film would go into the collection and be re-used. Sometimes B-movies were written to use sets left over from other productions. -- Last edit: 2007-01-29 21:45:51 |
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◊ 2007-01-29 23:34 |
It's a 1940-1941 Checker Model A 4-Door Landaulet Taxi. I believe it hasn't been modified. |
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◊ 2007-01-29 23:43 |
Good job Raul1983 - I looked for Checker but couldn't find a picture of this one. |
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◊ 2007-01-30 00:05 |
Oh, I thought Checkwar was almost exclusively postwar. Sure seems crude in a way. Mystery car solved! |
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◊ 2007-11-28 03:12 |
The gothic front-end headlights were designed to look like Checker Cab Manaufacturing, Inc. Chicago fleet's logo. Take a look at the picture of Cary Grant getting out of the green 1956-58 Checker A8 in the movie "North By Northwest". Look at the logo on the door, then look at the front headlights on this Checker Model A and you'll see they match. The Chicago Checker fleet used that logo up until the early sixties. The 1940 Model A was one of the most innovative taxis ever manufactured in America. The entire rear section of the roof was a steel clam shell that could be opened up for passengers to ride in convertable comfort. Unfortunately the tools a dies were melted down for the 1940's war effort. Checker did not produce another car until new dies were made in 1947. 99.9 percent of Model A's were built for taxi service. By 1947 most had been run till the wheels fell off. There is only one known survivor, a 1941 Limo, fully restored it resides in New York state. |
