Taken for a Ride

Taken for a Ride is a documentary film by Martha Olson and Jim Klein about the Great American Streetcar Scandal. The 55-minute film was first broadcast on August 6, 1996 on the PBS television series POV.

Synopsis

Taken for a Ride begins with interviews on the inefficiencies and congestion on Los Angeles' highways. Next, the film displays a variety of archival footage on streetcar systems around the United States, demonstrating that streetcars were a widespread and efficient means of transportation. The film continues into a description of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy, starting with a history of National City Lines and Pacific City Lines and General Motors' investment in both companies. The film builds the argument that streetcar systems purchased by these companies were deliberately sabotaged through service reductions and fare increases, then replaced with profitable, less convenient, bus systems. Next, the film makes a connection between this conspiracy and the construction of the Interstate Highway System and the suburbanization of America in the face of the Highway revolts in the 1960s and 1970s. The film ends with footage of the reduction of Philadelphia's trolleybus system at the time of filming.

Taken for a Ride (1931 film)

Taken for a Ride is a 1931 short animated film by Columbia Pictures, and one of many starring Krazy Kat. Existing prints of cartoon are likely to have missing footage and some distorted sequences.

Plot

One night, a trio of criminal gorillas go on a rampage in a city using a machine gun. They even looted some shops. As they flee in their van, they are being followed by Krazy who is on a bike. They try to stop the cat from pursuing them by firing their machine gun. Krazy, however, is able to keep the bullets at bay.

The gorillas manage to lose Krazy somehow before they reach their hideout which is secretly under a cemetery. Strangely, one of the inhabitants in the hideout is a canine girl who strongly resembles Krazy's spaniel girlfriend. The leader gorilla treats her by offering a diamond necklace which the canine girl dons and embraces.

Krazy arrives at the cemetery minutes later but has lost track of the gorillas. After evading things like moving tombstones, Krazy encounters a living skeleton who shows him a passageway to the hideout for some reason.