Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Fast and Furious

Let me preface this post by saying I am not referring to the recent movie with a similar title. At no time will you see Franchot Tone road racing a Nissan in this movie. While I'll be the first to admit the thought is interesting, let me haul your imagination back to 1939.

Fast and Furious is the sequel to Fast and Loose (which followed Fast Company - got it?). You'll probably remember Fast and Loose as the mystery/comedy with Bob Montgomery and Rosalind Russell as Joel & Garda Sloane. Joel & Garda are an awesome duo. Joel is a rare book dealer, who also has the talent to solve mysteries on the side. I honestly think they could have taken on Nick & Nora if there was a "standard" acting duo.

Instead of Bob and Rosalind, substitute Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern as Joel & Garda. I think they come off as more quirky and goofball than Bob & Rosalind. The original couple was Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice.

Fast and Furious follows our book selling couple on vacation to Seaside City for a summer cool-off. Turns out Joel has ulterior motives...there's a beauty contest in town which his friend is managing. Add to that, Joel has been made one of the contest judges. There's more to the movie than watching a book dealing couple on vacation - there's a murder and some performing lions. Yes, I said lions.

One part I found interesting was Joel's office - the set was the spitting image of what we saw in Fast and Loose. Both films were made in '39.

All in all, it's an entertaining movie that you'll enjoy as part of the "Fast..." series.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I will admit that the idea of Franchot Tone or Bob Montgomery racing against each other in full decked out race cars is quite amusing and entertaining!!

I do wish to see this 'Fast...' series!

Anonymous said...

Like in those road racer movies, can you imagine the *chicks* that would follow them!! :0)