Stubs - Fast and Furious (1939)

Fast and Furious (1939) Starring Franchot Tone, Ann Sothern, Ruth Hussey. Directed by Busby Berkeley. Screenplay by Harry Kurnitz. Produced by Frederick Stephani. Run time: 73 minutes. Black and White. USA Comedy, Mystery

Long before the never-ending sequel machine franchise Fast & Furious (aka The Fast and the Furious) began appearing on the big screen in 2001, the title was used as part of a different franchise in 1939.

With exhibitors unhappy with the long intervals between pictures in The Thin Man series of films, MGM made Fast Company (1938) because its "light" detective theme featured main characters in the Nick and Nora Charles mode. Following Fast Company, which starred Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice, was Fast and Loose (1939) starring Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell, and Fast and Furious (1939) starring Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern. The one thing all three films have in common is that all three were written by Harry Kurnitz. All three sets of stars played the same characters, Joel and Garda Sloane, a rare book seller and his wife who become amateur detectives.

This edition of the series was rather rushed to the theaters. Shot between August 4 and September 1, 1939, it was in the theaters on October 6, 1939.

Garda (Ann Sothern) tries to convince husband Joel
(Franchot Tone) that they need to take a vacation.

Joel (Franchot Tone) and Garda (Ann Sothern) Sloane are rare book sellers in New York City. It’s summer and the weather is hot and after seeing an ad on the back of a magazine, Garda dreams of taking a vacation to escape the heat. She tries to get her husband to come to the same conclusion by turning up the heat in the office and by putting a heating pad under his chair cushion. He agrees to go to the mountains, but the plans change.

Mike Stevens (Lee Bowman), a  college friend of Joel’s, drops by the office to put the squeeze on him. Mike is working with Eric Bartell (John Miljan) on a beauty pageant in Seaside City and has an opportunity to invest in what appears to be a money-making proposition. Mike has put up $5000 of his own money but still needs $5000 more. Without telling Garda, Joel writes him a check and then proposes to Garda that they vacation in Seaside City.

He may say he doesn't want to be one, but Joel
seems to like being a beauty pageant judge in this publicity shot.

When they arrive in Seaside City, Joel discovers that he’s a judge at the beauty pageant, again something he tries to keep from Garda. But Joel likes the idea and enjoys eyeing the models in their “skimpy” bathing suits.

He learns from Mike that Bartell has a partner, Lily Cole (Ruth Hussey), Bartell's publicity director. While Lily is in love with Bartell, and plans to live on the run with him after he embezzles the funds from the pageant, Bartell has other ideas. He has locked on to one of the contestants, Jerry Lawrence (Mary Beth Hughes), and plans to run away with her with the money. His plans are not lost on Lily, who does what she can to put an end to the relationship.

Bartell is also under pressure from New York racketeer Ed Connors (Bernard Nedell), to whom Bartell owes $20,000. He insists on hanging around to make sure Bartell doesn’t run off without paying him back.

When NYPD Capt. Joe Burke (Frank Orth) arrives in town, he informs Joel that he is there because they figure Bartell plans to embezzle the money and Joel goes to inform Mike. Angry, Mike goes to see Bartell and demand his money back. Bartell goes into the backroom to get the money, but there is a gunshot. Mike goes for help and finds Burke and Joel arriving. But when they go to investigate, the room is unlocked.

In happier times, Garda and Joel with newspaper columnist Ted Bentley (Allyn Joslyn).

The local police, led by Chief Miller (Granville Bates), has Mike arrested for the murder. Further, Joel and Garda are warned not to get involved in the case. Of course, they don’t pay attention to that and, with the help of newspaper columnist Ted Bentley (Allyn Joslyn), begin to investigate the murder.

Soon after, an attempt is made on Joel’s and Garda’s lives when a falling stage elevator nearly crushes them. Joel suspects Lily because she and Bartell were involved in a dispute prior to the murder. He tries to match her to a cigarette he found at the murder scene, but Lily doesn’t smoke.

Later, Joel discovers that Jerry smokes the same brand. He interrogates her and she names Connors as the murderer.

Connors, who is also in cahoots with Jerry, is in the next room and when he overhears her accusation, attacks her. When Joel stops him, Connors tells him that she is merely trying to frame him.

Later, when Jerry is found murdered, Joel deduces that the murderer must be Bentley, because he is the only person who knew that he had proof against Jerry.

Joel tricks Bentley into confessing his guilt, but Bentley, in an attempt to silence Joel, tries to kill him. However, Joel had anticipated that and the police are already there and Bentley is arrested.

Eventually, Joel learns that Bentley killed Bartell because Jerry threw him over for Bartell and that he killed Jerry because she knew too much.

While the film ends, there seems like there is plot that goes unresolved. What happened to Lily? She seems bent on embezzling the funds and it appears was the one who tried to kill Joel and Garda with the stage elevator, but she gets off scot-free, or at least is at the end of the film.

Further, the film assumes that you’ve seen the other two, with a passing reference made to a past case they worked on. But considering that these are not the same leads from either previous films, nor are they characters audiences might have been familiar with from other sources, books, radio, etc., it comes off as a little confusing. I have to think if it was to me now, it must have been when audiences first watched it in 1939.

In his review upon the film’s release, The New York Times’s Bosley Crowther made note of the change in cast between films. “Just the faintest shadow of 'The Thin Man'—and of two collateral predecessors—is being cast by the little mystery-comedy, now at Loew's Criterion, name of 'Fast and Furious.' But this time it is the detective team of Joel and Garda Sloane which is doing the gagging and sleuthing; and, in the roles of Joel and Garda S., it is not Melvin Douglas and Florence Rice, as it was in 'Fast Company,' which was the first in the Sloane & Co. Detective Agency series, nor is it Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell, as it was in 'Fast and Loose,' the second. It is Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern. So the shadow is very, very faint.”

He further comments that “…Metro seems to be stretching an original idea to infinity—a suspicion which is practically confirmed by the plot of 'Fast and Furious.' It is a perfect specimen of unoriginal attenuation…”

The film, which was director Busby Berkeley's first non-musical assignment, shows that maybe he should have stuck to musicals. I don’t know what brought him to MGM to direct this film, but you really can’t say that he gave it the old college try.

Fast and Furious is neither. The film drags on and the plot gets more convoluted. The acting is disappointing; both Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern are capable of much better. The problem is the story. In an attempt to capture the lightning in the bottle that The Thin Man series proved to be for the studio, MGM tried to take a short cut and ended up short.