Fast and Furious

Engaging fluff which must have been a second feature back in Hollywood's Golden Age. Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern are the principals in a comedy/ mystery with a dizzy plot. The couple go on a semi-vacation to what must be Atlantic City. Tone is to be a judge at a beauty contest but the promoter is murdered during the festivities. Lots of snappy dialogue and plot twists in this good-natured story, directed by none other than Busby Berkley.

Tone and Sothern work well together to make the picture work and with able support from Lee Bowman and Ruth Hussey. Harmless fun from this better-than-average 'B" picture that strives to be an "A".

6/10 - Website no longer prints my star rating.

Enjoyed the great acting by a veteran actor named Franchot Tone, (Joel Sloane) and his wife Garda Sloane, (Ann Southern) who have a business dealing with rare books in New York City and decided to take a vacation. Mike Stevens, ( Lee Bowman) is a good friend of Joel and asks him for five thousand dollars to invest in a beauty contest and he also offered him a position as a judge. Joel makes this deal with Mike and his wife Gara goes with him, however, Gara is very unhappy about her husband being around all these beautiful bathing suit gals in the contest. There is plenty of laughs and plenty of action as well as a murder. I was quite surprised at what a great film this is from 1939 and I loved watching this film from beginning to end.

Ann Sothern and Franchot Tone are a young married couple in "Fast and Furious" which also stars Allan Joslyn, Ruth Hussey, and Mary Beth Hughes.

A friend hits lawyer Joel Sloane (Tone) up for a loan to finance a beauty pageant taking place at a resort and invites Sloane and wife Garda (Sothern) to come see the show. After they arrive, the boss of the operation is murdered, and Joel's friend is jailed on suspicion. It's up to Joel to stop looking at the bathing suited beauties and solve the case.

This is a routine film, rather slow, with some nice humor. Tone and Sothern are a delightful couple. This is the earliest film in which I've seen Ann Sothern, whom I remember from her TV series as a child. She's gorgeous! A real knockout. She and Tone have the charm and lightness necessary for their roles; it's a shame they couldn't have had a better script.

Though this is directed by Busby Berkeley, there are no flashy dance numbers but he does regale us with some neat camera work.

A very pleasant film.

ANN SOTHERN and FRANCHOT TONE play a husband and wife team, a book dealer and his scheming, scatterbrained wife who get involved with murder at a seaside resort. She tags along to help solve the crime, but mostly because she knows there are too many bathing beauties around that might catch his eye.

Among the suspects are LEE BOWMAN, RUTH HUSSEY, MARY BETH HUGHES and ALLYN JOSLYN, with FRANK ORTH and some tame lions providing some unusual comedy relief. Miss Hussey is the surprise here, playing the sort of "heavy" role as a villainess that she seldom ever essayed in other films. Mary Beth Hughes does her usual blonde beauty routine and Allyn Joslyn is the best character actor in the cast.

With the accent on comedy, it's not difficult for FRANCHOT TONE and ANN SOTHERN to carry the leads with effortless charm.

Probably passed the time pleasantly as the second feature on a double bill, but hasn't dated as badly as some other comedy/mysteries of this sort have. Busby Berkeley is the unlikely director.

B-movies were cheap and short films that were made to play as the lesser film at a double-feature. Many small-time studios specialized in Bs (such as Monogram and Republic) and the bigger studios also made Bs. In this case, the very respected MGM produced what seems like a B-movie in almost every way except that its stars were slightly better than you'd expect to see in a B. Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern star as a married couple who, not surprisingly, investigate crimes but are NOT professional detectives. I say 'not surprisingly' because there were plenty of B films with amateur detectives constantly showing up the police--such as Boston Blackie, Bulldog Drummond and Nancy Drew. And, like these other films, this was one of a series of such films--though NONE of the actors and actresses who played the two main roles played them in more than one film! The movie begins with Garda Sloane trying to trick her husband Joel into taking them on a vacation. Coincidentally, an old friend arrives and talks about a beauty contest going on at the SAME place where the Sloanes are headed (what are the odds?!). Once there, the Sloanes meet this friend once again but also (not surprisingly) stumble into a murder. And, like the genre, the pair begin investigating the crime and do far better than trained detectives.

The plot is about average for this sort of film--no better, no worse. However, Tone and Sothern are quite good AND the dialog is quite nice. It also helps that there is a nice sense of humor about the film--such as the wonderful dictophone scene. Overall, breezy and entertaining--but you wonder why neither Tone nor Sothern were used again for these roles.