The Fast and the Furious (USA, 1954) 73 min B&W DIR: John Ireland, Edward Sampson. PROD: Roger Corman. SCR: Jerome Odlum, Jean Howell. STY: Roger Corman. MUSIC: Alexander Gerens. DOP: Floyd Crosby. CAST: John Ireland, Dorothy Malone, Bruce Carlisle, Iris Adrian, Marshall Bradford, Bruno VeSota, Lou Place, “Snub” Pollard, Jonathan Haze. (American Releasing Corporation)
In this enjoyable yarn, which is indeed both fast and furious, Connie Adair (Dorothy Malone) pulls into a roadside diner, and quickly becomes the hostage of escaped convict Frank Webster (John Ireland), who just happens to be at the counter next to her when his cover is blown. Then he takes her prisoner in her own groovy little Jaguar and eludes the cops to freedom. It soon becomes obvious that Webster has met his match, when Connie begins calling the shots. “I would have to pick someone like you,” he mutters. She even cons him into entering a car race!
This public domain staple is noteworthy as an early Roger Corman production, shot in nine days for $50,000.00. It is also an early release for what would soon become American International Pictures, which gave us drive-in delights for two more decades. Already in his first year of filmmaking, Corman is perhaps introducing the first of his long line of strong female roles who do not cower from danger. Tough-talking Dorothy Malone (remember, she drank with Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep!) is a perfect foil for hardened criminal Frank Webster. John Ireland had been Oscar-nominated a few years previously for All the King’s Men, yet this innocuous movie would be a signpost for the countless B pictures he would earn a paycheque in for the rest of his life. And to his credit, he often took his work very seriously: once again giving a solid performance as the wrongly accused Webster. This was the second of two pictures he co-directed, following the previous year’s Hannah Lee: An American Primitive with Lee Garmes.
This early effort also shows what would be the Roger Corman stock company at work, as Floyd Crosby does the crisp cinematography, prune-faced Bruno VeSota shows up long enough to put his lecherous claws on a woman before getting knocked out, Jonathan Haze (whose 15 minutes of fame as Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors was still a way off) has a cameo as Connie’s would-be rescuer, and even Corman’s future production manager Lou Place has a tiny role! Brassy Iris Adrian (whom we would later see in Carnival Rock) has a showy supporting role as the motor-mouthed waitress in the diner.
The Fast and the Furious is a solid little B picture, which perhaps feels more like a 1940s Saturday matinee second feature than of anything in its own decade. This would make a great double bill with Detour: both are road movies with heels meeting their matches with female passengers, and have a heavy reliance on rear screen projection.
Originally published in The Roger Corman Scrapbook.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.