The Fast and the Furious

John Ireland plays a man who escaped from prison and is trying to make his way to freedom in Mexico. Along the way, he takes a hostage (Dorothy Malone) and steals her car. Most of the movie consists of this journey together to freedom.

When I saw that John Ireland starred in this film, I made extra sure to see it as he's one of my favorite "unknown" actors from Hollywood in the 40s and 50s. I love his films because he was a great Film Noir star--kind of ugly and tough--exactly what you'd expect for the genre where "pretty boys" are unwelcome. However, while this film has a few Film Noir qualities (after all, it's about a man wanted for murder), it really isn't exactly Noir and Ireland's character lacks the delicious evilness that I'd hoped to see. While tough and full of snappy dialog, his character is just too likable and the plot too upbeat to be considered Noir by us purists. In addition, having Malone and Ireland fall in love was just wrong--making no sense and thereby damaged the film's sense of realism--something imperative to have in Noir. Plus, all the grainy stock footage of auto races just seemed cheap and out of place. As a result of all these factors, I was very disappointed and so would be other fans of Noir and it's a low budget time-passer and unfortunately not much else.

Surprisingly solid production with an obviously very low budget (this was producer Corman's first film, I believe, and he is true to form). About a man on the run who kidnaps a lovely lady in a sports car. Of course, she falls in love with him when he gives her a picnic. Strictly stock footage and poor rear-projection for the race scenes. Some nice touches in the dialogue. It's actually surprising that this film emerges as watchable, but it even ends up being likeable. Well, it took me years to find it, but I can't say I ever expected it to be any good, so I guess I wasn't disappointed. First film for American International Pictures (then known as American Releasing Corporation or ARC, under the auspices of the infamous Alex Gordon, Jim Nicholson, and Sam Arkoff), whose only producers at that time were Gordon, Corman, and (eventually) Herman Cohen, if I got all the names right. Anyway, as most drive in fans know, these guys changed the world of movies, and I guess this little film is where it all started. Well, fast cars and girls in danger is a good film formula, so I guess they didn't pick a bad place to start off.

This is a decent if imperfect B-grade action feature, which today offers the added attraction of seeing the contemporary road-racing cars. The story uses a familiar plot idea, and simply adds the racing setting to give it some extra turns. The cast and characters are solid, though none of them really stands out.

John Ireland plays a wrongly-accused fugitive who kidnaps a female racer played by Dorothy Malone, and then heads for the border in her car. Roger Corman's story has some good sequences of action and drama, but there are a number of other stretches where things become dull or repetitive. The climactic race sequence offers an adequate finale, though it leaves you with the feeling of slightly unrealized potential.

The movie has enough strengths to be at least average for its time and genre. If you can overlook a few flaws, it's worth seeing as a way to pass an hour or so.

Frank Webster, (John Ireland) is a truck driver and is accused of killing another truck driver by driving him off the road and John breaks out of jail and finds a diner to eat and meets up with Connie Adair, (Dorothy Malone). John's identity is questioned in the diner by a man and is very suspicious of him and John knocks him out and grabs Connie and takes off in her sports racing jaguar. Connie and Frank go for very speedy rides through out California to Mexico and they even enter a car race with the police following them all the way. Connie & Frank manage to get along after fighting with each other all the time and there eventually becomes a romantic relationship between the two of them. John Ireland was also the director of this film and Dorothy Malone looked very young and attractive and they both gave an outstanding performance in this black and white B Film by Roger Corman.

This may be one of very few opportunities to see real racers in real race cars on a real - late and lamented - racetrack. Pebble Beach was an early Mecca for road racing fans, and while there are some discontinuities and incongruous events in the story, some of what is shown on-screen will be of value to motor sport historians, who should be able to identify the drivers and cars. As a novelty, perhaps, but valuable.

John Ireland and Dorothy Malone went on to do some creditable work, and are not bad here, but to be honest, they don't have that much to work with. Not entirely a time-waster, at any rate.