Fast Company

This is a pretty good comedy drama about how Polly Bergen inherited one horse, had all the smart guys in racing take her for a sucker but still managed to triumph -- at least to the extent of snaring Howard Keel.

Polly Bergen is a little too one-note in her role, one that seems to have been tailor-made for Jane Wyman -- but that was another studio. Howard Keel is wonderful in his laid back role, which seems to have been written for Clark Gable. There's an excellent supporting cast, including Nina Foch -- who is a wonderful scene stealer here -- and Marjorie Main and John Sturges shows a good command of his cast and crew, moving surefootedly from comedy to drama.

The issue with the film is that it's all a little too familiar, both the polite love triangle and the horse story. It all results in a pleasant waste of time.

Carol Maldon (Polly Bergen) had to go take care of her horse after her father's death. Rick Grayton (Howard Keel) is the trainer. He keeps trying to make the horse lose so that he could buy it on the cheap.

I see where the comedy is coming from. I don't really find it funny. It's a reorganized Major League. I don't think it works. I'm not feeling the romance. I'm not feeling the chemistry. The other side could be better. This is not bad, but I'm not feeling it.

Fast Company is exactly what Polly Bergen finds herself in when she inherits her late father's stable. She also inherits trainer Howard Keel who has ideas about going out on his own with one of her horses with whom he sees potential champion. This horse responds to the dulcet singing tones of jockey Joaquin Garay and when Garay breaks into song, the horse kicks it into high gear.

Keel's also been romancing rich rival owner Nina Foch who does know her racehorse flesh. Despite them both rivals for Keel, the women do bond on a certain level. Will romance or sisterhood win out?

MGM like all the rest of the big studios never liked keeping their contract stars idle. So if there was no musical project for Howard Keel or Polly Bergen, they got to do something like Fast Company. Poor Polly she never did get to sing in one of those splashy MGM musicals. Dore Schary was in charge when this film was made and he was into the business of social significance. No one would say Fast Company had any messages though.

Interesting though with both Keel and Bergen in the film, the only singing was to the horse by Joaquin Garay. Maybe Keel and Bergen could have gotten more out of him with a couple of notes.

Fast Company certainly was nothing for anyone to have been ashamed of. It has quite a few amusing moments around Bergen learning the horse racing business the hard way and romance interfering all around.