Fast Money

Shot on a shoestring (cast and crew stopped getting paid after the third week of production) and finally finished a couple of years later, the film never saw theatrical distribution that I know of. Surfaced in video stores in the late 80's as "Sybil Danning's Adventures presents 'Fast Money'." Good luck finding a copy today. Basically the same group of Austin, TX folks who made "The Whole Shootin' Match," the difference this time being that "Shootin' Match" director Pennell is the DP on this one (or was until his dismissal mid-way through filming)and "Shootin' Match" AD Doug Holloway is the director. Soundtrack by Austin-based "Asleep at the Wheel" does a lot to propel the story, which is the by-now-familiar tale of three innocents who start dealing pot and quickly discover that they can't get out of the business. Things start happy, things end badly; comic relief from Sonny Carl Davis and Lou Perry make it entertaining. The quartet of Davis, Perry, Pennell and Doris Hargrave re-teamed a few years later to make "Last Night at the Alamo."

A pot dealer (Sammy Allred) in Austin, Texas hires a couple of buddies (Sonny Carl Davis and Lou Perryman) to help him out on his marijuana runs from Mexico. Don't let the VHS cover fool you (there isn't a single gun fired in the film), this is more of a slice of high life. A lot of folks in this worked on Eagle Pennell's The Whole Shootin' Match (1978) a few years previous including the film's one-and-done director Douglas Holloway. I've never hung around 1970s Austin pot dealers but I suspect this is a pretty accurate representation. In the indie pot dealer movie battle, I'd give the edge to In Hot Pursuit (1977) because that has car chases and the lead characters are named Oosh and Doosh. That said, any film with Sonny Carl Davis and Lou Perryman - two really unsung cult actors - in it is worth at least one view.

Many of the people who were in this movie were friends, acquaintances and work colleagues in radio and TV in Austin, Texas from 1973 to 1982. Maybe that's why I liked it so much. I was given a copy decades ago while I was still working there. Maybe it was because I knew most of the people in the movie but I loved it. All the players in the game were themselves. To me that made it entertaining.

The copy of the movie I had was destroyed during in a bad divorce. If anyone knows where I can get a copy contact me barrykilgore@hotmail.com.

If you get a chance to watch it, do so. See how it's like to make a fun movie and have fun doing it. That was Austin at the time.