Fast and Loose

This unheralded little light comedy-drama was a happy surprise; when it is discussed it usually is panned harshly (Leonard Maltin I believe rated it only one and a half stars) but I found it very appealing and a pleasant film. Star Miriam Hopkins is a bit of an acquired taste, there is always a touch of sourness to her performances, no sweet, friendly ingenue she, unlike most blonde star. Give her a role where she is caustic or scheming however and she is superbly cast (Becky Sharp, The Old Maid, Old Acquaintance) and gives a great performance. Here she plays a role a touch in that vein and it's one of best performances and let's her have a warmer edge to her mischievousness. She's a bored heriess engaged to a Lord she's disinterested strictly because her family wants her to marry a title (it's a nice touch while the Lord is in the relationship for the money as per usual, he's not the sleazy creep of other films but rather a dullard.) Miriam adores her brother (Barry Hutchinson) who is secretly engaged to chorus girl Carole Lombard and envies their loving, playful relationship. She breaks the engagement in pursuit of real love and stumbles upon handsome hunk Charles Starrett at the beach. They quarrel a bit that first night but Miriam comes back for seconds the next night, finding romance for the first time. Trouble is she eventually learns he is a mechanic and she is an heiress - and he happens to be employed by her father. When Miriam and Barry's father learns of his romance with showgirl Carole he schemes to buy her off, unaware his daughter is also now in a relationship "beneath" the family.

Charles Starrett would be a popular western movie star a few years later but here is one gorgeous hunk of a romantic leading man (check out those photos on the IMDb page to this movie!) very believable as the sort of Adonis a love-struck woman would chase after despite any obstacles. (I also found it amusing that his somewhat strong Southern accent provokes Miriam's own to come to the surface at times, particularly on certain words.) Carole Lombard is lovely but hers is a pretty small part despite her second billing (understandable since she was the only Paramount contract player in the film besides Miriam) and the rather unknown Barry Hutchinson is very good as the boozy brother. Ilka Chase is a revelation as Carole's horny, man-hungry pal. Ms. Chase is best known for playing elegant society women like Bette Davis' sister-in-law in Now Voyager but here she's a thin, physical comedienne along the lines of Charlotte Greenwood and Joan Davis. Fast and Loose is indeed fast and rather loose, too. Recommended.

Considering that this was adapted from a play (by nailing a camera to the end of the stage), you'd think the characters would have been more rounded. Shallow one-dimensional characters and a tiresome cliched story isn't the best combination for an entertaining movie.

The most disappointing aspect of this picture is that it doesn't convey any of the atmosphere you often get in a film from 1930. Maybe that's because of its stagey origin or maybe it's because it's based on a stuffy play from the early twenties? The plot has been done a million times and usually done a lot better than this. The acting is fine - not naturalistic but ok for 1930. Miriam Hopkins, in her first talkie is the most impressive and almost believable but the rest are just a bunch of actors reading lines from a script they've seemingly just been handed. It's not their fault but they're just poorly written parts.

We have stock stereotypes: stuffy, entitled and snobbish parents, spoilt, entitled and irresponsible youngsters and pure as the driven snow salt of the earth types. It's one of those lazily written films where the rich are all horrible and the poor are perfect. Not perhaps an obvious theme from Paramount considering their typical audience demographic but the rich eventually and predictably become unfeasibly lovey, lovely people so that willing appease their consciences.

I've seen worse but I'll not be searching out any more films from Fred Newmayer.

An amusing trifle from the early sound period, "Fast and Loose" concerns the wealthy Lenox family of Long Island, whose two spoiled adult children have fallen for a mechanic and a chorus girl, both decidedly lower class and unsuitable to marry into the family. Based on a play, the short film is stagy and static; director Fred C. Newmeyer, obviously constrained by the new sound-recording process, rarely moves the camera, and his framing is invariably mid-shot, no close-ups at all. The story is predictable fluff, and some of the dated dialogue will have feminists howling. However, with Preston Sturges credited for writing the dialogue, the lines are often quite good, and the film moves at an entertaining pace.

Fortunately, the cast is superior to the flimsy story, with Miriam Hopkins outstanding as Marion Lenox, the multi-engaged young woman, who falls for handsome Henry Morgan, played by future western star, Charles Starrett, in his first credited role. After a moonlight swim together in the ocean, Marion has obviously admired Henry in his bathing suit, because she overlooks his misogynist remarks about women and motor cars and submits to his male dominance. Meanwhile, Marion's inebriated brother, Bertie, played by good-looking Henry Wadsworth, is engaged to showgirl Alice O'Neill, played by a young and lovely Carole Lombard. Lombard is years before emerging into stardom, and she is pleasant, if unremarkable, herein. Frank Morgan and Winifred Harris are fun as the elder Lenoxes, however, Ilka Chase and Barry O'Moore steal their scenes as Alice's wild roommate and Marion's stuffy uncle. Chase's pursuit of O'Moore is quite funny and lightens the film considerably.

Despite a dated script and pedestrian direction, "Fast and Loose" overcomes its flaws with the aid of a fine cast. While no great classic, the film is modestly entertaining and showcases Miriam Hopkins and Ilka Chase, as well as giving early evidence of the talent to come in Preston Sturges and Carole Lombard.

Despite some heavyweight writing credits -- Avery Hopwood co-wrote the play, and Preston Sturges contributed dialogue to the movie -- and some fine performers -- Frank Morgan, Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, and Ilka Chase in the best role in the movie -- I was not impressed. It starts out with Miss Hopkins engaged to David Hutcheson. It's a marriage of desire; he desires her family fortune, and Miss Hopkins' mother, played for the stage by Winnifred Harris, desires a title for her daughter. Meanwhile, Miss Hopkins' brother, played callowly by Henry Wadsworth, wants to marry Miss Lombard. This all falls apart when Miss Lombard spots Charles Starrett swimming in the moonlight. She pursues him, only to discover he's the auto mechanic daddy Morgan has hired. She wants him nonetheless, but he isn't going to marry her because she has too much money. Meanwhile, the parents find out, and start measures to end these unsuitable matches.

It all culminates in a very funny scene in a roadhouse, where Miss Chase steals everyone's thunder. But there's a long summing up, ending in the conclusion that too much unearned money is dead weight on the recipient's character. True enough, but this show fails by not following this line to its logical conclusion. In the end it's a romantic comedy that in a few years would have been a fine little screwball farce. It's pleasant enough in spots, but far too conventional.

Nothing pleased Depression Era audiences more than when working class people like chauffeurs and chorus girls got to date the rich sons and daughters of those with lots of money to waste. 99% of the audience fantasized it would be them as the rich son or daughter's new companion, because 99% of them were poor. Of course, they had no such change in real life. But for an hour or so, they could at least dream. I will take Carole Lombard over Miriam Hopkins for overall effect. The plot of the film is pretty original; as original as a copying machine. Don't bother watching this turkey unless you want to see an early Lombard performance.