Règlement de comptes

Married couple Garda (Florence Rice) and Joel Sloane (Melvyn Douglas) are rare books dealers. They work for an insurance company to recover lost books to make ends meet. They try to help recently released convict Ned Morgan with a job. He was imprisoned for stealing from his girlfriend Leah's father Otto Brockler. When Otto gets murdered, Ned becomes the prime suspect. The couple investigates.

The introduction of the rapid-fire couple is the bee's knees. The introduction of the case is a bit clunky. It would be better to leave more of the case hidden. It needs more from Ned Morgan. It needs to show him with Leah. This is a showcase for the investigative couple's rat-a-tat-tat banter. Melvyn Douglas is perfect and Florence Rice has good chemistry with him. It only makes the constant recasting of the duo all the more head-scratching. The point should be to make this couple iconic but that's almost impossible if they keep changing the actors.

Fun film starring Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice as Joel and Garda Sloane, rare bookdealers. There were three of these films and they were intended to cash in on the success of the Thin Man. However, Fast Company stands on its own very nicely.

Unlike Nick and Nora, Joel and Garda have visible means of support. In this story, the couple works to clear a young man (Shepperd Strudwick) of murder after he leaves prison for a burglary - for which he was framed.

The dialogue is fast and witty, and Joel and Garda are very affectionate and enjoy teasing one another. Douglas and Rice have great chemistry.

Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern started as the couple in another film, Fast and Furious, and Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell starred in a third. Sorry there weren't more. Douglas and Rice were the best, in my opinion.

In her whirlwind MGM career, Florence Rice made more than 40 movies from 1934 to 1943, starring opposite a who's who of leading Roberts of the era: six movies with Robert Young, three more with Robert Taylor, and one with her 3rd husband, Robert Wilcox. (OK, Wilcox was less of a who's who and more of a "who's dat?") In this movie, she's in the traditional Myrna Loy role with Melvyn Douglas basically "trying out" to replace the ailing William Powell in the "Thin Man" movies. (Here, Melvyn & Flo are book shop owners solving crimes on the side.) Well, it was not to be, as that kind of on-screen chemistry couldn't easily be manufactured, and fortunately for all involved, Powell recovered in time to heroically resume his signature Nick Charles role. Meanwhile, this movie came and went, Melvyn moved on to bigger and better roles, and MGM's career mismanagement would ensure that Florence Rice would begin moving more swiftly toward her 30-year-long retirement with her 4th/final husband.

This is one of several movies - more than just this one starring Melvyn Douglas as the husband/sleuth - that were made in the 30's trying to piggy-back off the success of 1934's "Thin Man". This one is pretty good, but it lacks what nearly all of the other Thin Man knock-offs lack - any perceived chemistry between the husband/wife sleuth team. In fact, I thought Douglas' scenes with Claire Dodd were more believable than the rather forced attempts at getting sparks to fly between Melvyn Douglas as rare book dealer Joe Sloane and Florence Rice as his wife Garda.

Apparently the Sloane book dealing business itself isn't doing that well,so Joe has been picking up extra bucks by finding stolen rare books and getting a 10% cut from the insurance company on what they would have had to pay had the books not been found. A friend of the Sloanes, Ned Morgan, has just gotten out of jail for stealing some rare books that were never recovered. He has always proclaimed his innocence, but after he's out of jail it seems the Sloanes and Ned's girl Leah Brockler are the only people who believe him - he can't find a job anywhere. Plus Leah's wealthy dad Otto Brockler (George Zucco) is threatening Ned with more jail if he doesn't leave Leah alone.

Well, next thing Otto is found dead, bludgeoned to death in his office by a statue on his desk. Joel gets involved because the police are already measuring a missing Ned for the electric chair. There are a multitude of suspects including Claire Dodd as Otto's secretary who dresses in expensive fashions considering her small salary, plus a couple of rare book counterfeiters played to perfection by Louis Calhern and Dwight Frye.

The pace is fast moving, the characters interesting, and Joel seems to move effortlessly through his sleuthing paces, just dripping with self confidence. This had me wondering - where did a rare book dealer come up with all of these detective skills? With a mystery film, the question I ask at the end is - would I watch it again, now that I know who did what? The answer in this case is yes - because the characters and just not the twists and turns of the plot make it memorable. Recommended.

It was hard to not want to see 'Fast Company' after seeing comparison to 'The Thin Man' film series, a very entertaining series of films and the best of them are great even. Seeing a younger Melvyn Douglas, who has shown some fine performances in other things and excelled at more than one type of role, also appetised. 'Fast Company' has the sort of story that appeals to me straightaway with no reservations, being someone who loves the mix of mystery and comedy.

'Fast Company' is the first of a series of three films, the others being 'Fast and Loose' and 'Fast and Furious'. Of the three, do have to agree with others that 'Fast Company' is the best. It won't ever be a personal favourite and have seen even better and more polished examples of the mystery/comedy mix. It is still hugely entertaining though and anybody that liked 'The Thin Man' films should find a good deal to enjoy here, as there is plenty.

The production values may lack polish in places.

While Florence Rice actually doesn't do too badly as the female lead and is appealing enough, she never quite excited me somehow.

She does have charming chemistry with Douglas, as wonderfully suave as ever with some grit and snappy comic timing as well, which contributes a lot towards 'Fast Company's' appeal. The supporting cast are also strong, with a sinister Louis Calhern standing out. The villains are a colourful and intimidating lot and it is hard to dislike the two lead characters. There is atmosphere to the lighting and William Axt's music score is typically moody, he was always very good at that.

Further advantages are a sharp and tightly structured script with plenty of snappy banter that sparkles in its wit, and a story that is gripping and eventful with plenty of turns without being too convoluted. It is a lot of fun and has some nice suspense, the pace always fast so that it doesn't get routine, and it never insults the intelligence or gets too silly. The characters are not exactly complex but are well characterised and carry the story really well.

Overall, hugely entertaining and well worth seeing. 8/10