The Fast and the Furious

This wonderful little picture proves that not every movie shot in black and white on a low budget in the early '50's, with plenty of cops, crooks, and guns is film noir. It starts out hinting that direction, though.

Frank Webster is serving time for murder until he breaks out of jail. Webster is all fatalistic about life and depressed about his circumstances, because he's been falsely convicted. Seems he's trying to make an honest buck as a trucker and his biggest rival tries to put him out of business by running him off the road. It is one of the rival's flunkies who is killed in the attempt, and this is the murder that Webster is framed for.

Enter the femme fatale, Connie Adair (Dorothy Malone). Webster kidnaps her and forces her to drive him to Mexico. Connie is plenty femme but not much fatale. She's decent, you see, wants Frank to give himself up and face a jury, where she is sure when his story is told, he will be exonerated. That pop sound you hear is the sound of my film noir balloon bursting.

Though it didn't live up to my expectations of what it would be, what it is turns out to be pretty good. John Ireland and Dorothy Malone give good performances, though they're the only ones who do. Ireland always presents to me as a Robert Mitchum clone, and he sure did here. Malone is stunning. Webster (Ireland) comments at one point on her figure, to which Connie (Malone) replies, indignantly, "There's *nothing* wrong with my figure!" Webster's response: "I noticed." And, he's not the only one.

Bottom line: This was American International's first picture, and they would go on to do many worse. I liked this picture, even if it wasn't film noir. 7 out of 10.

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.

Hi, Everyone, This is a good movie for anyone who likes old cars and fast girls. The police drove Nashes. Dorothy Malone looked great. John Ireland does a good job being the quiet, likable kidnapper type.

Snub Pollard from the Laurel and Hardy days is here in a small role. Look for his mustache.

A fill up of gasoline and a check of the oil comes to $4 at full service. That seemed a little high, but it was a name brand station.

The plot is your basic girl/race car driver being kidnapped by the only young guy in town. This is after she is hit on by the local truck driver/detective wannabe senior citizen who remains unconscious for most of the film.

This was probably an excellent movie for a rainy night at the drive-in theater. This film has some nice moments.

If you like John Ireland, watch Red River for one of his earlier roles. Dorothy Malone did a movie I enjoyed called The Last Voyage.

Tom Willett

You have to be kind of cruel not to give this film points for efforts. Despite an o0bviously low budget and tight schedule, Everyone involved in the film is making a real effort to give us a brief wild ride into the inner torment of a good man done wrong. The emphasis here on social class is especially striking, and the temporal tie that wraps the film - film begins when escaped con commandeers car to run away, ends when he leaves it to stop running - drives a remarkably even pacing throughout. John Ireland turns in a great performance (and is given co-directing credit), Roger Corman proves he can deliver for less, and compared with other cheapies of the time, much of the film has a real polish, overcoming flaws critics rightfully notice. Finally there is the script, with strong dialogue throughout. A film that looks lovingly backwards on film noir (but also with respect on Hitchcock's "39 Steps" from which the core relationship between Ireland and Malone is borrowed), and cautiously forward to the JD movie, which was only beginning to develop into a genre of its own. Actually, a remarkable achievement from all concerned, better than average b-movie of its time.

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.