Fast Company (1938)

One of my all time favorites.

Memorable, crazy movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Melvyn Douglas and Flo Rice are Joel and Garda, owners of a rare book business. Similar to Thin Man series, they are a husband and wife team solving mysteries. In this case, the insurance company hires them to figure out whats going on in the book market. Soooo similar to Thin Man... husband and wife flirt relentlessly. they drink. they smoke. they bicker in a friendly fashion. They even have Joel playing tricks on wifey to make sure she goes home while hubby goes off to do some dangerous sleuthing. So much talking. Both film series made by MGM. CLEARLY they were trying to capitalize on a good formula! Shepperd Strudwich is "Ned", accused of moidah. Julia, the secretary seems to be playing a role in all of this, played by Claire Dodd. Dodd would only make films a couple years more, quitting to raise a family. Rice would also quit Hollywood just a couple years later. The plot here is in-consequential... its all pretty bland. they run circles around the police department and solve the big case. Whatever. No big deal. nothing new to see here. Its a fine film, just another copy of the original.

Okay, so they're not Nick and Nora, but MGM produced this and 2 other such films (with different stars) to fill in the time gaps between films in the "Thin Man" series. Nevertheless, this is a neat little murder mystery.If there's a significant problem here, it's that Florence Rice (the female lead) can't hold a candle to Myrna Loy. Too bad she is held to that standard, but Rice just didn't have the gravitas (for wont of a better word) to do so. It's a shame, because on the other hand, Melvyn Douglas does quite nicely here not only as an alternative to William Powell, but also in his own right. For many years I knew Douglas only as an older and very serious actor, but in his younger days he played quite a few light and flip characters...this being one.In terms of supporting actors, they mostly do their jobs, but none shine. Claire Dodd is pretty decent as the other woman, deeply involved in criminal activity, yet seemingly not a criminal. Shepperd Strudwick, around whom the plot focuses, strangely disappears a little bit into the film...for no good reason. Louis Calhern -- in later films a favorite character actor of mine -- plays the primary bad guy here...and does "okay". You'll recognize Nat Pendleton as a dumb bad guy, Douglass Dumbrille as a lawyer, George Zucco as a semi-bad guy, and another favorite character actor of mine -- Minor Watson. Again, they all do what they need to do, but that's about all.The script is better than the character actors. The leads are involved in rare books, are presented with an odd murder case that deals with such books, and humorously work to solve the mystery and save a friend. It's an interesting little plot, though nothing to write home about.The comparisons with "The Thin Man" series are inevitable, and although this film doesn't quite compare, it's still a pretty good little story -- but a B, not an A, picture.

The first and best of the three "Fast" films featuring Joel and Garda Sloane turned out by M-G-M in 1938 and 1939, "Fast Company" features not only an intriguing mystery plot, but a most entertaining glimpse of the rare book business. Mind you, it helps immensely that Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice make such a superb team as Joel and Garda. It makes me wonder why M-G-M didn't capitalize on this success and feature Douglas and Rice in follow-up movies. Douglas certainly went up and up the entertainment ladder, while Rice was handed smaller and smaller roles and quickly found herself – but still as the star – on Poverty Row! Her final film, "The Ghost and the Guest", was released by PRC in 1943. Getting back to "Fast Company", it also helped that the support players are all in such fine form, particularly Claire Dodd, Louis Calhern, Douglass Dumbrille and George Zucco. Nat Pendleton also distinguishes himself in a most unusual role as a comic hit-man. The character is amusing but at any moment we're aware that given the chance, he'll shoot our hero dead! A fine piece of acting, cleverly balancing stupidity and suspense! Watch out for silent star Barbara Bedford as the D.A.'s (Thurston Hall's) secretary. Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.

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.