User Reviews

Surprisingly solid production with an obviously very low budget (this was producer Corman's first film, I believe, and he is true to form). About a man on the run who kidnaps a lovely lady in a sports car. Of course, she falls in love with him when he gives her a picnic. Strictly stock footage and poor rear-projection for the race scenes. Some nice touches in the dialogue. It's actually surprising that this film emerges as watchable, but it even ends up being likeable. Well, it took me years to find it, but I can't say I ever expected it to be any good, so I guess I wasn't disappointed. First film for American International Pictures (then known as American Releasing Corporation or ARC, under the auspices of the infamous Alex Gordon, Jim Nicholson, and Sam Arkoff), whose only producers at that time were Gordon, Corman, and (eventually) Herman Cohen, if I got all the names right. Anyway, as most drive in fans know, these guys changed the world of movies, and I guess this little film is where it all started. Well, fast cars and girls in danger is a good film formula, so I guess they didn't pick a bad place to start off.

This may be one of very few opportunities to see real racers in real race cars on a real - late and lamented - racetrack. Pebble Beach was an early Mecca for road racing fans, and while there are some discontinuities and incongruous events in the story, some of what is shown on-screen will be of value to motor sport historians, who should be able to identify the drivers and cars. As a novelty, perhaps, but valuable.

John Ireland and Dorothy Malone went on to do some creditable work, and are not bad here, but to be honest, they don't have that much to work with. Not entirely a time-waster, at any rate.

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.

This is a decent if imperfect B-grade action feature, which today offers the added attraction of seeing the contemporary road-racing cars. The story uses a familiar plot idea, and simply adds the racing setting to give it some extra turns. The cast and characters are solid, though none of them really stands out.

John Ireland plays a wrongly-accused fugitive who kidnaps a female racer played by Dorothy Malone, and then heads for the border in her car. Roger Corman's story has some good sequences of action and drama, but there are a number of other stretches where things become dull or repetitive. The climactic race sequence offers an adequate finale, though it leaves you with the feeling of slightly unrealized potential.

The movie has enough strengths to be at least average for its time and genre. If you can overlook a few flaws, it's worth seeing as a way to pass an hour or so.

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.

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

****SPOILERS**** After a rival trucker tried to run Frank Webster, John Ireland, off the road and ends up losing control of his truck and plunging to his death Frank was arrested and put in the local jail. Later with a group of the truckers friends about to storm the prison and lynch him Frank breaks out and becomes a fugitive from the law.

At the start of the movie Frank is in a diner where he's spotted by one of the truckers Bob Nielson, Bruno DeSota, who are out looking to capture or kill him. As Bob pulls out a gun on Frank he gets flattens by him to the point where he's out cold for the rest of the movie. Frank takes off with one of the customers in the diner Connie Adair, Dorothy Malone, as a hostage as he drives away with her fast sports car. Frank ends up being on the run for the rest of the movie.

Fast moving and well paced film with Connie at first resisting and doing everything that she can to alert the police about Franks whereabouts. Later when she realizes that he's innocent and Connie feels that he'll be rightly vindicated in the courts just like he told her.

The movie revolves around a major race, the International, that goes from California to Mexico the country where Frank is trying to get away from the perusing police. With Connie entered and at the last moment banned from the race, because the race course had been deemed too dangerous for women drivers to participate on, Frank gets behind the wheel so he can get across the border into Mexico and freedom; without drawing any attention or suspicion from the police and then as they say the race is on.

With the police hot on his tail and with the Mexican border in sight Frank stops his car to save a fellow race car driver, who skidded off the road trying to get ahead of Frank, Frank gives up his chance to get across the border. Connie who's driving behind Frank comes to his as well as the injured race car drivers Faber, Bruce Carslisle, aid and feel guilty for calling the police who are on their way to arrest Frank. At the same time Frank feels that his running away from the law is over and that the courts, whom he trusts, will give him his freedom back.

John Ireland & Dorothy Malone are fine in the leading roles in the movie and the car chases and racing action keep the movie going at a quick pace with an above average story for this kind of action film.

"The Fast and the Furious" is also the first movie made by the then, 1954, fledging AIP: American International Pictures studios. The studios that made a name for themselves over the years for making top-flight and innovative films with up and coming actors and directors who were given their first chance to act in and direct a major motion picture

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.

Almost the entire movie takes place in the cockpit of a 1954 Jaguar XK120 roadster, a stunningly beautiful car in its day, and still highly admired by classic sports car enthusiasts, who will be the main audience for this movie.

The story line is a snoozer, the acting is amateurish, Ireland has only one facial expression, the grimace, which gets tiresome after 30 seconds, and the only interesting character in this turkey is the diner waitress. The opening scene is a truck crashing, but we don't find out what this has to do with anything else until halfway through the movie.

The real star of the picture is the car, and the clips from open road sports car racing in the early 1950's, before they moved to closed tracks. We get glimpses of some more Jaguars, MG's, Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, Nash-Healeys, Porsches, Allards, Jowetts, Aston-Martins, Oscas and Ferraris, some pre-WW1 speedsters in a vintage race, and a bit of the Pebble Beach Concours with a Rolls-Royce that has nothing to do with the plot.

If you know anybody with an old British sports car, buy this one for them at the dollar store. That's what I paid.

Goofs

There are continuity goofs galore in this turkey, mainly in the racing clips repeated and sometimes reversed, so you get car numbers backwards. Look for the sign in front of the marshal's stand that reads backwards.

At one point Ireland hot wires this strange car, in the dark, with absolutely nothing, in only a few seconds. Come on!

When the star car starts the race it is with white wire wheels, full width bumpers and without a front license plate, then at the first turn the plate appears, then the front bumpers disappear and become little bumperettes, then they reappear, the wheels change from white to dark and back again, and so on throughout the race. The pursuing car is also a Jaguar XK120, usually dark color with a full folded down light colored top, but at the road block it is light with a dark top, and in some shots it becomes an open roadster with a different style windshield. Short clips from other races are thrown in from time to time (gotta have some crashes). When the race is half over, the girl back at the starting line jumps into an Allard and somehow catches up to the Jags, by which time the Allard has changed color twice, and gained a spare tire on first the right side, then the left, then the right again, and now it has portholes in the side, definitely not the same Allard she started with.

I paid a buck for this at Walgreen's (tm) and it was a bargain at 3 times the price. This film is nothing like the 2001 film of the same name and that's good. Ireland does a great job being the criminal in this one and Malone is good as the head-smart woman-in-a-man's-world. Ultimately, the ending of the film is ruined by "the Code" which at the time prohibited films from having criminals in sympathetic roles (that's right, Bonnie & Clyde would have been a grindhouse exploiter in 1954). While the film really does look like Corman found a group of racers and decided to build a film around them, this is definitely not a bad film. Spend a dollar and watch this one while your dusting the den.

The mid-1900s was a time when film was still working its way into being less conservative for certain thematic material. Unlike today, when somebody hears the term "fast" or "furious" in the same sentence, many people think of the Universal Studios' billion dollar franchise that has soared to endless heights with its insane car stunts and character driven writing. Jumping back into the middle of the 20th century there's this film that Universal had acquired the title rights from and it's important to understand times were much different then. Not only is it super tame in its action and stunts but several other elements are slimmed down as well. Kiss those 130-blockbuster minutes goodbye, this feature rolls in at a tiny 72 minutes; barely enough to pass as a theatrical film these days. Believe it or not, these points don't sound promising but the film does stand on its own. It's just not anything beyond a one-time watch.

The story is about a wrongly convicted truck driver named Frank Webster (John Ireland) who is trying to escape to Mexico before the authorities can get a hold of him. Upon leaving a diner, he takes a lady named Connie Adair (Dorothy Malone) and her brand new Jaguar cruiser hostage in order to escape quickly enough from being arrested. The film was directed partially by main actor John Ireland and Edward Sampson; both of which were relatively new to directing. This was Sampson's first credit, Ireland's second and their last for both. For directing quality, it's focused but more or less uninspired. The script that was originally conceived by Roger Corman and then adapted by Jerome Odlum and Jean Howell is slightly better because the viewer will get an understanding of how and why Frank Webster is who he is. Also, those who fondly enjoy The Fast and the Furious (2001) will be able to see what pieces of the script of this film were lifted from. Other than the title and fast cars; sabotaging trucks, street races and wrongly convicted individuals go hand-in-hand with that of the 2001 film.

The screenplay still has its problems though with character motivations and dialog. Most likely due to the short run time, the speed at which characters change their opinion on certain matters feels unnatural or is just illogical. The problems with the dialog are simple to notice too. Much of the dramatic heft and delivery of lines range between cheesy 50s acting to stiff as a board. The cheesiness comes from when police officers are trying to get information from a suspect and it feels overly silly. The actor that is the most rigid in their role is surprisingly John Ireland. Considering Ireland had practically a decade to hone his acting chops, his deliver is emotionless here. Plus, what may be annoying to some viewers is that Ireland's character was written to always have the last word in a conversation. Yes, we understand Frank Webster is not a man to be messed with, but making him get in the last word to every conversation makes him sound immature.

For racing action, a lot is seen that it is all stock footage. For 1955, people most likely believed or found this to be adequate special effects. For today's standards of course not, but it should be appreciated for what is depicted and the effort that went into making it look as realistic as possible. There are some moments where producer/writer Roger Corman did act as a stunt driver and its not the easiest to tell actually. The time when Corman is a stunt driver is about as equally concealed as to today's films that try to hide certain stunts into a film. Either way there is some swift moving, sleek looking cars shot in this movie. If there's one thing this film highlights, it's how races used to be conducted back in the 1950s. Something of which many people don't see anymore and is a much different experience. There are also some crash and burn moments too but again, it is much less than what today's audiences have seen.

The cinematography handled by Floyd Crosby was decent too. Crosby, best known for working on House of Usher (1960) along side Corman demonstrate his ability to keep the camera focused on what's important on screen. Unfortunately it does suffer from shaking occasionally but not from today's "shaky-cam" issues. The problem arises more from the fact that some shots are filmed of which looked like the camera was physically on the back of a car. At that point in time back then, it is most likely that the right technology hadn't been created yet, or the budget did not allow for such fancy gadgets. But for as problematic as it may sound, those shots are actually the best because they feel the most real in the film without using green screen or other cheap effects. The music composed by Alexander Gerens was okay. It wasn't anything special with a main theme but it did give the film that classic 1950s sound that only a certain era of film making could provide. Can't knock that.

It's by no means even a very involving film, but it does have decent effects, camera-work and music. It also showcases retro cars along with other things that are different from that time. It's screenplay even gives somewhat of an understanding to where the parts in The Fast and the Furious (2001) came from. However, the rest of writing has shifty character motives and some unimpressive acting. At least it's only an hour or so long; it'll go by quick.

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.

A Legend, and a Visionary...Low-Budget Movie Guru and Star Maker Roger Corman's Second Attempt in Hollywood.

Solidifying a Foundation that would Become a Multi-Decade Whirlwind of Writing, Producing, and Directing.

His Fugal but Creative Style Set the Standard for Enterprising and Artistic Newbie Film-Makers.

With Respect for His Energy, Hutzpah, and Unblemished Success in a Fickle Industry Known for Eating its Young.

Corman's often Repeated Legacy Beyond Making Movies that Make Money,

is His Eye for Spotting and Exploiting Beginning Actors, Writers, and Directors with Talent and Put Them to Work,

Giving Them On-the-Job Training, Working for Peanuts.

The Result was a Dream-Like Road to Artistic and Financial Rewards for some of the Best Movie-Makers that Money Didn't Have to Buy.

The List of Artists He Helped on the Way to Super-Stardom is Long and Uncannily Impressive.

Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard and Charles Bronson are just a Few of the Multitude.

Here Rookie Corman mostly Stayed Behind the Scenes Taking Story Credit.

But it was His Talent, Energy and Fortitude that Gassed the Engine of this Modest but Entertaining Little Movie.

With 2 Leads Ireland and Malone that Drove the Central Propulsion to the Finish Line.

Worth a Watch.

An escaped killer kidnaps a girl, steals a roadster, and escapes by joining a road race to Mexico.

Well, the movie does make me nostalgic for years ago when a teen in our town rode around in his Jaguar XK like it was a royal coach. Of course, to the rest of us, it was. Anyhow, unless you like vintage sports models and fast cars, skip this otherwise turgid production. Corman shot it in 9 days and it shows. There's plenty of riding around the scrubby LA area, plenty of clumsy process close-ups, an awkward on-again off-again script, and maybe one interior set. In compensation, however, there's the incomparable Iris Adrian doing her patented cheap waitress bit.

I'd love to know what this meagre effort cost the notoriously pinch-penny Corman. He had a real coup, however, getting the luscious Malone, then on the brink of an A-film career, Battle Cry (1955), Written on the Wind (1956). Heck, she even lets her face get dirty. But you've got to hand it to our drive-in impresario. Corman quickly caught on that there was an untapped teen audience out there looking for just such things as silly stories, fast cars, and half-clad women. F and F stands as a stumbling early entry in that direction. His notorious rubber monsters and alien invasions would come later.

As this film starts we see a truck run off the road and burst into flames; we then cut to the sight of Connie, an attractive young woman driving a Jaguar sports car. She pulls into a roadside café and goes inside. As the waitress takes her order the radio announces that one Frank Webster has escaped from jail; where he was being held for murder, accused of running a truck off the road. There are two other men in the café, a slightly obnoxious trucker and a taciturn man who turns out to be Webster. After a confrontation which leaves the trucker unconscious Webster kidnaps Connie and steals her car. He is determined to get to Mexico but it won't be easy; there are numerous police checks on the way. It seems the only chance is to join a race that crosses the border; surely the police won't expect that!

This low budget film might not be as action packed as its more recent namesake but it is still rather fun and at just over seventy minutes in length it doesn't outstay its welcome. John Ireland and Dorothy Malone are solid as Frank and Connie; developing a good chemistry as the film progresses. There isn't a huge amount of action; just some fast driving and some crashes during the race. There are some mildly tense scenes when it looks like the police will try to arrest him and when Connie tries to get away. There are quite a few continuity errors but to be honest that didn't bother me; it just added to the low budget, B-movie charm. Overall this is hardly a must see but it is certainly fun enough.

While I enjoyed the plot, and especially the cars, the film had some glaring continuity errors, two of which I note here. 1) The Jag is seen approaching the starting line with no race number, and in the next shot it is still approaching the start bearing the '55' that had been allocated. 2) From the start of the film, the Jag boasted wire wheels. During the race the car had pressed steel wheels most of the time, yet occasional shots showed wire wheels again. Why change the wheels - or was it a different car?

There were also some technical errors that should have been picked up during the editing, the most obvious being the microphone boom reflected in the car's windscreen at one point. Maybe it was too late to re-shoot.

THE FAST- The cars. THE FURIOUS- Primarily, fuming, feisty Dorothy Malone, who doesn't take kindly to being kidnapped by desperate, on the run John Ireland.......and possibly a few irate punters demanding a refund.

Not that there is anything intrinsically WRONG with 'The Fast and the Furious'.....it's just a bit clunky and overtly derivative.

The hot topic of conversation in the opening diner scene is of a dangerous, escaped prisoner, but little interest is shown in the strong, silent, slightly shifty looking young man, maintaining a cool detachment, until a sudden explosion of flying fists leaves William Conrad lookalike, Bruno Ve Sota both decked and wrecked, whilst Ireland swiftly exits with his blonde captive.

The Hitch-Hiker link has already been alluded to, but when Ireland gives a false name, he chooses 'Myers', the moniker of William Talman's odious, sadistic character from the previous year's movie.

Ireland soon discovers that he may have bitten off more than he can chew. Malone proves to be more of a handful than Frank Lovejoy and Edmond O' Brien combined and is only seconds away from rewriting The Beatles song as She Came OUT Through the Bathroom Window, when the daring Dorothy attempts to escape via the ladies' room at a gas station.

Embarking on a race for the Mexican border, a caustic chemistry develops between the couple. Malone and Ireland deserve credit for breathing new life into the corpse of The Hitch-Hiker, though the movie's climax, with its neat tying up of loose ends, evokes little more than the agreeable conviviality of a Tupperware party.

Roger Corman was apprenticing in the art of filmmaking when he did The Fast And The Furious which starred John Ireland and Dorothy Malone. At times during the film both were fast and furious, mostly with each other.

If I was a guy on the run like John Ireland I sure would not have picked as conspicuous looking a car as a Jaguar. Try and boost a nice plain ordinary Dodge, the kind Al Bundy drives. But Ireland is on the run having busted out of jail after being arrested for a vehicular homicide. He's innocent of course, but as he puts it later to Malone 'it's not what you are, it's what you're taken for."

But when at a local hash house as Malone is a customer there with her Jaguar parked outside, Ireland has to make a run for it when another customer, a loudmouthed truck driver played by Bruno VeSota, recognizes him and pulls a gun. Ireland takes it away and takes Malone and her Jaguar with him.

The only way that Ireland gets away with it as long as he does is because dizzy waitress Iris Adrian never actually sees the car that Malone is driving outside and picks up on an offhanded comment she made about the jalopy she's driving. That's what she tells the cops. Adrian by the way is the best thing in the film, Corman should have gotten her back in somehow at the end.

The reason Malone has such a classy ride is that she's heading for what would now be a NASCAR event. Ireland decides to blend in and do the same. Of course when she gets there the chauvinist race officials tell her women can't drive.

Ireland and Malone do fine in the leads, working with a script that does border on the ridiculous. And the film would get hardly a notice if it weren't for the fact that it was a Roger Corman early vehicle.

As I said, Corman was just learning the business.

Roger Corman really outdid himself with this one it's lots of fun and unlike anything I've ever seen before It's not the greatest but if you're wanting to sit down and have fun with the old car movie this is the one to do it with

Talky early Roger Corman second bill features stony-faced Ireland kidnapping speed-Queen Malone after he skips trial for a crime he says he didn't commit.

Mild tension builds slowly for a film called "fast and furious", the romantic interludes disrupt an ostensibly reluctant union as the two forge a perverse co-dependency- Malone gets to race, whilst Ireland gets an alibi. The brassy and confident Malone is a neat contra to Ireland's edginess and their chemistry is likeable, albeit cliched. Expectedly, the ruse begins to fray as the race draws nearer and the fugitive runs out of room.

Fatally full of dialogue for a 70 minute chase picture, the pair spend vast amounts of screen-time trading barbs, walking to and from landmarks as they argue their predicament and the inevitability of its outcome. Despite some witty dialogue and assured performances from the experienced leads, the film is ultimately nixed by melodramatic padding which stifles an already modest plot.

It's hard to fault a Corman picture because it's economy is appreciated, but Fast & Furious this isn't and 4/10 is as good as it gets.