Detective films were all the rage in the 1930s. The Thin Man, Bulldog Drummond, The Saint… the list goes on and on. When FilmStruck dropped their recent Busby Berkeley collection, a little detective picture jumps out in the sea of musicals. While Fast and Furious is one of a number of detective movies coming out of the 1930s, the feature is an interesting viewing. As a fan of the 1930s detective picture, classic films and the studio system in general, there is a lot to see in this deep cut.

The film follows Joel and Garda Sloan (Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern) as the Nick and Nora-esque sleuths travel down to a Brooklyn beauty pageant to help out a buddy (Lee Bowman). While there, they stumble onto a story of intrigue and mystery. The film is directed by Busby Berkeley from a script by Harry Kurnitz.

From the opening frames, Fast and Furious is clearly attempting to capitalize on cinematic gold. In 1934, MGM debuted the gold standard for crime solving couples: Nick and Nora Charles. The Thin Man mystery series spanned six films and thirteen years at MGM. 

This film is itself one of a series. Fast and Furious is preceded first by Fast Company in 1938, which starred Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice and later by Fast and Loose, which featured Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell.

Like most of these films, the mystery is largely of the throwaway variety. It involves some hastily constructed intrigue before everything is tied up neatly within a relatively short runtime. Rather, it is the characters we’re tuning in for. Particularly entertaining is Ann Sothern, who absolutely shines in the role of the oft-suffering wife. The ladies of the 1930s absolutely nailed the often thankless caricature. Sothern’s take on Garda is as independent, feisty and intelligent as Nora Charles. She’s her own woman. Furthermore, she more than matches up with (and even out talks) on-screen husband Franchot Tone. She shines with the occasionally tricky dialogue and sells the moments of physical comedy.

Sothern is a name which sadly hasn’t transcended the decades as well as some of her contemporaries like Katherine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell. However, the actress positively shines on screen as one of the best actresses working of her era. If you are at all a fan of these other ladies, take a look into Ann Sothern’s work.

Meanwhile, Franchot Tone seems somewhat miscast in this role. The actor was a mainstay in Hollywood, having experienced a meteoric rise to stardom in the complicated early years of sound pictures. Tone was an Ivy League man who cut his teeth on Broadway. Everything about his star persona belongs in the literary prestige pictures of the Irving Thalberg era at MGM. He struggles to keep up in this fast-talking structure, something in which contemporaries William Powell and Cary Grant excelled.

Where we see Tone at his best is in the quiet moments of the movie. His physical chemistry with Sothern is top notch, and the two are more than believable as a couple. In these moments, Joel’s vulnerability shines through and we see the strength that Garda brings to the narrative.

Interestingly, the film steps away from a typical trope of the 1930s detective picture. Traditionally, our hero gets all of the suspects together in one room, breaks down the crime and proceeds to expose the criminal in a neatly fashionable way before the final credits roll. In a meta moment, Fast and Furious actually calls attention to this trope, with Garda teasing her husband about how he’s going to have “the meeting”. She even makes fun of the idea. However, when things seem to be building towards the climatic sequence, the film goes a different way. 

Ultimately, Fast and Furious pales in comparison to the many detective pictures gracing screens in the 1930s. This is no Thin Man movie. However, the film does brings interesting performances (particularly by actress Ann Sothern) as well as a surprisingly accurate analysis of cinematic tropes. Was “meta” a thing in the 1930s? It seems Fast and Furious certainly demonstrates some self-reflexive moments during the peak of the classic Hollywood era.

Fast and Furious is currently airing on FilmStruck. 

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