Fast and Loose ** (1954, Stanley Holloway, Kay Kendall, Brian Reece) – Classic Movie Review 10,607

Director Gordon Parry’s 1954 British black and white comedy Fast and Loose is a rather slow and flabby remake of 1933’s A Cuckoo in the Nest about a newly married husband (Brian Reece) having to spend the night at a country inn with his married sexy former fiancée (Kay Kendall) after missing his wife (June Thorburn) at the station.

The two spouses then turn up at the hotel next day.

Ben Travers helped to rework his classy 1925 stage farce, but some venerable, much loved players are having some trouble with the not especially hilarious screenplay by A R Rawlinson and Ben Travers. Fast and Loose has all the makings of a fine British farce, but it just can’t really spark up or be very funny. Occasionally, though, some of the stage original’s brilliance shows through with enjoyable situations and amusing dialogue. And Kay Kendall, Joan Young, Fabia Drake, June Thorburn, Reginald Beckwith and Stanley Holloway can still delight.

Also in the cast are Stanley Holloway, Reginald Beckwith, Charles Victor, June Thorburn, Vida Hope, Dora Bryan, Joan Young, Fabia Drake, Aubrey Mather, Toke Townley, Alexander Guage, Eliot Makeham and John Warren.

The play opened on 22 July 1925 and ran for 376 performances at the Aldwych Theatre, London. It was the second in the series of 12 Aldwych farces presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls at the theatre between 1923 and 1933.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,607

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