Fast Company *** (1938, Melvyn Douglas, Florence Rice, Louis Calhern, Claire Dodd, George Zucco, Shepperd Strudwick, Nat Pendleton, Douglass Dumbrille) – Classic Movie Review 6,134

Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice star as married rare-book dealers who try to solve a murder case, in MGM’s entertaining 1938 comedy mystery thriller film Fast Company.

Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice star as married rare-book dealers who try to solve a murder case, in director Edward Buzzell’s entertaining 1938 MGM American comedy mystery thriller film Fast Company. Louis Calhern, Claire Dodd, Shepperd Strudwick, Nat Pendleton, Douglass Dumbrille, Mary Howard and George Zucco also star.

It is a typical Thirties Thin Man-type mystery about a rare-book collecting and selling couple, Joel and Garda Sloane (Melvyn Douglas, Florence Rice), who run a rare book business in New York City. Business isn’t brisk or lucrative and Joel recovers stolen books to supplement their small income.

The couple try to help Ned Morgan (Shepperd Strudwick) find a job after being released from prison, thinking him innocent of stealing of books from their book-dealer competitor Otto Brockler (George Zucco). Ned is in love with Brockler’s daughter Leah (Mary Howard). Julia Thorne (Claire Dodd) is Otto’s secretary and Eli Bannerman (Louis Calhern) is his business associate. It is a rich crowd of characters.

But soon there is another kind of business. Joel and Garda find themselves investigating the killing of Otto, struck by a bust sitting on his desk, with Ned the main suspect, seen entering the office around the time of the murder.

A screen load of people wanted Zucco’s Otto Brockler out of the way, and now Melvyn Douglas’s Joel Sloane must find the murderer before he is the next victim.

Fast Company is a thoroughly well-made and amusing caper-style adventure, with a suitably fast pace and frothy tone, that became a sort of brief series with different stars in the leads: Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell play Joel and Garda Sloane in Fast and Loose (1939); Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern play Joel and Garda Sloane in Fast and Furious (1939).

Harry Kurnitz and Harold Tarshis’s screenplay is based on Kurnitz’s novel, writing as Marco Page. It was apparently ‘1938’s PRIZE Mystery Novel!’ But it is evidently ‘Now a Picture with twice the laughs and excitement!’ When did they stop calling the movies ‘the pictures’? And when did people stop saying ‘going to the pictures’?

Also in the cast are Mary Howard, Minor Watson, Donald Douglas, Dwight Frye, Thurston Hall, Horace McMahon, Barbara Bedford, James B Carson, Roger Converse, Jack Foss, Natalie Garson, Edward Hearn, Ronald R Rondell, Henry Sylvester and Wedgwood Nowell.

Fast Company is directed by Edward Buzzell, runs 75 minutes, is made by MGM, is released by Loew’s Inc, is written by Harry Kurnitz and Harold Tarshis, based on the novel by Harry Kurnitz, [Marco Page], is shot in black and white by Clyde De Vinna, is produced by Frederick Stephani, is scored by William Axt, and is designed by Cedric Gibbons.

It was later retitled Rare Book Murder for TV to avoid confusion with MGM’s 1953 horse-racing comedy film Fast Company.

The cast are Melvyn Douglas as Joel Sloane, Florence Rice as Garda Sloane, Claire Dodd as Julia Thorne, Shepperd Strudwick as Ned Morgan, Louis Calhern as Eli Bannerman, Nat Pendleton as Paul Terison, Douglass Dumbrille as Ned’s lawyer Arnold Stamper, Mary Howard as Leah Brockler, George Zucco as Otto Brockler, Minor Watson as Steve Langner, Donald Douglas as Lieutenant James Flanner, Dwight Frye as Sid Wheeler, Horace McMahon as Danny Scolado, Minor Watson,  Thurston Hall, Barbara Bedford, James B Carson, Roger Converse, Jack Foss, Natalie Garson, Edward Hearn, Ronald R Rondell, Henry Sylvester and Wedgwood Nowell.

MGM certainly had plenty of faith in the film. ‘Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s New Excitement! ‘The year’s best murder mystery’. ‘THE GAYEST MARRIED SLEUTHING SINCE MR. & MRS. THIN MAN’ ‘Meet a Type of Rowdy, Sleuthing Married Sweethearts! They’re Grand… and the Picture’s Even More Merrily Exciting Than the Prize Novel It was Taken From!’

Florence Rice (February 14, 1907 – February 23, 1974).

Florence Rice (February 14, 1907 – February 23, 1974) acted in almost 50 films between 1934 and 1943 but never became a major star. She is remembered for Double Wedding (1937), Sweethearts (1938) and At The Circus (1939).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,134

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