The 1939 FAST AND FURIOUS was the third film of the crime solving husband and wife team of Joel and Garda Sloane. Oddly, each film featured different actors playing the roles. Here, Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern play the parts. Busby Berkeley directed.
Joel Sloane is a book dealer and Garda works as his secretary. In the film, it’s a hot summer and she’s scheming to get them away for the weekend to a cooler place.
When old friend Mike Stevens drops by the office and hits him up for a five thousand dollar loan, to go with his matching funds on a business investment, Sloane succumbs when he learns it’s a beauty pageant on the ocean in Jersey. Unknown to him, he’s made one of the judges.
Garda is a jealous woman sometimes and is suspicious when they get there, laying down the law. Sloane promises but keeps finding himself in the midst of beautiful women and gets pulled in.
I’ve not seen any of the other films, but I presume the cop friend that shows up and needs his help was in the
other entries in the series. The show promoter, and the one Mike had invested the ten grand with, is about to be indicted and word has slipped that he’s skipping with the pageant funds, taking one of the contestants with him.
He gets murdered when Mike rushes up to get his money back and gets hung with the charge. It’s up to Joel and Garda to find the real killer, what happened to the money, and then the killer of one of the contestants.
And we won’t even mention the three lions in the Sloane bedroom.
Interesting comedy/suspense film.
Todd Mason does the gathering as always on Tuesdays over at Sweet Freedom.
