| The Fast Lady | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Ken Annakin |
| Written by | Henry Blyth Jack Davies |
| Based on | book byKeble Howard |
| Produced by | Leslie Parkyn Julian Wintle |
| Starring | James Robertson Justice Leslie Phillips Stanley Baxter Kathleen Harrison Julie Christie |
| Cinematography | Reginald H. Wyer |
| Edited by | Ralph Sheldon |
| Music by | Norrie Paramor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | The Rank Organisation (UK) Continental Distributing (US) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Fast Lady is a 1962 Britishcomedy film, directed byKen Annakin and starringJames Robertson Justice,Leslie Phillips,Stanley Baxter,Kathleen Harrison, andJulie Christie.[1] The screenplay was by Henry Blyth andJack Davies,[2] based on the 1925 novelThe Fast Lady byKeble Howard.[3] It was the third in a trilogy of comedies written by Jack Davies that Annakin made forIndependent Artists.[4][5]
Don Sharp directed second unit.[6] "The Fast Lady" is the name of avintageBentley.[7]
A loose sequel,Father Came Too!, was released in February 1964.[8]
Murdoch Troon is a proud Scot living and working for a local government authority somewhere inSouth London. A shy young man, his main excitement comes from cycling. After he is forced off the road by an impatient car driver, he tracks down the owner, only to find that he is Commander Charles Chingford, the domineering and acerbic owner of a sports car distributorship.
Chingford reluctantly pays for the damage to Murdoch's cycle, but more significantly, Murdoch meets Claire, Chingford's beautiful blonde daughter, and is smitten with her. She tells him she loves sports cars and would love to have one but "her great dictator" (meaning her father) won't allow it. Despite not being able to drive, Murdoch is talked into buying a car to impress her by his friend and fellow lodger, Freddie Fox, a used car salesman and serialcad. Freddie sees a chance to ingratiate himself with Chingford and also to sell Murdoch a car. The car is a 1927 vintageBentley 4½ Litre Red Label Speed model, painted inBritish Racing Green and namedThe Fast Lady.
Murdoch has his first driving lesson in a less exciting car, anAustin A40 Farina, which proves to be a comedy of disasters with nervous instructor Wentworth. Freddie then makes a deal with Murdoch and offers to teach him, but the results are equally disastrous.
Unwilling to give up, and determined to prove his love for Claire, Murdoch bets her father that he can drive the car. An experienced racing driver, Chingford is convinced that Murdoch has no hope of achieving this — and bets him that he cannot. Murdoch takes Chingford for a drive in the Bentley and loses the bet. But the tables are turned when Chingford loses Murdoch's counter-bet that Chingford cannot drive back home in less than 30 minutes. He then reluctantly allows Claire to go out with Murdoch in the car.
The day comes for Murdoch's driving test. Freddie has set him up with a 'bent' examiner, but Murdoch draws the 'wrong' examiner, Bodley. As the test comes to an end (and Bodley is almost certainly going to fail Murdoch), the car is commandeered by police to chase aJaguar car driven by escaping bank robbers. The high speed chase takes them through town and country, across a golf course (leaving in its wake a trail of disasters) and eventually the robbers are caught. The now furious Bodley says that Murdoch not only fails but is "banned for life", but Chingford pooh-poohs this. Rather, he so admires Murdoch's driving skill that he will allow the couple to get engaged.
Graham Hill,John Surtees,Raymond Baxter andDickie Davies have cameos in the race scene in Murdoch's dream.
The Fast Lady is a 1927Bentley 4½ Litre Red Label Speed model withVanden Plas short chassis fabric body, registration number TU5987. It was sold by a specialist dealer in 2010.[9] In the film, Claire Chingford (Julie Christie) saysThe Fast Lady is a 3-litre.
A scene involving a striptease by Claire was heavily censored.[4]
The film opened at theOdeon Marble Arch inLondon in December 1962.[10]
It was one of the 12 most popular films at the British box office in 1963.[11]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "An attempt to please an affluent society through a brash portrayal of its current fads and fancies. Everything is here: the Twist, sentimental Scottish songs, vintage cars, the driving test, and an assortment of fashionable popsies.James Robertson Justice looks uncomfortable as a vacillating and over-fond father, knowing that his attempts to separate his daughter from a *haggis-headed halfwit" are sure to fail. Precedent demands that the boy from the wrong side of town marry the daughter of the local tycoon, and so does the banal script. Relief arrives momentarily in the shape of a chase reminiscent of theKeystone Cops, punctuated by the untimely ascent ofFrankie Howerd from a manhole."[12]
Variety wrote "A thin idea is pumped up into a reasonably brisk, amusing situation comedy, which is helped by a cast of experienced farceurs. In dialog, the pic is short on wit but there is enough slapstick fun."[7]
TheRadio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Despite driving up too many B roads, this story of a civil servant (Stanley Baxter), his car (aBentley) and the girl on whom he dotes (Julie Christie) has such a degree of fresh-faced innocence that you appreciate the film's charm rather than notice the rambling plot. ThisRank movie is tackled with relish by the cast: Christie is simpering and decent, Baxter is spot-on with his "gormless comic" style and James Robertson-Justice booms throughout."[13]
The Fast Lady was issued onRegion 2DVD in the UK on 2 February 2004. A high definition restoration from the original film elements was released on DVD andBlu-ray by Network on 24 February 2020.[14]