The Fast and the Furious (1954)

The Fast and the Furious (1954) was the movie that began Roger Corman's business relationship with Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson, and their American Releasing Corporation (later American International Pictures). On that basis alone, it's an important movie for establishing the link between one of the best low-budget filmmakers of the 1950s and '60s and the distribution company that issued most of his best work from those same decades, as well as for helping to establish that same company. Nicholson and Corman had known each other previously, when the former had worked at Realart Pictures, and while Corman had sold his first produced feature, Monster From the Ocean Floor, to another company, they'd stayed in contact and discovered, along with Nicholson's new business partner, Sam Arkoff, that each had something to offer the other. Corman initially had been unable to get John Ireland to star in the proposed movie for a fee below his normal asking price, but then Ireland came back and agreed to do it if he were allowed to direct it as well -- as Corman needed a director anyway, as well as needing Ireland for his star power, he agreed immediately. Ireland proved to be more than competent in his debut behind the camera, and the resulting movie was one of the more exciting and satisfying B-movie action thrillers of its period -- the racing scenes, which Corman worked on, and in which he was one of the stunt drivers, were handled exceptionally well, given the low budget and short shooting schedule (nine days total), while the dramatic sequences by Ireland and Dorothy Malone were consistently rewarding. Interestingly, Ireland showed a subtly vulnerable side in his portrayal of a man on the run that one seldom got to see in his screen work, while Malone was a memorably independent and self-actualized female screen figure for the early 1950s. The Fast and the Furious is one of the more enduring titles out of Corman's early output as a producer, and plays well even 50 years later, with the added allure that many of the racing cars shown in the rally sequences have since become classics in their own right. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide