Main Cast: James Robertson Justice, Stanley Baxter, Leslie Phillips, Kathleen Harrison, Julie Christie
Release Year: 1963
Country: UK
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
The star of this slapstick comedy is not a person but an antique Bentley sports car, the source of several misadventures. Murdoch Troon (Stanley Baxter) is a simple civil servant who has his heart set on romancing Claire (Julie Christie in an early role), the daughter of wealthy businessman Charles Chingford (James Robertson Justice). As a part of his scheme to appear irresistible, Murdoch takes driving lessons so he will be able to impress Claire in the Bentley. Both the lessons and his driving test produce moments of hilarity, and as might be expected, there cannot be a movie featuring a car without a wacky, wild chase. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Review
An amiable and unpretentious, if not especially enthralling, little comedy, The Fast Lady is best appreciated when in the mood for a very light, very slapstick-oriented piece of fluff. To say that Henry E. Blyth and Jack Davies' screenplay is a bit "slapdash" is an understatement: the authors have just taken their basic premise and added any gags and comedic situations that they can squeeze into it, whether it really has anything to do with the plot or not. In a piece this light, that's not so bad, especially when the gags pay off, as the visual ones tend to do here. The verbal gags fall a bit flat, but since Fast is a very physical film, that doesn't hurt as much as one might think. Ken annakin directs with an eye on the clock, doing his best to keep the pace up, although he can't help the film from dragging a bit in the middle section. But Annakin seems to have fondness for this silly material, and that comes through to good effect; his climactic car chase is certainly great fun. Stanley Baxter does well as the leading man, James Robertson Justice] is reliably curmudgeonly, Julie Christie is stunningly beautiful (and even manages to hint at the substantial talent that would blossom in later films) and Leslie Phillips is amusingly smarmy. Far from a great film, {#Fast is still a decent way to pass the time. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Murdoch Troon (Stanley Baxter) is a dour Scot living and working for a local government authority somewhere in England. A shy young man, his main excitement comes from cycling. After he's forced off the road by an impatient car driver, he tracks down the owner, only to find that he is Commander Chingford (James Robertson Justice), the domineering and ascerbic owner of a sportscar distributorship. Chingford reluctantly pays for the damage to Troon's cycle, but more significantly, Troon meets Claire (Julie Christie), Chingford's beautiful blonde daughter. He is smitten with her and determines to buy a car so that he can take her out.
Enter Troon's friend and fellow lodger, Freddie Fox (Leslie Phillips), a used car salesman and serial cad. He sees a chance to ingratiate himself with Chingford, and also sell Troon a car. The car is a vintage Bentley, named The Fast Lady.
Troon has his first driving lesson in a less exciting car, an Austin A40, which proves to be a comedy of disasters, with a nervous instructor (Eric Barker), but Fox then offers to teach him. The results are equally disastrous.
Unwilling to give up, and determined to prove his love for Claire, Troon bets her father that he can drive the car. An experienced racing driver, Chingford is convinced that Troon has no hope of achieving this — and bets him that he cannot.
Troon takes Chingford for a drive in the Bentley and, as expected, loses the bet. But the tables are turned when Chingford loses Troon's counter-bet. He reluctantly allows Claire to go out with Troon in the car.
The day comes for Troon's driving test. Fox has set him up with a "bent" examiner, but Troon draws the "wrong" examiner. As the test comes to an end (and the examiner is almost certainly going to fail Troon), the car is commandeered by police to chase a Jaguar 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 comical trial of disaster) and eventually the robbers are (of course) caught. Chingford so admires his driving skill that he allows the couple to get engaged.
