The Fast Lady
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| The Fast Lady | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
|
| Directed by | Ken Annakin |
| Produced by | Leslie Parkyn Julian Wintle |
| Written by | Henry Blyth Jack Davies |
| Starring | Stanley Baxter James Robertson Justice Leslie Phillips Julie Christie |
| Music by | Norrie Paramor |
| Cinematography | Reginald H. Wyer |
| Distributed by | J. Arthur Rank Film(UK) Continental Distributing (US) |
| Release date(s) | 1962 |
| Running time | 95 min |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Fast Lady is a 1962 comedy film, directed by Ken Annakin. The screenplay was written by Henry Blyth and Jack Davies, based on a story by Keble Howard.
[edit] Plot
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.
The film features cameos and performances by many well-known comedy and character actors, including Dick Emery as a car salesman, Gerald Campion, Frankie Howerd, Fred Emney, Warren Mitchell and Kathleen Harrison.
