User reviews

Rather boring film about a wisecracking braggart named Sandy (played by William Haines) who, along with his constant, practically joined-at-the-hip sidekick Bumpy, has invented a gas turbine engine which he hopes will make them both millionaires. They meet a wealthy young lady when her Catalina-bound yacht hits their rowboat, and seems her daddy owns a "boat works" company that builds racing boats - perfect for Sandy's new engine! Well, of course, she thinks Sandy is "awful handsome", but 'cause he's such a swaggering, conceited windbag who can't seem to keep his mouth shut, she sort of pretends to still be interested in her stuffed shirt of a boyfriend (Conrad Nagel) - and meanwhile Sandy tries to get the dad to invest in his engine and build a new speedboat to run in the upcoming International Cup race.

Well, I thought this film was just so so, it drags quite a bit through the middle, and has a lot of pretty improbable action going on involving Sandy and Bumpy stealing the new speedboat to try to improve the engine, with the cops constantly on their tails, firing gunshots that never hit them, chasing them via speedboats yet never catching them, and all the while the two men keep arriving back on shore, yet never get caught! This film does have some nice on-location scenes shot at Catalina Island, plus William Haines is always likable and Cliff Edwards (shucks, no ukulele in sight) as Bumpy is somewhat amusing here. Pete Smith plays himself in this, appearing briefly as the Cup race announcer. I thought this was a pretty mediocre film, though boosted up a bit by the appeal of the actors.

William Haines is a fast-talking ex-sailor with big ideas for building the world's fastest speed boat, winning the love of a rich man's daughter and foiling the plots of a crooked young banker. Maybe some of his dreams will come true, if he can only slow down his hectic FAST LIFE.

The story is silly, as were most of Haines' pictures, but he's always enjoyable to watch. Extensive location shooting around the Catalina Island waterfront gives the film a boost.

Haines is his normal antic, brash self, doing all he can to annoy Madge Evans, as the love interest. Conrad Nagel is the banker, in a pleasant departure from his usual good guy roles. Little Cliff Edwards is funny as Haines' buddy. Karl Dane appears uncredited in a bit part as a wharf watchman. Only a few years before he'd been one of MGM's silent stars, but his thick Danish accent didn't pass the grade in the new world of talking pictures and he quickly faded. He would die a suicide two years after FAST LIFE was released.

This was also to be William Haines' last MGM film. He & Louis B. Mayer had loathed each other for years and Haines was finally given the shove. After a couple of films at a minor studio, he would become a very successful interior decorator.

While William Haines was a very popular actor in his day, I think many of his movies have aged poorly. This isn't so much his fault but that of the studio. MGM insisted on essentially making the same sort of William Haines picture...again and again. In nearly all of them, Haines plays a very talented but cocky guy. Because of this, he ultimately lets everyone down...only to redeem himself by the end of the picture. Here in "Fast Life", Haines plays a cocky sort of guy...but isn't as self-destructive or annoying as he was in many other pictures....as a result, the film is pretty watchable.

Sandy (Haines) and Bumpy (Cliff Edwards) are in the Navy but soon leave in order to pursue Sandy's dream of creating the perfect speed boat. Fortunately, he soon meets up with a rich guy who builds racing boats. Unfortunately, his business is in financial trouble and it looks like he's not going to be able to provide all the funds needed to get it in the big race. To make things worse, the guy who is dating the boss' daughter turns out to be a duplicitous jerk...and he'll do anything to prevent that boat from making it to the race.

This is an enjoyable film with some exicting speedboat scenes....though a few suffer from having crappy rear projection. Apart from this problem, the film is fast-paced and enjoyable....and shows what Haines could do if given a script that isn't strictly the usual formula.

Well first off, William Haines was NOT "given the shove" by MGM as noted in another comment here. Haines quit MGM rather than submit to the maniacal hypocrite, L.B. Mayer. Haines had been among MGM's top stars from 1926 til he quit in 1932.

All of Haines' talkies for MGM have that cheap, second-feature look, partly because of Mayer's dislike for the openly gay Haines. But most of his film were hits anyway.

Here Haines plays his usual brassy, smart-ass self as an ex-navy man who has invented a swell motor. After being scuttled by a yacht, Haines and sidekick (the always funny Cliff Edwards) get taken to Catalina where they wheedle their way into the girl's father's boat business. Haines is also sweet on the girl--Madge Evans--but her sour boyfriend--Conrad Nagel--has other plans.

Lots of snappy lines here and an exciting boat-race finish make Haines' last MGM film a bittersweet event. He could have had another decade of film stardom. The chemistry between Haines and Evans is a joy.

As noted elsewhere Karl Dane and Pete Smith make appearances but it's Arthur Byron who plays the father, not Kenneth Thomson.

Ex-sailors William Haines and Cliff Edwards have developed a new kind of engine for motor boats and have come to Catalina Island where apparently everyone has a motor boat to sell it to folks who make a living at racing. Haines manages to blow it with Madge Evans, but with her father Arthur Byron who owns a boat yard and races he scores a big success.

But this is both the Depression and Prohibition and no one including Byron has money to splurge on new inventions. On the romantic front banker Conrad Nagel is cutting in on Evans at Haines's expense. Nagel does however have some secrets that he has to be most discreet about.

This was Billy Haines last film with MGM. He did two more for minor studios and then left acting for the more gay friendly atmosphere in the interior decorating business. It was hard enough to keep Haines closeted when he truly hated the idea of a closet. Fast Life however gives you a good sampling of the kind of smart aleck character that Haines made his specialty. He gets good support from Cliff Edwards as well in the sidekick part.

Conrad Nagel who was a big name in the silent screen era is playing the heavy for a change. A sophisticated heavy to be sure, but a heavy and he scores well in the part.

Over 80 years old and Fast Life is still a pretty funny item.

William Haines' last movie for MGM has him and Cliff Edwards trying to get their speedboat engine perfected. After he hitches a ride to Catalina Island with Madge Evans, he convinces her father, Arthur Byron, to back him. But he's almost broke, and when the engine explodes, he's busted, leading Haines to rob yachts and leave IOUs. Meanwhile, Conrad Nagel is trying to marry Miss Evans, which doesn't suit Haines at all.

There's quite a lot of location shooting on Catalina Island, and Pete Smith turns up for a rare on-screen appearance. Yet while this movie follows the Haines performance -- minus all the gay not-quite-subtext --it wasn't enough. The standard story is that Louis Mayer ordered Haines to marry a woman and ditch his longtime partner Jimmy Shields, or else. Apparently Haines chose or else. But in truth his screen vehicles were not drawing as well as they had when he was Metro's solo talking star. He was aging out of his wise-guy-juvenile persona, and his contract was undoubtedly priced above his current drawing power. So he made two more movies a couple of years later, stayed with his lover for the next fifty, and ran a very successful decorating firm. For a Hollywood second act, it was a happy one.

This is a so-so story, with the typical formula of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again, in combination with a story about speedboat design and racing. There isn't much here to interest today's movie viewer. While there are some movies of the early 1930s which continue to delight us (e.g. Dinner At Eight), this movie isn't one of them.

Lead star William Haines was at the end of his film career. In his biography of Haines, "Wisecracker", author William J. Mann alleges that Haines's career was on the decline partly due to his aging out of the roles he had become typecast in, and also to becoming pudgy. Yet, Haines appears in a swimsuit in this film, looking fit and trim.

The Great Depression made film studios reluctant to make long-term contracts with actors, and when they did, they substantially reduced the salaries paid. Stories of Haines's enmity with MGM brass, and the effects of his personal life, may be apocryphal. The net net is that Haines wasn't making money for MGM any longer, and so he was out.

I wouldn't recommend this film unless you are a real die-hard Haines fan.

When Sandy & Bumpy (William Haines and Cliff Edwards) get out of the service, they almost get run over by the poor little rich girl in her boat. Shirley (Madge Evans) just HAPPENS to be the daughter of a boat racer, and Sandy just HAPPENS to be an expert in boat engines. although he keeps having disasters when he tries new things. After one of the accidents, the boat owner gives Sandy permission to continue if they can come up with the money, which of course angers the daughter. She doesn't want Dad anywhere racing, because its so dangerous. Edwards is along as the comedic sidekick. Occasionally, he uses a high-piched,sometimes melodic voice in his films. Here, he does it so Bumpy can tip off Sandy that the other girl is listening. it's pretty fun. Written by Chauncey Brainerd and his wife Edith, who wrote stories under the pen name E.J. Rath. According to sources, they had also written the hilarious novel, which was later made into Merrily we Live. STRANGE ending for the husband and wife writing team -- they died in 1922 when a theater roof fell on them. Haines only made two more films after this... the hollywood bigshots didn't like his living arrangements.

As much as I love comedies of this era, formulae and all, I struggle with them when there is no character for which to root and the punchline is missing. William Haynes as the "hero," Sandy, is a schemer, and you never know when he's on the level. Cliff Edwards as the his stereotypical sidekick is at least interesting, but Madge Evans as "the girl" is not. Kenneth Thomson as her father ads some light moments, even as he's being swindled by Haynes. In fact, truth be told, Haynes wants to swindle the daughter, as well, but I won't spoil that one. Suffice it to say that she's the "love interest" and you know how these pictures work.

It won't hurt to watch this if you have a few minutes. It would have been much better as an hour long film, but at 82 minutes, it is still watchable. If you're a William Haynes fan, you ought to like it.

And I agree with Ron Oliver's review in this space.

"Fast Life" is a so-so comedy romance built around early boat racing off Catalina Island. The plot is okay, but the screenplay, filming and editing are all very choppy. The comedy is sparse. MGM apparently wasn't putting as much effort, quality and talent into some of its early films that it did for others. "Possessed" of 1931 with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford is an example. Other films with prominent leading actors were much better quality. The most interesting thing about this film is the boat racing and speeding that it shows.

This is a rare look at William Haines in the lead role as Sanderson 'Sandy' Norton. Haines had been a leading man in silent films throughout the 1920s. But, he would make only two more films after this one that would end his Hollywood career. His voice isn't bad for sound films, but his persona and appearance were rough and not as handsome as some established and rising actors were providing. William Powell was already a popular leading man whose star would continue to rise through the 1940s. Clark Gable was rising to stardom and James Stewart would be added in a couple of years to the MGM cadre of handsome, leading men and superb actors.

None of the cast are exceptional in this film. Most are forgettable, even though Madge Evans, Conrad Nagel, and some others continued in the show business - movies and/or TV into the 1960s. Here are some of the better lines in the film.

Shirley Jameson, "I like your nerve." Sandy Sanderson, "That's a good start. Gradually, you'll like all of me."

John Jameson, "My boy, your only fault is modesty."

Clarence Burton, "Sanderson, has Miss Jameson told you that we are engaged?" Sandy Sanderson, "Why, no. Has she told you?" Burton, "Well, practically." Sanderson, "Practically? Heh, heh, heh. Now, when I was in the Navy, I was practically an admiral. But the Navy Department didn't know a thing about it."

John Jameson, "A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits."

It seems from some of the other reviews that some people just don't like William Haines or his movies. However, if you do like his films this is one of his best sound comedies, and his last for MGM. However he wasn't alone as Conrad Nagel and Cliff Edwards are also making their last contract appearances for MGM as that studio did some housecleaning of their early sound stars to make room for the new faces coming on board. Haines was alone in the sense that he chose to leave rather than submit to a fake "lavender marriage" to provide cover for his gay lifestyle as ordered by studio head Louis B. Mayer.

The film is quite amusing and fast-paced. It has the elements you normally find in a Haines comedy as far as his character's brashness outpacing his brains somewhat. Here Haines' character Sandy has an idea for a maritime engine that has the possibility of greatly increasing the speed of a boat. He's been getting no takers until the boat he's in is accidentally hit by the yacht of Shirley, the beautiful daughter (Madge Evans) of the owner of a boat building business. The girl's father, Mr. Jamison, takes a shine to Sandy from the start and agrees to build the boat partially as a business proposition but mainly because he wants to enter it into an international speedboat race and win the trophy for the U.S. out of patriotic pride. The initial prototype burns up on trial, bankrupts Jamison - who does not hold a grudge, and ruins his budding romance with Jamison's daughter - who does hold a grudge. Sandy knows how to fix the design, but everyone involved is broke with the exception of Sandy's competitor for Shirley's affections, banker Burton (Conrad Nagel). How can Sandy redeem himself with thousands of dollars for needed repairs that he doesn't have standing in the way? I'll let you watch and find out.

It was interesting to see Conrad Nagel play a bad guy for a change when his pleasant voice and appearance normally had him playing the hero. This is also a departure from Haines' normal part. Usually he starts out as a proud guy with the world at his feet when some fall from grace teaches him a lesson in teamwork, humility, or the value of hard work. Here, Haines' character starts out penniless and industrious, he's just looking for a break. It's an unusual and somewhat subtle endeavor for MGM into the championing of the working class over the banking class - Nagel plays a banker - that was probably popular with Depression audiences in 1932.

Also note Pete Smith, who made many shorts for MGM, as an announcer in the final scene of the film. Here you get to see Pete rather than just hear him as was the case in his many amusing short films of the era.

I'd recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the early talkies and enjoys the silly brash style of William Haines.