This is a bit of an one-joke comedy, this - but the combined efforts of the actors just about keep it moving along without too many cringes. "Murdoch Troon" (Stanley Baxter) is involved in a collision with the wealthy "Chingford" (James Robertson Justice) that ultimately involves his introduction to the latter man's daughter "Claire" (Julie Christie). She determines to wean our young Scotsman off his bike and into a nice red sports car provided by his rather shady pal "Freddie Fox" (Terry-Thomas). He duly acquiesces, now being pretty keen on the young lady, but faces a couple of issues. Firstly, he hasn't a clue how to drive the thing and secondly, her father fancies him for a bit of a twit. It's essentially a rather ramshackle comedy with a plot full of holes and inconsistencies. That said, it is entirely character driven by the three gents (Christie features only sparingly, and with little dialogue when she does) who offer us some enjoyable, light-hearted shenanigans that indicated they were having some fun along the way, too. Ken Annakin also recruited the always enjoyable to watch Kathleen Harrison, and there is some mischief to be had with some golfers too. Forgettable, certainly, but still an amiable watch.

THE FAST LADY is a typical and genteel comedy from 1962, featuring the obligatory all-star cast and a simple plot that's full of action and incident, however slight. I did find Stanley Baxter's somewhat laboured lead performance a bit grating in the extreme, and the wishy-washy romantic stuff with an idealised Julie Christie doesn't really go anywhere. However, the celebration of speed and classic cars is certainly endearing, and there are some fine performances in support, not least Leslie Phillips as the charming friend, James Robertson Justice as the stern father, and Kathleen Harrison as the landlady. The film is quite adequate throughout, but it really picks up for a fast and furious climax which features a quite wonderful string of never-ending cameos.

Murdoch Troon is a young Scottish civil servant living somewhere in the south of England. (Probably Surrey, to judge from references to Guildford and Frensham in the script). Murdoch has fallen in love with Claire Chingford, the beautiful blonde daughter of a wealthy businessman. To impress Claire, who has told him that she is a sports- car enthusiast, Murdoch buys a vintage 1927 Bentley racing car. (The "Fast Lady" of the title is the name of the car. It is not a comment on Claire's morals). This leaves Murdoch with two problems. First, he cannot drive and needs to learn and pass his test within a week before his first date with Claire. Second, he must win over her autocratic and domineering old father who has taken a dislike to the young man.

The film is a mixture of romantic comedy and slapstick comedy and works better as the latter than as the former. The problem lies with the personality of Murdoch as played by Stanley Baxter (a popular comedian in Britain at this period). Baxter, himself a Scot, seems to be playing up to the common English stereotype of the Scotsman as dour, truculent and with a permanent chip on his shoulder. (Although Murdoch has chosen to live in England, he is forever complaining about the English). As a result, he comes across as too unsympathetic to be a very credible romantic hero; I wondered just what Claire saw in him and found it all too easy to understand why Commander Chingford disliked him so much.

On the other hand, Baxter's personality seemed just right for the slapstick elements in the film, chiefly the driving sequences, as these are all based around the idea that Murdoch, despite (or possibly because of) his inexperience becomes an aggressive maniac whenever he gets behind the wheel of a car. His lessons, his excursions with Chingford (an experienced driver) and his driving test all prove disastrous, and I must admit that these parts of the film were quite amusing.

There are good supporting performances from James Robertson Justice as Chingford and Leslie Phillips as Murdoch's friend Freddie Fox, a used car salesman. (It is Fox who sells him The Fast Lady). These two actors mostly appeared in comedy with a fairly limited range; Justice specialised in playing imperious, portly, middle-aged members of the English upper or upper-middle classes. (He is perhaps best remembered as the surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt in the "Doctor" comedies). Phillips, although he was not particularly handsome, specialised in playing smoothly lecherous seducers, often dressed in blazer and slacks and affecting a pseudo-posh accent. Both men are cast very much according to type here; Chingford is a typical Justice character, and Fox, generally dressed in blazer and slacks, appears with a different girl on his arm in virtually every scene. The lovely Julie Christie does not have a lot to do, but then she is a sort of human McGuffin, the reason why Murdoch is putting himself through so many trials and tribulations rather than a character in her own right. (This was only Christie's second film; her first "Crooks Anonymous" was also directed by Ken Annakin and also starred Baxter, Justice and Phillips).

One thing which does not ring true is that Murdoch is living in "digs" with a landlady and yet is able to buy The Fast Lady in cash for £500, several months' wages for the average earner in 1962, without needing to take out a loan or obtain hire-purchase terms. Anyone with that amount of ready cash at this period would have been able to rent a decent flat or put a deposit down on a house.

The film appears to have been a box-office success when first released, but today it looks rather dated. For some, of course, this will be part of its charm as it offers us a nostalgic look at the Britain of more than fifty years ago. To the modern viewer the other cars featured here, such as an Austin A40, look even more old-fashioned than The Fast Lady (only 35 years old at the time) would have done in 1962. The film's main weakness is its inability to combine its romantic and comic elements into a unified whole, but I suspect that the "Top Gear"-watching classes will love it in spite of this. 6/10