Hard, Fast and Beautiful!

Moviecut—Hard, Fast and Beautiful!

Overall, this is nothing special. The tennis scenes are very well directed. The mother-daughter-scenes are keepers. And the dialogue contains some great double entendres. But, the love story has no chemistry and demands no personal involvement. It is a "B" melodrama, not much more, nothing less.

Going from a rank amateur to the top ranks of any sport should be enough to make a good story and movie. I don't know whether the plot, the director or studio is to blame, but trying to inject a mother's domination and an slick promoter into the picture did not work because it dominated the story, certainly more than it should. Anyone who has played tennis, or any sport would recognize the scenes of the promoter attempting to coach Ms Farley's backhand are close to laughable. This movie was made in 1951. This movie and others like it, could no longer compete with television. It is still worth watching, especially if your interested in Tennis.

...PLEASE make it this one. I love Ida Lupino as an Actor, and more so as a Director. I love Claire Trevor. This truly disappoints. Turgid Potboiler, and you can sit there and write-ahead on the plot. IMDb requires ten lines of text for this opinion to pass. That would be a review, not an opinion. SEE Claire Trevor in "Key Largo"! SEE Ida Lupino in "They Drive By Night"! SEE Ida Lupino Direct "The Hitchhiker"! SEE them when this is on another channel!

The acting and the viewpoint had me riveted in my seat in the first half of this little potboiler, before it turns turgid and never recovers. The tennis scenes are well done. This is one of those movies that seems headed for greatness, but in the end disappoints the viewer.

Another Ida Lupino directed film from 1951 which tells the familiar story of a backstage mom (in this case in the realm of professional tennis) pushing her phenom daughter to be the best no matter that she already has her sights set on a steady beau & a way out of the racket (sorry for being punny!). Tightly constructed & well acted, this film manages to hit the right notes as the story comes to its inevitable conclusion as no clear winners are called.

A mom played by film noir star Claire Trevor sees dollars when her daughter (Sally Forrest) becomes a champion tennis player. Made in the 50's when prize money didn't exist, there evidently was enough money under the table to finance a luxurious life of fancy hotels and high society parties. What gives the film its punch is the mother who seems to completely forget about her daughter's welfare, letting her career be run by a sleazy opportunist tennis playboy who pushes the poor girl to exhaustion while steering her away from the better influences of her father and the guy who helped her rise up in the rankings but who eventually sees that she's sold out to the short career of a tennis primadonna. Competently made and entertaining enough to keep one watching, with the story leading to the "tragic" ending when both the daughter and father abandon the greedy mom, thus losing everything.

Despite the title, it's not a J.D. story....HARD: the egotistic, driven opportunist mother (Claire Trevor), FAST: the vacillating but easily influenced ace tennis player daughter (Sally Forrest), and BEAUTIFUL: the always polite, handsome boyfriend with the patience of Job (Robert Clarke) That just about sums it up. Viewers will marvel over how the girl's caring father is completely left out of the whirlwind tours and trips to Europe and ignored while pursuing her career. Outside of her devoted boyfriend, he's the only one who truly cares about her. It takes far too long for the girl to wise up and put her mother in her place, but it's worth watching to finally see it happen.

This movie turns its characters' souls inside-out, but never deviates from its pacing or its sports theme. Interesting performances punctuate an early 50's version of a woman trying to find her own way by eschew popular convention. The studio ending forced upon Lupino blunts some of the intended effect.