If the title seems familiar, or if you've mentioned watching The Fast And The Furious to an elderly relative only for them to start waxing lyrical on some fifties B-movie about a drag race across the Mexico border and thus been hella confused, that's because the first Fast And Furious movie technically isn't the first Fast And Furious movie. At least, it wasn't the first film to have that title. They actually bought the rights to the title, but nothing else, from the 1955 film produced by grindhouse master Roger Corman. If they hadn't, the series could've begun with a film called Redline, Race Wars or Racer X the latter coming from the news article on underground street racing that inspired the film in the first place, included as an Easter Egg on the first film's DVD. The two films do actually have some stuff in common. The fifties Fast And The Furious has a man breaking out of prison, having been framed for a murder he didn't commit, slips into a cross-border sports car race with his hostage and uses the cover to escape into Mexico. It's got a bit more of a downer ending than the 2001 film, but also: some very nice cars.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
