Fast Company by PAGE, Marco - 1938

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1938. Hardcover. Fair/Fair. First edition. A hideous copy of a good book, lacking front fly, both hinges cracked, boards very worn in tape-repaired chipped and torn dustwrapper. The first of three mysteries by Page, a bibliomystery that was the basis for the film with Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice. The snappy film, one of the first filmed bibliomysteries, was also the first in a trilogy of films developed by MGM to fill in between the releases of *Thin Man* movies. The husband-and-wife rare bookdealers-turned-sleuths were later played by Robert Montgomery and Rosiland Russell in *Fast and Loose* and by Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern in *Fast and Furious*. All three films were scripted by Page, a former reporter who, under both this pseudonym and his real name of Harry Kurnitz, went on to have a long and successful career as a screenwriter. His filmed scripts included two *Thin Man* films, *The Adventures of Don Juan*, *One Touch of Venus*, *The Inspector General*, *Land of the Pharaohs* (co-scripted with William Faulkner), *Witness for the Prosecution*, *A Shot in the Dark*, *How to Steal a Million* and many others. Winner of the 1938 Red Badge Best First Mystery Prize.