Top Speed

Top Speed is a 1930 American Pre-Code musical comedy film released by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. It was based on the 1929 musical play, of the same name, by Harry Ruby, Guy Bolton and Bert Kalmar. The film stars Joe E. Brown, Bernice Claire, Jack Whiting, Laura Lee, and Frank McHugh.

Synopsis

Joe E. Brown and Jack Whiting are two bond clerks on a weekend vacation. Brown is pursued by a local sheriff after he attempts to illegally fish in a no fishing zone. As Brown and Whiting are running away, they arrive at an expensive hotel and end up rescuing two women (Bernice Claire and Laura Lee) who have just been in a car accident. Whiting falls in love with Claire while Brown falls for Lee. Whiting convinces Brown to stay at the hotel for the rest of the weekend. Brown begins lying to everyone at the hotel and soon everyone thinks that Brown and Whiting are millionaires. Claire's father (Edwin Maxwell) owns a speedboat and is planning to enter a big speedboat race. Since Brown has told everyone that Whiting is an expert boatsman, Claire hopes that he will be able to help her father win the race. When Claire's father (Maxwell) fires his pilot, who has been caught taking a bribe to throw the race, Claire convinces her father to let Whiting pilot his boat. Maxwell's main opponent, played by Edmund Breese, discovering that Whiting is fraud, threatens to expose him unless he excepts a bribe of 30,000 dollars to throw the race. Whiting pretends to accept the bribe but nevertheless wins the race for Claire and her father. During the race, Claire and her father learn that Whiting has taken a bribe, and are disappointed. After he wins the race, Whiting explains what happened and Claire and her father forgive him for not telling them the truth earlier.