Full Speed: A Messy 1934 Romp That Just About Works

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for 1930s slapstick that feels like it was filmed in a blender. If you need a plot that actually makes sense or characters that don't shout every line, stay far away. But if you want to see a very young Vittorio De Sica just kind of floating through the madness, you might find it charming in a dusty, forgotten sort of way. 🏎️

The whole thing is built on this very tired 'meek guy meets loud girl' setup. But Anna Magnani is in it, so obviously, the screen lights up whenever she’s actually allowed to do something. She has this way of looking at the camera like she knows the script is nonsense and she’s just waiting for the lunch break.

There’s this one sequence where the professor is trying to navigate a party, and the editing is so choppy I thought my player was skipping. People just vanish from the background. One second he’s talking to a man in a top hat, the next he’s holding a drink, and the guy is just… gone. It’s not stylistic; it’s just lazy. Or maybe they ran out of film? Who knows.

It’s nowhere near as polished as In a Moment of Temptation, which at least had a consistent rhythm to its silliness. Here, the tone swings from a quiet library scene to people running around like their hair is on fire without any real lead-up.

The Stuff That Stuck

• That one background extra who clearly forgot his lines and just stared at the wall for a full minute.
• The music is weirdly aggressive for a movie about a professor. It sounds like a circus is happening off-screen.
• The way De Sica holds his hat. It’s like he’s trying to protect it from a thief even when he's sitting down.

You can tell they were trying to keep the pace at, well, full speed, but the movie just ends up feeling breathless and confused. It’s like watching someone sprint to the mailbox and then stop to catch their breath for ten minutes. The momentum doesn't actually go anywhere.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s a curiosity. You watch it, you giggle at how weirdly stiff the romantic tension is, and then you move on. Just don't expect it to change your life. 🎞️