The Racket
Directed by John Cromwell
Written by William Wister Haines and W.R. Burnett from a play by Bartlett Cormack
1951/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Booking Sgt. Sullivan: [booking Joe Scanlon, then examining the gun he was caught with] Receipt for your toy, sonny. My granddaughter could use that for a paperweight – in her kindergarden.[/box]
Despite the presence of my two favorite Roberts (Ryan and Mitchum), I thought the most interesting thing about this film noir was the commentary track.
Through some heavy exposition we learn that organized crime, lead by a mysterious boss called “the old man”, has taken over a city and is now fielding its own candidates for public office. Working for the syndicate is Nick Scanlon (Ryan) a run-of-the-mill old time hoodlum. Scanlon is accustomed to wipe out anyone who crosses him. The old man does not approve of such crude tactics.
Honest cop Captain Thomas McQuigg (Mitchum) is sent in to clean up. He has a committed assistant in true blue officer Bob Johnson (William Talman). McQuigg begins his assignment by going to Scanlon and warning him to stay out of his district. He and Scanlon evidently are old acquaintances and Scanlon spends most of the visit complaining about his spoiled brother who has taken up with nightclub “canary” Irene Hayes (Lizbeth Scott).
McQuigg decides to get to Scanlon through his brother and to his brother through Irene. Somehow an intrepid but green reporter gets involved and falls for Irene. Scanlon has a few cards up his sleeve in the form of the D.A. (Ray Collins), who is the syndicate’s candidate for a judgeship. The battle of good versus evil continues on for the rest of the film. With William Conrad as one of the old man’s associates.
I thought this movie was just OK. It was a remake of a silent film of the same name, also produced by Howard Hughes, from 1928. Commentator Eddie Muller makes it clear that he prefers the earlier version, which was nominated as Best Picture in the very first Academy Award year. He details the fraught production history in which no less than three directors worked on the movie. Muller said that Hughes rejected Samuel Fuller’s original script for this version. He could not live with the police corruption included by Fuller in the plot. Fuller’s version probably would have made a more dynamic film.
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