The Woman Racket

Blanche Sweet is tired of living on cop Tom Moore's salary. So she leaves him and goes back to John Miljan's night club. But she is expected to do more than wear pretty clothes and sing for her supper.

It's a holdover from the previous year, and shows the problems that MGM had in moving into the sound era. The pacing is slow, and the blocking is static. It also shows the sort of language diversity that Metro used in the changeover to talkies, with far more natural lower-class accents and a general lack of polish...which did not, alas, translate into naturalism. With Sally Starr, Robert Agnew, and Lew Kelly.

Blanche Sweet plays a singer at a speakeasy who is caught by a cop during a raid, but instead of arresting her, he lets her go and eventually winds up marrying her. However, life as a cop's wife turns out to be not quite what she expected, and she longs for the excitement and fun of her former career. One day, after a particular trying day at home, she goes back to her old nightclub and meets up with the good-hearted owner (Tenen Holtz) and his slimy new business partner (John Miljan, terrific as usual). She leaves her husband to become the club's singer and, eventually, Miljan's mistress, and before she knows it she finds herself involved in a murder.

This is an interesting little crime drama, more suited to Warner Bros. than MGM, but even though the pacing tends to be a little choppy and the camera-work is a bit shaky at times, it's eminently watchable. Blanche Sweet is pert, cute and charming and a pretty good singer, and few villains were slicker or more sophisticated than Miljan. Tom Moore as Sweet's cop husband leaves a bit to be desired; he's actually too old for her, pours on the Irish charm (and brogue) a bit too thick and comes across as a bit naive for a tough New York City cop. Nevertheless, it's a pretty good little picture overall, helped along greatly by Sweet (it's a shame her career never really took off during the talkie era).

The direction is credited to two men, Robert Ober and Albert H. Kelley. This was Ober's only directorial effort--he was an actor--and Kelley was a "full-time" director. My best guess is that Kelley was brought in when the task proved to be too much for Ober. If so, he actually did a pretty good job. Kelley spent his career mired in the lower depths of Poverty Row, churning out shorts, low-rent crime dramas and cheap jungle pictures for the likes of PRC, Monogram and Republic. This looks like it was his shot at big-time features, and for some reason he didn't--or couldn't--capitalize on it. It's too bad, because he shows potential here that was absent in most of his subsequent pictures.

Overall this is definitely a picture to watch. Although it was made in 1930, I've seen plenty of films that came out several years after this that weren't as well-made, fluidly paced, well-shot or entertaining as this is. Give it a shot.

During prohibition, a speakeasy is raided. Good-natured policeman Tom Moore (as Thomas "Tom" Hayes) discovers nightclub singer Blanche Sweet (as Julia Barnes) trying to avoid arrest. Stricken by her beauty, Mr. Moore allows her escape, and the two begin dating. Although they are happily married, Ms. Sweet becomes bored being a housewife and getting along on Moore's meager salary. His gift of a new dress tempts Sweet into sneaking out for the evening. She has fun seeing old friends and sings "He's Good Enough for Me" - signaling her heart remains with Moore... however...

Against Moore's wishes, Sweet accepts a job entertaining at "The Blue Moon" and succumbs to the charms of smarmy boss John Miljan (as Chris Miller). Ironically, Sweet leaves Moore just before he receives a promotion to detective sergeant. Months later, Sweet has been lured into criminal activities with Mr. Miljan, who is unsurprisingly revealed as a gangster lord. When a mugging turns to murder, Moore arrives to investigate...

The "talkie" technology is primitive here, but Sweet does well in her first feature length sound film. While not well remembered today, Blanche Sweet was one of the silent era's most renowned actresses - she was often considered on par with Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish. Like many, Sweet was considered old-fashioned when the medium changed, although her 1930s films reveal her in arguably better stead than her peers. Moore was the brother of silent stars Owen and Matt Moore (Pickford dynasty in-laws). "The Woman Racket" apparently did not advance its co-stars' careers, but it is an enjoyable time capsule.

****** The Woman Racket (1/24/30) Robert Ober, Albert Kelley ~ Blanche Sweet, Tom Moore, John Miljan, Tenen Holtz

... but you can't take the speakeasy of the girl. At least not easily.

The film opens with a raid on a speakeasy, and the cops are posted at all of the exits just to make sure that the middle class customers and the people just trying to eke out a living are embarrassed, arrested, and financially damaged over doing something that everybody did during prohibition - drink. Tom - one of the cops - sees a pair of comely legs hiding in the bushes. He pulls her out and sees the rest of her is just as comely (Blanche Sweet as Julia). So he helps her escape (the fruits of "pretty privilege"), dates her, and marries her. But before long Julia is tired of living on Tom's paltry salary and craves the excitement of the nightlife again. One night when Tom is working, she dresses up, goes back to the "Blue Moon" speakeasy where she used to work, agrees to get her old job back that pays more than Tom's salary, and returns home just to be caught by Tom as he is coming in. They argue about what she has done, and during the day while Tom is gone, Julia leaves him, and goes back to the speakeasy to work and live.

But the guy she thought was so chivalrous and charming -John Miljan as Chris, coowner of the speakeasy - turns out to be just a cheap gangster and womanizing cad. Chris should know better than to steal a cop's wife and then bite off more than he can chew as far as criminal activity. Julia should know better than to mouth off to a cheap gangster about just what all she can pin on him. Complications ensue.

The only really confusing issue about this whole thing is that initially the cops raided this establishment. Now Tom comes and goes and seems to know the place and the owners, yet does nothing and arrests nobody. This is not explained at all. This was obviously a B effort by MGM since it has none of their big stars in it, plus the thing is completely mistitled. There is nothing of females or forced errors in this film, and the title insinuates it might be about prostitution. Instead it really is not salacious at all.

I enjoyed it because it gave the talented and unfairly forgotten Miljan a bigger role than usual, I just love looking at the art deco styles of the time, and Sally Starr and Robert Agnew have some adorable musical numbers together. Starr was going to be MGM's answer to Clara Bow, but that never really worked out.

Recommended for fans of the precode era.

THE WOMAN RACKET is an early MGM talkie filmed in 1929 and released in January 1930. It's a crime drama notable as the feature-film talkie debut of Blanche Sweet, who had returned from England, where she filmed her final silent film (THE WOMAN IN WHITE). She had made one Vitaphone short at Warners before tackling this feature at MGM. Interestingly, Photoplay magazine had run a squib about MGM's interest in shooting ANNA CHRISTIE as a talkie and Blanche Sweet was rumored to be in line to star in the remake of her 1923 silent film.

In this talkie, Sweet is very very good as Julia and pulls out all the stops as the speakeasy hostess who gets in over her head. She even sings "He's Good Enough for Me" atop a piano. The film is sunk, however by only so-so performances by Tom Moore as her cop husband and John Miljan as the snarky club owner. The film was apparently also released as a silent. There are also a couple of obvious sound issues.

In any case, the film apparently didn't do much at the box office and Sweet obviously didn't get another crack as playing Anna Christie.