Love Is a Racket

This seedy, downbeat Broadway tale of love, money, ambition, and power makes for an entertaining film. Credit director William Wellman's felicity with the fast-paced Warner Bros style for the no-nonsense, snappy approach. Douglas Fairbanks Jr is very fine as the hardbitten gossip columnist with a fatalistic, romantic side, but Lee Tracy, Ann Dvorak, Frances Dee, Warren Hymer, and, especially, Cecil Cunningham as the conniving Aunt Hattie, do their best to steal the film. And, as this is a pre-code movie, who says a character can't get away with murder?

This almost seventy-five year old programmer holds up amazingly well due in large part to the skilled acting of the leads, a witty script that keeps everything lighthearted, and the masterful direction of William A. Wellman. The title may sound silly but if the viewer watches the entire film, "Love is a Racket" is explained by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. at the very end via a harangue on the ephemeral nature of romantic love.

Filled with cynicism draped with roses Fairbanks learns about love from all the wrong people, in particular from the wily, ambitious Mary Wodehouse (Frances Dee), who has been spoiled rotten by her Aunt Hattie Donovan. Seems Mary has been bouncing checks and wants Jimmy Russell (Fairbanks) to bail her out. When he attempts to retrieve the hot checks by asking the holders to wait a while before cashing them, he learns that a mobster has picked them up already. When Jimmy finds the mobster dead, he takes possession of the checks and makes it all look like a suicide unawares that his columnist buddy, Stanley Fiske (Lee Tracy), is watching.

This little gem from the early days of the Great Depression is well worthwhile and still entertaining even after seven decades.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays a worldly-wise newspaperman whose beat is Broadway. He always seems to be one step ahead of everyone and is never a chump...except when it comes to one woman (Frances Dee). This lady has written some bad checks and he decides to help her. However, it all ends up backfiring on him. It's a shame, as his lovely assistant (Ann Dvorak) can't get him to notice her. When his lady love gets in trouble, he decides to help her....with results he never anticipated. Along for the ride are Lee Tracy as his sidekick and Lyle Talbot as the tough guy who has the rubber checks.

While this isn't a bad film, it isn't all that great either. One way I knew this is that as I watched, I kept finding my attention drifting. The dialog is a bit snappy but there just seems to be SOMETHING missing. I think it's fun...and perhaps an interesting plot. A time-passer and nothing more.

This is a highly entertaining film that just misses being a pre-Code era classic. Doug Jr. is a Broadway columnist and Tracy his sidekick in this comedy-melodrama told in Wellman's odd straight-ahead style. Doug's a winning hero, and Frances Dee perfect as a truly sexy, selfish bitch who could string anyone along. Warren Hymer is better than usual as a doofus who's nonetheless fairly quick witted. Tracy is a bit muted, but, as always, is a joy to watch. In this cynical world, the high road is NOT doing an expose of milk price-fixing. The wise-cracks are plentiful and fun, but they don't quite jump up off the paper.

A "pretty good" starring role for the dashing Douglas Fairbanks jr, who had good movies and bad movies. Here, he is a newspaper reporter Jimmy Russell, trying to catch a gal who cannot seem to settle down. Co stars are Ann Dvorak (Merrily we Live and Three on a Match) and Frances Dee (Little Women, Human Bondage), and Lee Tracy (Dinner at Eight), who has a most interesting biography on his page on IMDb. Oddly, we don't really know much about his character in this movie... he's just kind of there. Dedicated black- and- white- movie watchers will see Eddie Kane and Gino Corrado, who play waiters at Sardi's restaurant – they were assistants or sidekicks in just about every movie made since dirt was invented. Of course Russell (Fairbanks) has an adversarial relationship with his newspaper boss (although this film probably pre-dated most of the others that used that ploy).... and there are a couple of other hard to believe things going on here, but I won't spoil any plot monkey-business. Watch for the cool telephone gadget at the very beginning....and a long, lecture on love and life at the very end.