Rackety Rax

The funniest thing about 'Rackety Rax' is its title, which is a very clever pun. 'Rackety rax!' is the first line of a college football cheer that was popular in the 1920s and thirties: in this movie, that same phrase does double duty as a college cheer and as a pun on 'rackets' as in racketeers. I've always believed that most American colleges exist only as pretexts for a football team or basketball team ... and that college sports exist primarily as a vehicle for universities (and bookies) to make money. This movie does nothing to dispel that notion.

Victor McLaglen (betraying some trouble with his accent) plays hulking gangster Knucks McGloin (great name!), who founds a school called Canarsie College. (Canarsie being a neighbourhood in New York City that produced more than its share of gangsters.) Knucks doesn't really care about higher education: Canarsie College was created only so that Knucks would be able to control a collegiate football team, which in turn would be a vehicle for his gambling activities. By organising the bookie action on Canarsie's football matches, Knucks makes enough money to offset the expense of the college.

Knucks's highly profitable operation attracts the attention of Gilotti, a rival gangster ... played by Stanley Fields, a coarse supporting actor of the 1930s who is undeservedly forgotten by film buffs. Gilotti sets up his own rival college, with a rival football team, and the shenanigans begin.

Alan Dinehart, another undeservedly forgotten supporting actor, is very funny as McLaglen's lawyer, and hulking actor Ivan Linow is good as a dim-witted athlete named Tossilitis (hilarious name!). Interestingly, McLaglen and Linow each played Hercules the strong man in the two film versions of 'The Unholy Three'. Good support here from Allen Jenkins, Vince Barnett, and Esther Howard in a rare comic role: she usually got cast in bland 'stick' parts.

I'll rate 'Rackety Rax' 5 out of 10. It's funny, but -- considering the potential of this material -- it could have been downright hilarious.

Victor McLaglen is a Big City Gang leader, with fingers in sports and politics and every shady deal. When a reform candidate threatens his rackets and competitor Stanley Fields starts muscling in on his terrirtory, McLaglen comes up with a new source of revenue: he'll buy a college and make money off football games!

RACKETY RAX is one of those high concept ideas that must have sounded good when it was pitched to Fox' rapidly disintegrating management, and then handed off to Alfred Werker to direct -- just up from the westerns. Lowbrow hoods on campus! Trench warfare on the gridiron! Unfortunately, they seem to have stretched what might have been a funny if bizarre two-reeler into five reels, and left a lot of talent with little to do. Werker doesn't seem to be able to time much of anything for comedy and a lot of McLaglen's line readings seem even awkwarder than his malapropism-prone character calls for. Only Alan Dinehart, as McLaglen's lawyer who only cares about chasing skirt, handles his one-note character well.

I saw this film as a child and have not heard of it again. I am wondering whether what I remember of it is a true recollection, or whether the years have played tricks on me. What I remember:

The team chant: 'Rackety Rax, Rackety Rax, Canarsie's gang'll break their backs!'

The teams lined up facing each other at the start of a game. On a signal, each Canarsie guy pulls a blackjack from his pocket and knocks his opponent out ...

When their opponents race to score a goal, a tommygun opens up from the stands and mows them down ...

A score board showing at one stage a score like: 'Canarsie 107, Army nil'.

Would be interested to hear from anyone who can confirm/falsify these scraps of memory.