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Tough gangster movie with Humphrey Bogart playing a racketeer putting the squeeze on truck drivers hauling produce. The unlikeliest of all truckers, George Brent, tries to fight the mob but eventually is forced to cooperate. Brent is an ill-fit for a working class Joe but he does an admirable job. Allen Jenkins is fun as Brent's friend Skeets. Walter Abel is OK as a crusading DA, inspired by Thomas Dewey, but doesn't seem like a match for Bogie. Between him and Brent, neither really powerhouse personas, it's no wonder Bogie walks away with the film. From the very first scene Bogart's character is fed up with failure and wants to make it to the top by any means necessary. It's like they took all the gangsters he's played up to this point and rolled them into one, giving them a final chance to make it big. And no matter how bad he was to others in this, I was pulling for him. The rest of the fine cast includes Gloria Dickson, Penny Singleton, Henry O'Neill, Fay Helm, and Joe Downing. Nice action and characters. If, like me, you're a sucker for seeing old cars and trucks in action in older films, you'll get your fill here. Definitely worth a look for fans of the WB crime dramas of the 1930s.

If you want to see this movie because Humphrey Bogart is the star, save your time. He gets top billing because of what he became after this movie. In this movie he is in it enough to barely be called a supporting actor. George Brent is the real star, so all Brent fans should watch this (if there are any). Here we have an oddity - our hero prevents the mob from taking over the trucking industry! Of course we know what really happened. Atypical gangster ending for this movie; the length of the jail sentence is also stated! The ending came so quickly that one thinks that is was hastily cobbled together. One positive note is that Allen Jenkins actually plays a good guy for a change.

Bacon shows 1938 truck interiors, trucks crashing, hospital wards, crowds, produce markets and authentic Depression shock. Bogart is permitted a few scenes with his charisma on full throttle. Allen Jenkins takes over the star role in some scenes to great effect. This is not escapist entertainment. Brent is reduced to a miscast actor surviving his role and the war with domestic terrorism, a theme that remains relevant today. This is more of a newsreel of events than a deep exposition of character. The Warners' dramatization of the fight against organized crime presaged the mobilization against fascism in 1942.

This was the first Humphrey Bogart movie I ever saw when I was a young kid growing up in the 60's & 70's. I first discovered Bogie on "Humphrey Bogart Theatre" on TV. I was very impressed with his portrayal of a mafia style crime boss. Gangsters were once Bogarts specialty, he was good at it, this movie pre-dates "On The Waterfront" & is almost as good. The film opens with Bogart bent on wanting to take over the entire town & muscle in on the trucking business. "I got plans & I got organization", "nothings going to stop me", "I'll make this whole town pay off from blue-backs to bankers".

This is Bogart playing the lead role as John "Czar" Martin, Manhattens most powerful gang chief, Bogie is very cold & ruthless in this one & it's clear he is the main character even though he's not in every scene, most of the film focuses more on the George Brent character as one of the truckers who complies with Martins underworld organization after Bogie's henchmen sets Brents truck on fire. Eventually he & Allen Jenkins rally all the truckers against Bogart in a free for all. It's a propaganda movie showing why unions were needed & organized in the 1930's but it also shows how corrupt unions can get by bribery & intimidation by the syndicate.

The absence of Bogarts character doesn't really weaken the film but creates an interesting mystique for his character is much talked about but hardly ever seen which heightens & magnifies Bogarts exciting screen presence. Like in "The Petrified Forest" Bogie played a famous celebrated John Dillinger style outlaw. He doesn't enter the film until the 2nd half of the movie but his character is mentioned consistently from the very beginning of the film creating this mystique. Kind of a sense of mystery so you just sit & watch the movie just waiting in suspense to see when "Duke Mantee" first enters & dominates the movie from that point on.

"Racket Busters" does a similar thing with Bogart's character as "Czar" Martin & the gimmick works & for once Bogart doesn't get killed in the end unlike his other gangsters where he gets bumped off. Sometimes less is more, a character that lays low or not seen much makes the character that much more interesting & desirable. In "The Maltese Falcon" Floyd Thursby was a character much talked about all through the entire movie..... but never seen. I have a bootleg copy of "Racket Busters" & I don't think it's out on DVD yet, it should be because it's not too bad, it's a standard programmer & it's worth watching if you're a fan of Bogart & gangster films like I am. Racket Busters is the precursor to On The Waterfront. What more can be said ?

Though it might mean absolutely nothing to today's audience when you see the small mustached frame of Walter Abel who has been named a Special Prosecutor back in 1938 there was no doubt that Abel was a very thinly disguised portrayal of real life Special Prosecutor and newly elected District Attorney of New York County, Thomas E. Dewey.

Among the many rackets that Dewey did investigate and prosecute was an effort to organize truckers and get a stranglehold on the produce markets of New York City. This film is taken from some very true and recent headlines back in the day.

Warner Brothers loved Mr. Dewey and his prosecutorial exploits. A few years earlier Humphrey Bogart, the chief villain in this film, played a Dewey like prosecutor himself in Marked Woman which is based in part on how Dewey convicted Lucky Luciano via his stranglehold on houses of prostitution.

The hero in Racketbusters is George Brent, stepping into a role that James Cagney probably turned down. He's a truckdriver who resists organization either by an honest union or the racketeers. And he's got ideas from the street about the social standing of stool pigeons.

When things happen to his wife Gloria Dickson and his friend Oscar O'Shea, Brent himself becomes as big a racketbuster as Walter Abel.

Allen Jenkins is a surprise here. Usually a mug whether a good guy or a bad guy, Jenkins steps up to the plate here as a man who went from the truckdriving game to the produce business. He understands the point of view of both sides and urges them to settle and kick out Bogart and his henchmen. Good job by Jenkins.

No doubt in 1938 who this film was all about.