Racket

A competent crime movie, enlivened by two strong lead performances from Mitchum and Ryan. The latter has the more interesting part as the gangster who ultimately finds himself friendless when those loyal to him decide he has become too much of a liability. Although the political machinations behind the scenes are dealt with more predominantly than many of the film's contemporaries, much of the satire is lost due to the 'other-worldliness' of the setting. Time and place are never specified, so we are more entangled in the personalities than the bigger moral implications.

A slight, but entertaining example of the genre.

Howard Hughes produced this film, and he knew a thing or two about the power of big money and racketeering. So it was natural for him to want to make a noir thriller about it. In the capable directorial hands of old pro John Cromwell, this is an excellent study of the octopus tentacles of crime syndicates and how a handful of people struggle against them, many getting hurt in the process. William Talman plays a stalwart and honest cop, so you can imagine what happens to him. The hero is Robert Mitchum, as the only incorruptible police captain on the police force in 'the city'. The main baddie in town is psycho crime boss Robert Ryan, just as menacing and ruthless as ever, except that he gets carried away by his passion for murder and out of impatience even kills someone himself, whereas crime bosses are meant to sit back and have this kind of thing done for them, like asking in the barber and the manicurist. Lizabeth Scott is the sultry gal caught up in it all, trying to decide whether to follow her cynical streak or go honest. Her part is not big enough to do her justice, but she does her usual good job. The best thing in the film is the powerful confrontational scene between Mitchum and Ryan, where they face each other down, and we see that Ryan is even taller than Mitchum (I always wondered!) What fireworks that brings! Always ominous and in the background is 'the Old Man', whom we never see, and who is the boss of bosses. Of course, nothing ever happens to him, and The Racket goes on as before, after this particular story is played out. This is a potent tale, well worth watching. The only thing missing is Gloria Grahame.

The 80-minutes has the cast elements of a memorable crime drama—Ryan, Mitchum, Talman, Conrad. Then too, RKO's head honcho Howard Hughes actively participated, along with a narrative of city corruption that's handled in some revealing detail. So why aren't the results more memorable than I think they are. To me, the screenplay is more congested than it should be. For example, Liz Scott's role is clearly there for marquee value, adding nothing to the plot, other than crowding up the many characters and sub-plots. Considering the number of writes, rewrites, and re-shoots (IMDB), perhaps the crowding is understandable. All in all, the number of production fingerprints fail to blend into an impactful whole, leaving a movie of a few memorable parts.

Ryan, of course, is Ryan, scary in his intensity, and wholly convincing in his criminal belligerence. Mitchum, however, is cast against type as the unwavering precinct captain. In fact, Captain McQuigg runs his precinct much like Scanlon's (Ryan) territorial tyrant. Thus McQuigg is more like a competing territorial chief than a neutral enforcer of the law, (note how McQuigg unlawfully tears up a legal writ.). The film's worth watching for its outlining of how corruption works in a city environment. District Attorney Welch (Collins) and Sgt. Turk (Conrad) betray their public trust by allying with the crime syndicate, becoming instrumental as go-betweens and influence-peddlers.

This was a period in the country's history (1951) when organized crime was getting headlines thanks to Sen. Kefauver's investigation committee. So Hollywood's response is not surprising. I just wish the movie had lived up to its potential, but I guess there's a lesson here about too many cooks.

This is a story that has been presented thousands of times on the big screen. What makes this film, The Racket, a cut above most of the other crime/drama films of the past 70 odd years is the standout performance by Robert Ryan as the gangster Nick Scanlon. I used the word "gangster"which is based on the Websters dictionary which defines the word "gangster: as follows: "a member of a gang of criminals : racketeer".

In today's films we hear more about the word "mobster" defined as "someone who is part of a secret organized group of criminals : a member of the Mob" Nick Scanlon is not part of any criminal organization, not even if the criminal organization he associates with refers to their head honcho as "the old man". Robert Ryan's character is a formidable foe to the 7th Precinct Police station as well as to all the criminal elements as he certainly marches to his own drum and that drum is beaten often by his own fists on to the other criminals who do not take his orders without talking back to him. The 7th precinct police station has recently been advised of their new Captain an honest hard working and devoted officer of the law named Captain Thomas McQuigg played by first rate actor Robert Mitchum.

Captain Thomas McQuigg and the feisty criminal Nick Scanlon share a common trait. They don't run away from trouble, no these two tough opponents they run head on towards trouble. This film also reflects how the criminal element has infiltrated the police and the judicial system with their brute force and cash influence. I guess some things such as in this film, the more they change the more they stay the same. (Police and justice corruption are still prevalent in the year 2018 as the current U.S. president, Donald Trump, has been under siege with non truth accusations, and the news stated pay to play by the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.)

The film The Racket does have one clear message besides the strong performances by many of the actors and actresses in this excellent film and that message is "justice will prevail".

I give the film a 7 out of 10 rating

This film reminds me a lot of an earlier film that paired Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan (CROSSFIRE), as both have very tough and gritty plots that are excellent examples of Film Noir. However, in this film instead of a plot involving anti-semitism, it's a good cop versus organized crime flick. Once again, Ryan is a scumbag and Mitchum is a decent and hard-as-nails cop bent on justice. A particular standout is the dialog between them--very snappy and pure Noir! I particularly liked the exchanges between them in the police station when they were cross-examining the cocky and unrepentant Ryan. And, since it is Noir, you know that there will be ample quantities of violence and testosterone. Give it a try--this is a seldom-mentioned classic.