The Racket [DVD]

The Racket is a remake of the 1928 film of the same name, itself based on a popular Bartlett Cormack play. With Howard Hughes backing the production it was beset with a number of problems, interference and a few director changes were prominent and the script was tampered with to try and capture the zeitgeist of the Kefauver Committee Hearings that were running prominently at the time. Plot in basic form pitches Robert Mitchum's honest police captain against Robert Ryan's no good crime boss, and the location is some corrupt American city (almost certainly Chicago).

At the time of its making, the film had a cast list that cried out as a roll for film noir/crime movie big hitters: Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past), Robert Ryan (Crossfire), Lizabeth Scott (Pitfall) and William Talman (Armoured Car Robbery), while in support there was the likes of William Conrad (The Killers), Ray Collins (Leave Her to Heaven) and Virginia Huston (also Out of the Past). Even looking at the directors who contributed on the production sees some fine genre credentials: John Cromwell (Dead Reckoning), Nicholas Ray (In a lonely Place), Mel Ferrer (The Secret Fury) and Tay Garnett (The Postman Always Rings Twice). But too many cooks can often spoil the broth, such is the case here.

Solid enough story that's unspectacular in its execution, a choppy yet just about watchable experience, and certainly a softer crime movie than it really ought to have been. It has often been coined as being a hard-hitting melodrama, but the decent thriller sequences are cloaked by a narrative that actually doesn't flow with any conviction. There's also the odd casting of Mitchum as a good guy to get around, and the film doesn't achieve that, namely because Mitchum plays it distinctly unenthusiastically. Ryan, too, looks to be going thru the motions, while Scott is woefully underused. Thankfully there's good work from Talman, Collins and Conrad to enjoy, while Huston impacts with what little she is given to work with.

On a surface viewing it's easy to believe that The Racket is a better film than it is. We enjoy seeing Ryan doing snarly villainy and throwing punches, and Mitchum, in spite of walking thru the picture, is always a watchable presence. Pulses are raised too with some gun play, auto pursuits and a roof top punch up. But strip those way and you find the odd scene slotted in that doesn't make a great deal of sense, they exist but serve no purpose since the writing doesn't recall them later. There's also the whiff of stupidity about the way the makers were clearly trying to craft an intelligent take on organised crime, yet the police really don't have to do much to nail these bad boys. It's all very well portraying Mitchum and Talman as bastions of good and pure, but at least let them have to do work to bring down the crims! While the ending is wholly unsatisfactory.

The names involved ensure the film is never boring, but confused messages and a jumbled narrative make it a film of big intentions but not much substance. As for film noir? Well it does contain film noir type characters, but really this is about as film noir as my day-glow socks. 5/10

The first couple of reels may be tough going, but once you get past the lunking Howard Hughes-imposed Nicholas Ray-directed prologue, The Racket turns into a surprisingly engaging and gripping crime drama. Structurally it's certainly unusual, probably as a result of Hughes' typical interference - it's more than 17 minutes before Mitchum makes his entrance, and there are some sporadically awkward crosscuts to inserts shot by Ray and others after John Cromwell (who co-starred in the play the film was based on in the 1920s) had left. Robert Ryan is surprisingly not quite there for once: not exactly bad, but somewhere between phoning it in and, in his early scenes at least, possibly drunk on set - his timing is slightly askew, his usual excellent instincts abandoned along with his sense of proportion in moments that are just a little over the top. But there's so much to admire that even the unlikely escalation of the feud between the two protagonists is carried along. There's a fine shootout in a garage, a neat car chase that sees the cops plough through a billboard for a mob-backed political candidate and a terrific death scene at the end. The supporting cast are intriguing too, with William Conrad's cop and Ray Collins' DA both corrupt but not so entirely that they're lost causes: they exist in a gray area that throws the leads into sharper relief.

Eddie Mueller's audio commentary on the Region 1 NTSC DVD that's part of Warner's Film Noir Classic Collection Volume Three is quite excellent and well worth listening to, but is absent from the UK PAL DVD.

For all film noir fans, the 1951 film 'The Racket' is a surefire must have.

Starring two of Hollywood's great actors in opposing roles, Robert Mitchum as Police Captain Tom McQuigg, a good, honest cop, moved from Precinct to Precinct because he is straight and 'won't look the other way' when foul deeds are perpetrated, he is opposed by Robert Ryan as Nick Scanlon, a ruthless mobster with a poisonous network of doers, who 'run errands,' at his behest.

The plot starts with the Senate Crime Committee, which has met and decided that their city needs cleaning up of corrupt officials and organised criminal rackets that threaten to move in. The city's Chief Prosecutor bravely asserts he will act with hard evidence, which will be not easy to get hold of.

Set into this inferno of sleaze, is Captain Tom McQuigg, an honest and ruthless Police Detective, who is not afraid to kick in doors, even if that door belongs to Nick Scanlon - and he does kick in Scanlon's door. McQuigg cannot be bought off or warned off - it takes very direct, personal action against his home for Mc Quigg to know that Scanlon has fallen for the bait.

When ambitious Police Officer Johnson lifts Scanlon's brother for autocrime, Nick is in a cleft stick - whether to bail out his brother who wants to marry a showgirl, despite Nick paying for fancy college education for his brother, or let justice be done. With the ever present Scanlon lackey Davis producing writs on Scanlon's behalf at the drop of a hat, it looks like McQuigg is going to have a difficult job keeping anyone behind bars or out of circulation.

When whispers of doubts about Scanlon's abilities reach his ears, Scanlon pushes harder and risks bringing his whole operation and that of 'The Chief' - an unseen but all powerful leader crashing down in ruins. Scanlon becomes paranoid everyone is out to get him in some way and it is a brilliant piece of acting by Robert Ryan as Scanlon starts to come unstitched.

All the while, McQuigg is forcing the pace and doing anything he reasonably can to up the stakes and make Scanlon react. This culminates in Scanlon shooting Johnson, the cop, an action that will ultimately undo him.

But there is a dramatic twist in the tail, A Police Detective called Turk (played by a younger but even then suitably rotund William Conrad), makes a final gesture which solves the Scanlon problem, however not before the clever and calculating McQuigg has forced Nick Scanlon's hand and uncovered who 'belongs' to the shady Acme Real Estate company a front enterprise run by organised crime and whose staff members comprise many 'comprimised' officials in local government and legal walks of life.

A brilliant film which is pacy and hard hitting, Robert Mitchum is excellent as the incorruptable McQuigg, Robert Ryan also excellent as the 'nasty' Nick Scanlon - once you have seen this film you will appreciate this as a first class example of the genre - the strong storyline, the great story and screenplay, the great script and a great treatise of the hard boiled, noiresque organised crime film genre, probably one of the best ever put on film.

If you are thinking of writing in this genre, I recommend you watch and learn from the masters here!

Of interest, Robert Ryan starred in the 'Flying Leathernecks' film about US Marine pilots in WW2 Pacific fighter operations the same year, another film I recommend.

Very rarely can you go wrong with a film with Robert Mitchum or Robert Ryan in!