{"id":24738,"date":"2012-03-19T09:56:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T16:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24738"},"modified":"2021-11-16T21:12:57","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T04:12:57","slug":"racket-the-1928","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24738","title":{"rendered":"Racket, The (1928)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;This is the last murder you&#8217;ll ever get away with in my district!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Poster-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-24742\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Poster-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Poster-676x1024.jpg 676w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Poster.jpg 991w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nDuring the Prohibition era, a police captain (Thomas Meighan) is determined to nab a prominent bootlegging gangster (Louis Wolheim) who has consistently used political connections to elude arrest.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bootlegging<\/li>\n<li>Cat-and-Mouse<\/li>\n<li>Corruption<\/li>\n<li>Gangsters<\/li>\n<li>Play Adaptation<\/li>\n<li>Police<\/li>\n<li>Silent Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThis early Academy Award-nominee for Best Picture &#8212; produced by Howard Hughes, directed by Lewis Milestone, and based on a popular Broadway play by Bartlett Cormack &#8212; gained renewed attention several years ago when Turner Classic Movies collaborated with the University of Nevada at Las Vegas to restore it; it&#8217;s still unavailable on DVD, but naturally can be viewed on TCM. It remains a fine if undistinguished tale of crime and corruption in a city much like Chicago, and clearly serves as a harbinger of the wave of 1930s crime dramas. Pug-faced Wolheim &#8212; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/499953\/the-racket#articles-reviews?articleId=85281\">&#8220;former mathematics instructor&#8221; (!) <\/a> &#8212; is perfectly cast in the lead role as smug &#8220;Nick Scarsi&#8221; (he would be right at home in a Scorsese flick), and Marie Prevost displays sassy pre-Code sensuality as a cynical moll. Unfortunately, <em>The Racket<\/em> is a classic example of a silent film that would have greatly benefited from the use of sound, given how much pithy dialogue we instead must read from inter-titles; my favorite is &#8220;voiced&#8221; by Prevost, as she says to a naive suitor, &#8220;I wonder what&#8217;ll happen if you ever have a baby, and nobody&#8217;s tipped you off about storks.&#8221; (It doesn&#8217;t quite make sense, yet somehow conveys exactly what she intends to get across.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Louis Wolheim as Nick Scarsi<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Wolheim.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Wolheim.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24739\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Wolheim.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Wolheim-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Wolheim-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Marie Prevost as Helen<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Prevost.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Prevost.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24741\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Prevost.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Prevost-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Prevost-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Fine direction by Lewis Milestone<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Direction.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Direction.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24740\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Direction.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Direction-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Racket-Direction-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though it&#8217;s worth a look simply for its status as a forerunner to the cycle of 1930s crime flicks. Listed as a film with Historical Importance in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0019304\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/499953\/the-racket#articles-reviews?articleId=85281\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This is the last murder you&#8217;ll ever get away with in my district!&#8221; Synopsis: During the Prohibition era, a police captain (Thomas Meighan) is determined to nab a prominent bootlegging gangster (Louis Wolheim) who has consistently used political connections to elude arrest. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Bootlegging Cat-and-Mouse Corruption Gangsters Play Adaptation Police Silent Films Review: This early Academy Award-nominee for Best Picture &#8212; produced by Howard Hughes, directed by Lewis Milestone, and based on a popular Broadway play&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=24738\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24738"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78473,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24738\/revisions\/78473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}