The Racket (1928)
Less of a din and more of a lull
I like my racket... and I haven't shot yet.
The Racket (1928) - watched 6/12/24
Director: Lewis Milestone
Writer: Tom Miranda (Based on a play by Bartlett Cormack)
Starring: Thomas Meighan, Louis Wolheim, Marie Prevost
Available to watch: Tubi, YouTube
First Time Watch? Yes
Nyah, see! We got a real keen dame over here, and she’s talkin’ gangster flicks! Now ain’t that just the bee’s knees?
Sorry sorry I’m so sorry I promise I’ll do better please don’t leave me.
The gangster genre is one that I’m relatively new to—I’m racking my brain trying to come up with the first gangster movie I ever watched, and I think it might have been The Departed back in 2006 (or whenever it would have first become available to rent from Blockbuster). Further exposure to the genre has been slow-going. I’ve seen a handful of classics that I’ve enjoyed (Goodfellas, Miller’s Crossing, and Touch of Evil among them) but still have my blind spots (all of the Godfather movies).
It’s a genre that I really have to be in the right mood for—these movies can be interesting, they can be exciting, and for the most part they’re extremely anti-cop, which is always the vibe. But these movies can also be deeply misogynistic. The violence can feel punishing to the viewer, at times. They’re almost always just about guys being dudes. And since I’m a little sweetie who’s never done anything wrong in her whole life, I do tend to find it difficult to connect with stories about depraved criminals.
All this to say, gearing myself up to watch 1928’s Best Picture nominee The Racket was a challenge. As is figuring out what to write about it. It was like, fine! It’s not a movie I would have necessarily chosen to watch on my own, without this project. Maybe if someone had recommended it to me, but it would have taken me a while to get around to it, because I have other things to do, other movies to see.
But that’s the beauty of this project! Getting to see movies I otherwise wouldn’t see, or in some cases even know about. It, in theory, is a beautiful thing! So it’s more than a little deflating when the second movie I’ve seen for this project didn’t really strike much of a chord with me. I anticipate loving a lot of these movies. I also anticipate hating a lot of these movies, which, as an insane person, I’m actually kind of looking forward to. Paradoxically, what annoys me most is watching a movie that I feel completely neutral toward. Make me feel something! That’s basically your only job, movie!
I question whether the Academy chose the right year to launch its award ceremony, if this is one of the three films that it considered to be the cream of the crop. Hmm, I wonder if this will become a pattern!
Did you imagine I'd let any lousy politicians, who'd knock their own mothers over the head for a vote, tell *me* what to do?
The Racket (1928)
In prohibition-era Chicago, police officer James "Mac" McQuigg (Thomas Meighan) is determined to bring down bootlegging kingpin Nick Scarsi (Louis Wolheim, with the most mob boss-ass face I’ve probably ever seen). Mac does manage to have Scarsi arrested on multiple occasions, but can’t get charges to stick due to corruption in the law enforcement system. During a birthday party for Scarsi’s brother, Joe (George E. Stone), there is a shootout which ends up with Scarsi’s henchman getting killed. Mac arrests Scarsi for the murder, but once again Scarsi is able to evade charges when the murder weapon can’t be found.
Mac ends up getting transferred, but this little cat-and-mouse game continues, with Mac also roping his hot girlfriend, Helen (Marie Prevost) into the situation. Helen ends up becoming the MVP of the movie by cheating on her dumb cop boyfriend with a cub reporter (hell yeah) and by tricking Scarsi into a confession. Scarsi attempts an escape, which also turns out to be a trick, and shoots an empty gun at Mac, before ending up shot and killed himself.
No women! Women are poison to me.
And that’s it! That’s all The Racket. I guess for its time, it was probably pretty cool. I’m trying to picture myself as a movie theater patron of the 1920s, sitting down to watch The Racket. Did everyone in the theater freak the fuck out or what? Were dudes back then as annoying about this movie as they are about The Godfather today? A review I dug up from Variety is pretty favorable, specifically singling out the use of slang in the titles. The review also features maybe the most 1920s sentence I’ve ever seen: “Imagine a hero who doesn’t cop a moll in the last ten feet.”
And true, it is interesting that there’s no central romance in the film—Helen’s affair with the cub reporter is more implied than anything else, and it doesn’t appear to last beyond the final scene of the movie. Maybe that’s why I failed to connect with this one. I just want everyone to kiss! Kiss all the time! Never not be smooching!
Setting aside the lack of necking, I did appreciate that the main woman character was the catalyst for literally anything interesting happening in this story. Typical! Scarsi foreshadows as much in the beginning of the film, declaring, “Women are poison to me.” WELL, good thing poison control didn’t exist in the 20s then, bitch!
To be fair, even though I could not have possibly cared less about what happened to either of the two main characters (Let! Them! Fight!), The Racket wasn’t a total loss. The birthday party scene was a highlight, including a dance sequence featuring some kind of peasant masks, and a guy playing the Stroh violin, an instrument that captivated and distracted me so much that I had to go back and re-watch the scene a couple of times (not mad at it, honestly).
The ending was also pretty good, I’ll give ‘em that, but it would have tickled me even more to see the police only further bungle their attempts to finally nab Scarsi. Crime movies wouldn’t start seeing the gangsters as heroes until the 1930s, so having Mac come out on top in the end was unfortunately the typical formula at the time.
Overall I found The Racket to drag, despite its mercifully short length, and it didn’t hold my attention easily, especially with its seemingly endless list of characters, many of whom went by different nicknames and aliases throughout, so it was at times difficult to keep track of who was who. But I guess ultimately the only character I needed to know was, in fact, the only one who left an impression on me, the poisonous Helen. Helen, girl, I hope your back didn’t hurt too much from carrying this movie.
He called me a gold digger. Well, I'll dig - and dig deep!
Quick Facts:
Nominated for 1 Academy Award (Best Picture)
The Racket was long thought to have been lost, but was recovered from Howard Hughes’ film collection after his death and later restored by the Academy Film Archive
Upon its release, it was banned in Chicago due to its unfavorable portrayal of the Chicago police force and local government. What a bunch of absolute crybabies. No one is more sensitive than a cop.
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️1/2
Next Up: Wings (1927)