User Reviews

Tough cop Thomas Meighan (as James McQuigg) versus underworld kingpin Louis Wolheim (as Nick Scarsi). In a subplot, blonde gold-digger Marie Prevost (as Helen Hayes) pursues Mr. Wolheim's "bad boy" brother George Stone (as Joe Scarsi). This Howard Hughes piloted film was considered for "Best Production" at the first Academy Awards, as "the most outstanding motion picture considering all elements that contribute to a picture's greatness." Although it understandably lost to "Wings", it does posses elements of "greatness".

Mr. Meighan, one of the biggest and most beloved stars of the era, brings considerable presence to his role; with a script that offers him surprisingly few opportunities for characterization. Wolheim and director Lewis Milestone are always a fun to watch match. Ms. Prevost and the supporting cast do their best with the "love story" and gangland activities. And, the production values are high. If only more focus and characterization were on the personal stories and conflicts concerning McQuigg and Scarsi! Curiously hesitant to show much depth; still, "The Racket" exposes, while inadvertently glamorizing, the gangster lifestyle.

******* The Racket (6/30/28) Lewis Milestone ~ Thomas Meighan, Louis Wolheim, Marie Prevost

I found this a very enjoyable early crime drama. Students of the genre will want to compare this to "Little Caesar" and/or "The Front Page". Transitions within scenes and from one scene to another flow better in "The Racket" than in many other silent films.

I agree with earlier comments about the new scoring. There is too much brass and too much forte.

The film itself is about 83 minutes long, much longer than we thought during the 76 years that it was out of circulation. The restoration job on the film is one of the best that I have seen, especially for a film as old as this one is. I hope it is released soon on DVD.

Sadly this film was made available long years (like 50) after the giants of the early gangster films were available---Little Cesear and The Public Enemy,so it missed the true acclaim it probably deserves.

Being made during Prohibition, and during the less "glamourous" studio period (but with an excellent director, fast paced script and great supporting cast) it has the immediate feel of the time---when the policeman hero is exiled to the country it IS the country, and the character actors shine here--especially the incandescent and tragic Marie Prevost as the platinum blonde chanteuse, Helen Hayes. She is absolutely wonderful as a complete jazz baby flinging herself into the arms of the nearest well heeled heel available, her desperation clearly visible under the surface. This performance is subtle in it's (Mae West) undertones, but she anticipates the bright gaudy generous hearted vulgarity of Jean Harlow by several years. She has a huge range with her hideous fox fur collared cape, her cigarette, and her bits of business with her props--she has the stage presence of her character's name Helen Hayes, but she is much more naughty and fun to watch. She cynically analyzes the lead villain's fear of women, and stands up to him, leveraging his fear in the face of his men, and lays her neck on the line. At the same time, she desperately digs for gold, playing hard to get with the gangster's weak spot, his younger, ratty brother. (George Stone in an early role). The scene where she rips off her "act" costume, and jumps on an upright piano and has the musician's wheel her over to the gangster's brother's "birthday party" is pure gold.

How sad that she died so horribly in real life, but how wonderful that her performance is preserved here in all it's splendor! While Thomas Meighan is the same noble stiff as a board hero of DeMille's society matrons movies of the l920s he also shows range in a "good cop" role with a noir twist at the end, making this one of the first contemporary gangster movies. George E Stone, who would go on to play everyone's favorite rat for the next 40 years is here in a juvenile lead, scummy and detestible as ever, and the perpetually bombed and wisecracking reporter Skeets Gallegar gets all the fast paced and best lines. God Bless Ted Turner for not letting this one get lost! Cannot wait for it to come out on DVD for all true noir and gangster film archaeologist's to enjoy! We can only wonder what a kick it would be in film histories of today if this had been available at the same time as The Public Enemy , Little Ceasar and other seminal works. If you are a "Merry Gangster Historian" go for it!

I watched this in anticipation of Josef von Sternberg's UNDERWORLD (1927), a film that revolutionized the gangster genre – which THE RACKET is as well (I am already familiar with its 1951 remake from the same producer, Howard Hughes). Playwright Bartlett Cormack helped adapt his own work to the screen; interestingly, the chief hoodlum during the original theatrical run was essayed by Edward G. Robinson – who would achieve movie stardom with a similar role in LITTLE CAESAR (1930)!

Though the original was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, ultimately, I still think that the later version is superior (even if nominal director John Cromwell ended up getting replaced by Nicholas Ray!) – principally because there the antagonistic relationship at its core was formidably filled by Roberts Mitchum and Ryan! In this version, we have forgotten star Thomas Meighan as the quintessential (albeit over-age) Irish cop and burly but suitably smarmy Louis Wolheim (who would re-unite with director Milestone for his Oscar-winning masterpiece ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT [1930]). From what I can recall, the plot is pretty much identical between the two versions (for the record, I own Warner's SE DVD of the 1951 movie, while the earlier one was restored for DVD release by Silent-movie specialists Flicker Alley but it somehow never hit stores!): the gangster not only muscles in on a rival (the entire mob's come-uppance in a speak-easy, during a party thrown in honor of Wolheim's younger brother no less, is superbly realized by Milestone) but even seems to have authority figures under his thumb (recalling in this way the recently-viewed THE GLASS KEY [1935], down to a car-accident-turned-murder-rap which sends a ripple through the already murky waters) – so that, no matter what he or his associates do, they are sure to get away scott-free!

In both, there is also a girl – pretty but spirited Marie Prevost in 1928, sultry-yet-dull Lizabeth Scott in 1951 – who first gets embroiled in the villain's schemes and, then, becomes a pawn in the protagonists' struggle for supremacy (which sees Meighan transferred to a precinct far removed from the center of activities and Wolheim tripping himself up by personally exacting revenge upon the cop who arrested his sibling). On the side-lines are a trio of reporters, two vaguely comical (though their antics only seem to exacerbate the feud between policeman and criminal!) and the other a rookie (who becomes involved with Prevost, and is actually the one to bring the villain to book) – his eventual demise, then, emerges to be heavily tinged with irony!

While reading all the dialogue of this silent film I found myself coming up with different accents for all the tough mugs inside my head. I couldn't help but act out the film myself using all the cliché gangster voices I've heard before in talkies. It's a nice way to engage with a film that got lost when sound came in. Other than that it wasn't terribly engaging, the story was a little convoluted and the focus was too much on the good honest cop and not enough on the gangsters. Louis Wolheim who plays the head mobster has a look that is so distinctive it seems he inadvertently became the model for the gangster caricatures in every cartoon that's been made since.

Lewis Milestone performed one of his best directing jobs with "The Racket." He had a superior cast in what, in a later talkie, might be just a mediocre script, but taken in context, "The Racket" is a great movie. Watch the byplay during the funeral, for example.

Milestone and his editors and special effects people create some excellent visual effects to complement a cast that charms even in the role of slimy bad guy. Minor characters still got their chances to shine in the spotlight and even the non-speaking -- well, of course all the characters were non-speaking in one sense -- the un-named characters whose job was to look menacing or even just interested in the goings-on, all stood out.

Frankly this film was a surprise to me -- not that it was so good, but that I had had no knowledge of it beforehand.

To come so early in the career of so many of the people connected with it, notably Howard Hughes, who had the (to me) strange title of "presenter," this film is a stand-out. Robert Israel, who wrote the music for this revival, is fast becoming one of the great composers of the modern era.

All the people who are responsible for this film's recent revival deserve the thanks of film lovers as well as film historians. "The Racket" is one to see again.

Like TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS and THE MATING CALL, this film has now been restored by UNLV (which found the prints of these films once thought lost in an archive of producer Howard Hughes' possessions) in cooperation with Flicker Alley.

Lewis Milestone, who had just directed TWO ARABIAN KNIGHTS for Hughes, brought much of the same sense of friendly rivalry between the two leads to this picture, as well as the same co-star, Louis Wolheim. All the elements of many a subsequent gangster picture are here: The close personal relationship between the antagonists (gang boss Wolheim and cop Thomas Meighan); the kid brother whom the gangster wants to shelter from the rackets (George E. Stone, soon to appear in LITTLE CAESAR and many another gangster flick), but who runs afoul of a tough little chanteuse (Marie Prevost). Mob bosses cavorting in lavish nightclubs, overwrought gangland funerals, crooked politicians, a wet-behind-the-ears reporter with two old pros as a chorus: it's all here.

Enough of the action takes place in a run-down precinct house to belie the story's stage origins, but there's plenty of action, including a shootout between two rival gangs, to keep things hopping.

Louis Wolheim is superbly cast in this gangster drama as the nasty "Scarsi". He and his mobster pals rule the roost controlling the lucrative and illicit bootlegging and gambling businesses across the city. Those they can't bribe or coax they just blow away until, that is, the arrival of the almost Dickesnsianly named police captain "McQuigg" (Thomas Meighan). Initially it's the criminal who has the upper hand. Thanks to some well placed political and judicial influence, "Scarsi" stays free and clear - and he even manages to ensure his antagonist is relegated to a provincial beat where he can do no harm. Then luck takes an hand. "Joe" (George E. Stone) is the hoodlum's rather reckless younger brother and when he is picked up for a fatal hit and run, it sets up a complex sting operation that might finally bring down the kingpin once and for all. The story is quite well paced with a good dynamic between Wolheim, Meighan and an on-form Helen Hayes as the ambitious and not so choosy nightclub singer "Marie" - a woman ends up with a pivotal role to play in their scheme. The whole ensemble works well exuding degree of menace and hatefulness, of ambition and greed - and yes, there's even a slight hint of honour and decency too. The production is a bit limited, it does have quite a stagey and poorly lit look to it for most of the time, but the writing and characterisations help keep it well worth a watch - ideally with a live accompaniment if you can.

Captain James McQuigg is an incorruptible cop in a corrupt city. Master criminal bootlegger Nick Scarsi controls the city government and the police. Scarsi warns McQuigg to change his racket but he assures Scarsi that he's in the right one. Scarsi battles rival Spike Corcoran with McQuigg in the middle. Nick's little brother Joe Scarsi is taken with performer Helen Hayes but Nick will have none of the "gold-digger". McQuigg arrests Nick for the murder of Spike but he bribes his way out and transfers McQuigg out to the sticks. McQuigg arrests Joe after a car chase with Hayes as the witness setting off a series of events leading up to the election.

Produced by Howard Hughes, this was nominated for best picture in the first Academy Awards. Louis Wolheim has a great face for a gangster and he's the best aspect of the movie. Most of the criminals are great but Thomas Meighan is a little stiff. He plays the boy scout without the charismatic gravitas. The first half of the movie is great. Nick is full-on gangster and it's a lot of fun. The second half is muddled and less fun. The second half has more McQuigg and the movie meanders. As an aside, the music is more or less background filler. The restoration should find something more compelling.

Based on Bartlett Cormack's hit Broadway play of 1927, after some atmospheric night scenes noirishly lit by Tony Gaudio and a stirring shootout between cops and robbers on the streets, this film rather slows down to concentrate on talk, and its theatrical origins become a bit too obvious.

Made when Al Capone was still very much a force to be reckoned with, this expose of him not surprisingly failed to get a release in Chicago, and if it seems somewhat over familiar today, it's probably because it actually established so many of the conventions of the gangster genre that dominated the talkie era; notably its cynical depiction of the cozy relationship between gangsters with deep pockets and their lawyers, while tame politicians and judges soon have them back out on the streets, which eventually leads honest cop James McQuigg to declare himself "sick of the law".

I am watching it right now on TCM. It has been digitally restored and a new soundtrack added. The music is excellent. I was sure it was 'period' until I saw the credits, which are rolling as I type.

Marie Prevost is amazing, she dominates every scene in which she appears. Her expressions and body language are astounding. It helps you understand what silent movie acting is all about.

This was a Howard Hughes production. I believe the picture is longer than 60 minutes, though.

The University of Nevada at Las Vegas is credited with this restoration project. They did a great job. I love this movie.

I couldn't love this film, despite the praise it has received over the years. The primary problem is too many title cards and not enough action, too many interconnections in a network of urban corruption and not enough focus on the main characters which are Louis Wohlheim as a crime kingpin, his younger brother (George E. Stone, who is no more believable as a brother of Wohlheim than John Gilbert was a few years later in Gentleman's Fate), and Thomas Meighan as the straight-arrow police officer in opposition to them. Having been directed by Lewis Milestone, there are plenty of interesting camera angles and revelatory dissolves throughout to keep the audience from nodding off.

But the outstanding attraction is the vivacious Marie Prevost before she started gaining weight and playing comic relief supporting roles in early talkies. She is the epitome of a tough but warmhearted Prohibition-era flapper.

Robert Israel's score leans toward the fake, by-the-book "1920's" sound which seems to be winking at the audience. A more generally suspenseful approach might have worked better, saving the boringly played doo-wacky-doo stuff for the nightclub scenes.

This has been resurrected courtesy of Turner Classic Movies, the University of Nevada, et al. (in pretty good shape, too) in a nicely done digital restoration, complete with a good score. If you get a chance to see it, you might want to take a chance: in spite of it being a silent (I consider that a handicap), it's an entertaining film, with a lot to like.

There's fine acting, especially by Louis Wolheim as the main gangster, whose face is so expressive you don't miss the sound as long as he's on screen. Marie Prevost and 'Skeets' Gallagher turn in solid supporting performances. There's clever dialogue: very good given the constraints silent films inherently have.

Personally, I thought the best feature is the wonderful cinematography. Rarely does the camera technique look dated or technically primitive, and many scenes are as well done as any since. The use of dissolves and interesting angles was delightful, and there are even a couple (surprising, to me) attempts at zooms that come off alright. Obviously a good director/cinematographer team. The overall look of the film is fresh and clear.

The story is pretty entertaining and the characters are brought to life, making me glad this film was brought back to life as well.

If you've read some of my other comments, you'll know that I'm in the middle of watching all movies that received Academy Award nominations in the Academy's very first year, 1927-28. "The Racket" was one of three nominees for Best Picture, along with "Seventh Heaven" and "Wings," and though it's by far the least ambitious and "important" of the three, it's the one that I found to be most satisfying.

It's a quick, speedy little gangster thriller from Lewis Milestone about one committed cop's determination to see a crime lord brought to justice. It was based on a play, but Milestone does a terrific job of keeping things cinematic -- this movie moves, and that plus the fact that it's not long to begin with makes its running time go racing by.

Thomas Meighan, who apparently was a big name at the time but who is unfamiliar to me, plays the cop, while Louis Wolheim plays the gangster. Both are terrific, but both are upstaged, as is everyone else, by Marie Prevost (playing a character named, of all things, Helen Hayes) as surely one of the first memorable gangster molls. She gets a really good pre-Code line (if silent films can be said to have lines) about babies and storks that gives you one of those "could they really say things like that back then" moments that pre-Code movies always have.

As far as I know, this movie isn't available anywhere for legitimate viewing. I had to see it the same way I saw "Wings," by watching it in pieces on a site whose name I won't mention. Better catch it soon before someone takes it down.

Grade: A

As it has just been recovered and digitized by University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Turner Classic Movies along with the rest of Howard Hughes' classic silent movies, the people of today will finally get to see this great movie. A movie about prohibition and the mafia, made at the same time it was all going on. Idealizing the mafia before the Godfather was even thought of. Although it may be silent, it shows detail on the corruption of the mob with the police force and government officials, and not to mention the costumes of the film were obviously fitting for the time period, and used common "gangster" themes, such as the pinstriped suit with fedora and the cigar. The production quality is very good for the time, with what equipment they had to work with. The stereotypical choppiness of the frames from 20's movies rarely occurs, except when there is much fast action. Turner also did a good job digitizing this, as the film quality is still high. I recommend that people see this, albeit short, it gives a good idea about the movies of the times. Along with "Two Arabian Nights", also produced by Howard Hughes.

Only Howard Hughes could have pulled off something as subversive as the racket. It contains (as far as I can tell) the first reference of cocaine use in any American film. The casting is perfect. From the broken-nosed tough to the dangerously sexy gun-moll, you'd be hard pressed to find a better team of hard-boiled noir players. The film is filled with exotic images. The woman with a face on the top of her hat. The violin with a trumpet horn attached to it. The Hollywood establishment would have never made this film.

Like Vampyr, which was made in Germany with independent money in 1932, the film is pregnant with the artistic audacity that only non-Hollywood money can bring into a production. The Racket is worth the search. If you like the gangster genre, you will not be disappointed.

Big-city politicians in bed with criminal enterprises has been in existence since the emergence of large urban metropolises. A lot has to do with pork barrel kickbacks, insuring a nice under-the-table paycheck for the pols. Others see it as a way to gain help in guaranteeing their re-elections. Early cinema wasn't blind to that fact. The first movie to detail the inner workings between the two forces was November 1928 "The Racket." Adapted from Barlett Cormack's popular 1927 Broadway play, 'The Racket,' this Academy Award Outstanding Picture nominee set in motion a series of highly popular films on the subject. "The Racket" hit so close to home with the governmental leaders in Chicago where the story takes place that they prohibited both the play and the film from being shown. The similarities between the fictional and the real-life personalities were so obvious it became an embarrassment for the city. The leader of a bootleg liquor operation, Nick Scarsi (Louis Wolheim), clearly portrayed Al Capone, a.ka. 'Scarface.' The character 'Old Man' was a dig on Chicago Mayer William Hale 'Big Bill' Thompson.

Chicago Police Captain James McQuigg (Thomas Meighan) sets out to be a peacemaker in the city, but he's constantly foiled by the antics of Scarsi. The mob boss, killing the head of his cross-town rival, is let off of the murder charge by city hall influencers. Scarsi then shoots a city patrolman who was a witness, incarcerating him again. The question is: will the city corrupt leaders intercede on his behalf once more?

"The Racket" was one of the first movies young 23-year-old producer Howard Hughes financed. Hughes, Jr., recently inherited most of his father's lucrative engineering business and was influenced by his uncle, movie director Rupert Hughes, to dip his toe into the film industry. Relocating from Houston to Los Angeles with his new wife Ella Rice, the great niece of businessman William Rice (Rice University is named after him), Hughes began to use his late father's money to finance a number of Hollywood films. He had seen actress Marie Prevost in a previous movie and was able to get her as the lead female who was responsible breaking the case against Scarsi. "The Racket" turned out to be her last major part in film. Hughes and the actress had a brief fling, after which the married Howard abruptly broke the relationship off. The split began a long, downward spiral in Prevost's personal life, dying at the young age of 38 from acute alcoholism.

Playing Scarsi was veteran actor Louis Wolheim, whose trademark feature was his flat, broken nose. As a Cornell University football player, he fractured his nose during a game, and later that same day got in a fist fight that really flattened it. Wolheim took up acting in the late 1910s on both the stage and in film. As in "The Racket," he played a series of baddie roles. But he always wanted to act in romantic parts and sought to have plastic surgery on his nose. His employer at the time, United Artists, became so upset with his decision the studio went to court to get a restraining order to prevent the operation. He suffered from stomach cancer three years later preparing for the 1931 film "The Front Page," and died at 50.

Director Lewis Milestone had signed a four-picture contract with Hughes in 1927. His 1927 Two Arabian Knights,' was a light-hearted flick inspired by the 1924 play 'What Price Glory?' and won the Academy Awards' Best Director in a Comedy, the only time that category was offered. Milestone wanted to direct "The Racket" to show he was capable of handling more than just comedic films. The production, on the heels of Josef von Sternberg's genre-setting crime film 1927's "Underworld," reflected Milestone's adapt handling of a number of violent sequences. He and Wolheim later collaborated to create some memorable scenes in the 1931 classic "All Quiet on the Western Front." Although "The Racket" premiered in June 1928, but wasn't generally released until that November, the film was considered for the Academy's first year of awards, which consisted totally of silent movies. Because of its earlier production, "The Racket" became one of Paramount Pictures last silent films distributed nationwide (although the studio's final silent was issued as late as June of 1929, the now lost 'Stairs of Sand' with Wallace Beery and Jean Arthur.).