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''The Racket'' is a 1928 American silent
crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Thomas Meighan, Marie Prevost, Louis Wolheim, and George E. Stone. The film was produced by
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
, written by Bartlett Cormack and Tom Miranda, and was distributed by
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
.The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:''The Racket''
/ref> It was adapted from Cormack's 1927 Broadway play '' The Racket''.


Plot

Chicago Police Department officer James "Mac" McQuigg tries to keep the peace in Chicago during the
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
gang wars but is hampered by massive
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...
. After a shootout McQuigg manages to arrest mob boss Nick Scarsi's henchman Spike Corcoran, the political boss "The Old Man" arranges to have all charges dropped. After a birthday party for Nick Scarsi's younger brother Joe Scarsi ends in a shootout in which Nick Scarsi kills Corcoran, McQuigg arrests Nick Scarsi for murder but is forced to release him after being unable to find the murder weapon. Although McQuigg vows to bring down Nick Scarsi, he gets transferred to "the sticks" of the 28th precinct. After Joe Scarsi is arrested for a hit-and-run accident, McQuigg convinces his girlfriend Helen Hayes to implicate him. Nick Scarsi arrives and shoots the witness Patrolman Johnson, and McQuigg arrests him again for murder. When Nick Scarsi's attorney arrives with a writ of ''
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
'' to free him, McQuigg rips it up and imprisons him as well. Hayes falls in love with cub reporter Dave Ames, and tricks Nick Scarsi into confessing to keep him from killing Ames. With Nick Scarsi implicated in a crime, "The Old Man" and District Attorney Welch's
political machine In the politics of representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership c ...
turn on Nick Scarsi in order to remain in power at the upcoming municipal election. They trick him into attempting to escape and trying to shoot McQuigg with an empty gun before killing him themselves.


Cast

* Thomas Meighan as Captain James McQuigg * Louis Wolheim as Nick Scarsi * Lucien Prival as Chick * Marie Prevost as Helen Hayes * G. Pat Collins as Patrolman Johnson (credited as Pat Collins) * Henry Sedley as Spike Corcoran * George E. Stone as Joe Scarsi (credited as George Stone) * Sam De Grasse as District Attorney Welch (credited as Sam DeGrasse) * Richard "Skeets" Gallagher as Miller (credited as Skeets Gallagher) * Lee Moran as Pratt * John Darrow as Dave Ames – Cub Reporter


Background

Due to the controversial portrayal of a corrupt police force and
city government A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
, both the film and the play were banned at the time in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. The main antagonist Nick Scarsi was modeled after Al Capone while "The Old Man" was modeled after Chicago Mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson.


Reception

''The Racket'' is one of the films nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Picture The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film a ...
(then called Outstanding Picture) in the 1929 Academy Awards. On
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has an approval rating of 100 percent based on 6 critics, with an average rating of 7.50 out of 10. '' Variety'' wrote "A good story, plus good direction, plus a great cast and minus dumb supervision, is responsible for another great underworld film".


Preservation

Only one copy of the film was known to exist. It was long thought lost before being located in
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
' film collection after his death. ''The Racket'' was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016. It airs occasionally on
Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...
.


Remake

The Howard Hughes-owned RKO studios remade '' The Racket'' in 1951 with Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan in the lead roles.


See also

* List of rediscovered films * '' The Big City'' (1928) * '' Dressed to Kill'' (1928)


References


External links

* *
allmovie.com
* *
Australian daybill long poster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Racket (1928 film), The 1928 films 1928 crime drama films 1920s American films 1920s English-language films 1920s rediscovered films American black-and-white films American crime drama films American gangster films American police detective films American silent feature films Films about corruption in the United States Films about organized crime in the United States Films about prohibition in the United States Films directed by Lewis Milestone Films produced by Howard Hughes Films set in Chicago Films with screenplays by Harry Behn Paramount Pictures films Rediscovered American films Silent American crime drama films Silent American mystery films Silent American thriller films Surviving American silent films English-language crime drama films