The Racket was originally a play on Broadway which ran for 119 performances in the 1927-1928 season and was later made into a silent film by Howard Hughes. Come 1951 and the Kefauver Senate Rackets Committee hearings in full swing, the gangster film was having a renaissance. So Hughes dusted off this old chestnut and updated it to post World War II America and gave it to his most reliable star at RKO.
Robert Mitchum, though cast against type, does well as the upright police captain. I believe his character is based on a man named Lewis J. Valentine who was a well known police captain in New York in the Hylan-Walker era. Valentine was assigned to something called The Confidential Squad which delved into organized crime. Valentine like Captain McQuigg in The Racket, stepped on a lot of toes and got transferred to garbage assignments. Ultimately he was vindicated when Fiorello LaGuardia became mayor, he made Valentine first the Chief of Uniform Patrol and later Police Commissioner. He probably was the best that ever held that job in New York City.
Robert Ryan is at his snarling best as old time gangster Nick Scanlon. Ryan is a man behind the times, the syndicate is looking for less public methods to enforce it's will and Ryan is constantly bumping up against them.
Interestingly enough, problems are not solved here. McQuigg keeps his precinct clean, but the corruption is shown to be quite systemic. A very groundbreaking attitude for that era.
Though The Racket met with a great deal of criticism by reviewers as being old fashioned, I rather like it and would classify it as one of the better products coming out of RKO during the Hughes era.
Robert Mitchum, though cast against type, does well as the upright police captain. I believe his character is based on a man named Lewis J. Valentine who was a well known police captain in New York in the Hylan-Walker era. Valentine was assigned to something called The Confidential Squad which delved into organized crime. Valentine like Captain McQuigg in The Racket, stepped on a lot of toes and got transferred to garbage assignments. Ultimately he was vindicated when Fiorello LaGuardia became mayor, he made Valentine first the Chief of Uniform Patrol and later Police Commissioner. He probably was the best that ever held that job in New York City.
Robert Ryan is at his snarling best as old time gangster Nick Scanlon. Ryan is a man behind the times, the syndicate is looking for less public methods to enforce it's will and Ryan is constantly bumping up against them.
Interestingly enough, problems are not solved here. McQuigg keeps his precinct clean, but the corruption is shown to be quite systemic. A very groundbreaking attitude for that era.
Though The Racket met with a great deal of criticism by reviewers as being old fashioned, I rather like it and would classify it as one of the better products coming out of RKO during the Hughes era.