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The Racket (1951)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
12 December 1951 (USA) moreTagline:
YOU'LL LEARN WHO PAYS OFF WHO -- AND WHY! (original print ad - all caps) morePlot:
The big national crime syndicate has moved into town, partnering up with local crime boss Nick Scanlon... more | add synopsisUser Comments:
A slow starter, but a fine crime drama moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Robert Mitchum | ... | Captain Thomas McQuigg | |
| Lizabeth Scott | ... | Irene Hayes | |
| Robert Ryan | ... | Nick Scanlon | |
| William Talman | ... | Officer Bob Johnson | |
| Ray Collins | ... | Dist. Atty. Mortimer X. Welsh | |
| Joyce Mackenzie | ... | Mary McQuigg | |
| Robert Hutton | ... | Dave Ames ('City Press' cub reporter) | |
| Virginia Huston | ... | Lucy Johnson | |
| William Conrad | ... | Det. Sgt. Turk | |
| Walter Sande | ... | Precinct Sgt. Jim Delaney | |
| Les Tremayne | ... | Harry Craig (Crime Commission chief investigator) | |
| Don Porter | ... | R.G. Connolly (ward boss) | |
| Walter Baldwin | ... | Booking Sgt. Sullivan | |
| Brett King | ... | Joe Scanlon | |
| Richard Karlan | ... | Breeze Enright (round-faced Scanlon henchman) |
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Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
88 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)MOVIEmeter: 
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The only film that Robert Mitchum appeared in which was a remake of a silent film. moreSoundtrack:
A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening moreFAQ
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I'd never been able to get past the first couple of reels of The Racket on TV and it certainly looked like being the make-weight of Warner's new Film Noir collection, but once you get past the lunking Howard Hughes-imposed Nicholas Ray-directed prologue turns into a surprisingly engaging and gripping crime drama. Structurally it's certainly unusual, probably as a result of Hughes' typical interference - it's more than 17 minutes before Mitchum makes his entrance, and there are some sporadically awkward crosscuts to inserts shot by Ray and others after John Cromwell (who starred in the play the film was based on in the 1920s) had left.
Robert Ryan is surprisingly not quite there on screen for once: not exactly bad, but somewhere between phoning it in and, in his early scenes at least, possibly drunk on set - his timing is slightly askew, his usual excellent instincts abandoned along with his sense of proportion in moments that are just a little over the top. But there's so much to admire that even the unlikely escalation of the feud between the two protagonists is carried along. There's a fine shootout in a garage, a neat car chase that sees the cops plow through a billboard for a mob-backed political candidate and a terrific death scene at the end. The supporting cast are intriguing too, with William Conrad's cop and Ray Collin's DA both corrupt but not so entirely that they're lost causes: they exist in a gray area that throws the leads into sharper relief.
Eddie Mueller's audio commentary is the only extra on Warners' R1 DVD, but it's quite excellent and well worth listening to.