The Racket

A remake of a 1928 silent film of the same name, and based on a stage play by Bartlett Cormack, John Cromwell’s The Racket features a noir-studded cast in a tale about one police captain fighting corruption in an unnamed midwestern city. Robert Mitchum stars as Tom McQuigg, the righteous captain who repeatedly rejects the bribes and other “incentives” from mobster Nick Scanlon (Robert Ryan) and is committed to locking up Scanlon and eliminating his influence for good. What McQuigg doesn’t know, however, is that two of his most powerful comrades are on the take with Scanlon: District Attorney Mortimer Welsh (Ray Collins) and state police detective Turk (William Conrad). McQuigg’s best chance at nabbing Scanlon comes in the form of Irene Hayes (Lizabeth Scott), a nightclub singer from whom he secures a commitment to testify against the mob, which, of course, shoves her in Scanlon’s crosshairs. An excellent William Talman plays McQuigg’s most loyal soldier and friend Bob Johnson, while Joyce Mackenzie plays McQuigg’s wife Mary. Aside from a few nighttime action sequences, one in a parking garage, and some occasionally inventive mise-en-scène, especially using deep focus, The Racket is a finely crafted story, if not a thrilling ride, that any fan of meat-and-potatoes noir shouldn’t miss.