The Racket (1928 film)

The Racket
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLewis Milestone
Written by
Based on
The Racket
1927 play
by Bartlett Cormack
Produced byHoward Hughes
Starring
CinematographyTony Gaudio
Edited byEddie Adams
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • November 1, 1928 (1928-11-01)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

The Racket is a 1928 American silent crime noir film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Thomas Meighan, Marie Prevost, Louis Wolheim, and George E. Stone. The film was produced by Howard Hughes, written by Bartlett Cormack and Tom Miranda, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures.[1] It was adapted from Cormack's 1927 Broadway play The Racket.[2]

Plot

Lobby card

Chicago Police Department officer James "Mac" McQuigg tries to keep the peace in Chicago during the Prohibition gang wars but is hampered by massive corruption. After a shootout between two gangs led by mob bosses Nick Scarsi and Spike Corcoran, McQuigg manages to arrest Scarsi's henchman Chick. Scarsi, upon hearing the news, contacts "The Old Man" in the Chicago Mayor's office, and Chick is released the same day with all charges dropped. Later that evening, a birthday party for Scarsi's younger brother Joe ends in an ambush in which Nick kills Spike. 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 Scarsi, the latter uses his connections to get him transferred to "the sticks" of the 28th precinct; Mac soon learns that Scarsi intends to do away with him after the upcoming mayoral election. After Joe is arrested and brought to his station for a hit-and-run accident, McQuigg convinces his girlfriend Helen Hayes to implicate him. Enraged at his attempts to free Joe being ignored, Nick Scarsi arrives and shoots the witness Patrolman Johnson, and McQuigg arrests him again for murder; Scarsi's attorney arrives with a writ of habeas corpus to free him, and McQuigg rips it up and imprisons him as well. Meanwhile, Hayes has fallen in love with cub reporter Dave Ames, who has witnessed both of Nick's murders and has agreed to identify him at trial. Using Ames to rile Scarsi up, Hayes tricks him into confessing to shooting Johnson in front of District Attorney Welch. With evidence mounting against Scarsi, "The Old Man" and Welch's political machine turns on him 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

Background

Due to the controversial portrayal of a corrupt police force and city government, both the film and the play were banned at the time in Chicago.[3] The main antagonist Nick Scarsi was modeled after Al Capone while "The Old Man" was modeled after Chicago Mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson.[1]

Reception

The Racket is one of the films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (then called Outstanding Picture) in the 1929 Academy Awards.[4]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100 percent based on 6 critics, with an average rating of 7.50 out of 10.[5]

Variety wrote "A good story, plus good direction, plus a great cast and minus dumb supervision, is responsible for another great underworld film".[6]

Preservation and home video

Only one copy of the film was known to exist.[7] It was long thought lost before being located in Howard Hughes' film collection after his death.[8] The Racket was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.[9] It airs occasionally on Turner Classic Movies.

A restored version of the film will be released on Blu-ray alongside Hughes' Two Arabian Knights by Flicker Alley in July 2026.[10]

Remake

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

See also

References

  1. 1 2 The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:The Racket
  2. ↑ The Racket play produced on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre, November 1927 – March 1928; IBDb.com
  3. ↑ Cady, Brian (November 19, 2004). "The Racket (1928)". prod.tcm.com. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
  4. ↑ "The 1st Academy Awards (1929) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. October 8, 2014. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  5. ↑ "The Racket (1928)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  6. ↑ "The Racket". Variety. December 31, 1927.
  7. ↑ The Racket at silentera.com Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  8. ↑ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog:The Racket Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
  10. ↑ "'Howard Hughes In Hollywood Volume One' Brings Two Silent-Era Classics to Blu-ray". The Arts Shelf. June 2, 2026. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
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