On R List of Movie Reviews
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The Racket (1951)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
1/09, 2/24
1/09:
Although The Racket is well-directed, it has many things up its sleeve that I don't particularly like.
The acting is fair. Robert Ryan makes his presence felt but goes overboard with the hardheaded persona. Robert Mitchum,
like he always does, sleepwalks through his performance.
The story is murky and sometimes hard to follow, yet I get what it's all about. At the same time, the characters are too
damn talky. I can't believe the guys, who are apparently crooks, were allowed to have respectable jobs. Back then, that's
the way it was through graft.
After the virtuous cop was shot, the general feeling I got is that nobody cared and that it was more important to
apprehend the killer, put him away, and call it a day. It's plain silly. Of course, the filmmakers want me to
forget about it quickly while subpoenas are being served for the others.
There's an Untouchables moment when Robert
Mitchum's character came to the precinct for the first time and gave an I-Want-You-to-Be-Pure speech.
The Killers'
William Conrad, who plays the mustachioed Turk, did the same thing in Tension.
All in all, The Racket isn't a good film noir picture although it's dark and full of unethical elements.
2/24:
Upping my rating from '3' to '4' for The Racket, there are obvious problems.
It's advertised as a Robert Mitchum picture, but really, how much in total out of 89 minutes is his screen time? The other
is how unfocused it is. Different players get plenty of attention such as Robert Ryan, William Talman, Lizabeth
Scott, and Robert Hutton. It's crazy. By the way, why will a newspaper publish the address of where beat cop lives?
I'll be surprised if that happened for real.
The plot is too ambitious in sort of The Untouchables way such as the "I Want You to Be
Pure" speech by Robert Mitchum.
At least, Brian De Palma was able to have it under control. The Racket overreaches but settles for one criminal:
Nick Scanlon. Unsurprisingly, there were four directors taking turns with the material. The best thing to do is let
Robert Ryan take over and only stick to his character's perspective since his performace stood out a bit more than the others.
It's possible the film would work out if Robert Mitchum was instead Nick Scanlon along with more screen time.
All in all, The Racket is accurate when it comes to the subject of corruption but falls short elsewhere.