Main Cast: Robert Mitchum, Lizabeth Scott, Robert Ryan, William Talman, Ray Collins
Release Year: 1951
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
The Racket was based on a play by Bartlett Cormack, first filmed as a silent in 1928. The storyline was updated to include references to Estes Kefauver's Senate Crime Investigating Committee: otherwise, the plot (and much of the dialogue) was lifted bodily from the Cormack play. Racketeer Robert Ryan has managed to get several government and law-enforcement higher-ups in his pocket. But Ryan can't touch the incorruptible police officer Robert Mitchum, who refuses all attempts at bribery. Ryan pulls strings to get Mitchum transferred to a series of undesirable precincts, but Mitchum will not be dissuaded. The battle of wills between cop and criminal comes to a head when mob-connected nightclub singer Lizabeth Scott turns on her former protector Ryan. The Broadway version of The Racket starred Edward G. Robinson as the racketeer; the 1928 film version featured Louis Wolheim in the Robinson role and Thomas Meighan as the upright cop. Both the silent and sound versions of the property were personally produced by Howard R. Hughes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Jack Okey - Art Director, Mel Burns - Costume Designer, Michael Woulfe - Costume Designer, John Cromwell - Director, Nicholas Ray - Director, Sherman Todd - Editor, Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Composer (Music Score), Paul Sawtell - Composer (Music Score), Roy Webb - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Harold Adamson - Songwriter, Jimmy McHugh - Songwriter, Mel Burns - Makeup, Mel Berns - Makeup, George E. Diskant - Cinematographer, Edmund Grainger - Producer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, William L. Stevens - Set Designer, Frank McWhorter - Sound/Sound Designer, Clem Portman - Sound/Sound Designer, W.R. Burnett - Screenwriter, William Wister Haines - Screenwriter, Bartlett Cormack - Play Author
The plot of the film is very close to the original play and 1928 movie. Racketeer and mobster Nick Scanlon (Ryan) has managed to buy several of the local government and law-enforcement officials of a large midwestern American city. However, he can't seem to touch the incorruptible police captain Tom McQueeg (Mitchum), who refuses all attempts at bribery. The city’s prosecuting attorney, Welch (Collins), and a police detective, Turck (Conrad), are crooked and make McQueeg's job as an honest officer nearly impossible. McQueeg persuades a sexy nightclub singer (Scott) to testify against Scanlon which makes her marked for death from the mob. McQueeg not only wants to nail Scanlon, but also stop all the mob corruption in the city - without getting himself or his witness killed.
