Review of The Racket (1951) by Ian P — 27 Nov 2012

In New York, corruption has reached all levels under the command of the powerful mobster lord "The Old Man" and the local crime boss Nick Scanlon (Robert Ryan). When the Crime Commission under the command of Chief Investigator Harry Craig (Les Tremayne) meets with governor, the disbelief of the population is almost total. Craig tells that the uncorrupted Captain Thomas McQuigg (Robert Mitchum) was moved to the 7th District Police Station and has the intention to clean his district. The Commission counts on the testimony of Roy Higgins (Howland Chamberlain) but Nick sends one of his men to eliminate him. McQuigg uses his honest Officer Bob Johnson (William Talman) to arrest Nick's brother Joe Scanlon (Brett King) and his lover and singer Irene Hayes (Lizabeth Scott) to press Nick, under the protest of the corrupt District Attorney Mortimer X. Welsh (Ray Collins), who is supported by the mafia to the position of judge on the next elections. When Nick kills Bob, he sees the collapse of his empire and the end of the support of "The Old Man".

"The Racket" is a good but dated police story disclosing corruption in all levels of New York City. The ending is extremely commercial, moralist and without credibility, with the subpoenas of Mortimer Welsh and Detective Sergeant Turk and the romance between Irene Hayes and the naive City Press journalist Dave Ames. Robert Ryan is excellent in the role of the violent and old-fashioned criminal, but Robert Mitchum has a bureaucratic performance. Just as a curiosity, the name of the owner of the car used by Joe stamped on the newspaper is William R. Wyler, maybe in a tribute to the great director.