The Racket (1928) is a glorious silent about a clash between a crusading police captain (Thomas Meighan) and a likable bootlegger (Louis Wolheim) who revels in his corruption. This beautifully photographed film by cinematographer Tony Gaudio, which is directed by Lewis Milestone, is on TCM today. Don't miss the scrumptious Marie Prevost as a gold digger, George E. Stone as "one of the boys," who also happens to be Louis Wolheim's brother (what did Mom look like?) and Skeets Gallagher as a wise guy reporter (what else?). This was silent story telling and truly delightful silent acting at its peak. Btw, producer Howard Hughes remade this about a quarter of a century later at RKO with a couple of guys you may have heard of, Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum. (Sorry, but the earlier version is more fun, at least for me).
I hope that you'll add your own take on this one! There's a reason it won an early Oscar for Best Picture!
The Racket (1928)
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moira finnie
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: The Racket (1928)
The Racket deserves to be better known. It's a really good silent from my favorite period in the history of silents. Thomas Meighan had a long career in silents and this film is one of his best. Hope some of you manage to catch it.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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moira finnie
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Re: The Racket (1928)
Thanks for encouraging my love of the obscure, CCfan! I just came across a terrific post from Stacia over on the blog, She Blogged By Night devoted to Marie Prevost and this film. I don't agree with her dislike of the Robert Israel score attached to this film in 2004, nor do I dislike Thomas Meighan (he was cute, in his own slightly wooden way)--but overall, her analysis of the movie is excellent and any girl who likes Louis Wolheim is a pal of mine.
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JackFavell
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Re: The Racket (1928)
Moira -
thanks for posting about The Racket, and also pointing me in the direction of She Blogged by Night.
The movie is superb, and unlike any other silent I have ever seen.... proto-noir, I don't know, but it does seem to be the earliest gangster film I've found.... the setting is very noirish, with wet streets and lighted signs taking precedence as far as sets are concerned. The wronged bad girl theme struck me as noirish too, but I am pretty new to that genre.
I am a big fan of Louis Wolheim, but an even bigger fan of Marie Prevost, the nearly forgotten silent star. She made it into talkies easily, as did Wolheim, only to be told by movie producers that she was too fat. Her career dwindled as did her figure, and she was dead by the beginning of 1937. Wolheim died too soon in 1931, and it's a shame we lost these two supremely talented character actors. Who knows what they could have done.
Prevost was a living doll, cute and perky, with a great sense of humor, a perfect Sennett bathing beauty. She was a talented actress as well, moving into the best friend/loose dame roles that we so enjoy in the pre-codes. I have yet to see a film in which she didn't do a good job, sometimes stealing the picture from the much blander stars. If I could go back in time to the 1920's, I'd want to go looking like Marie Prevost.
thanks for posting about The Racket, and also pointing me in the direction of She Blogged by Night.
The movie is superb, and unlike any other silent I have ever seen.... proto-noir, I don't know, but it does seem to be the earliest gangster film I've found.... the setting is very noirish, with wet streets and lighted signs taking precedence as far as sets are concerned. The wronged bad girl theme struck me as noirish too, but I am pretty new to that genre.
I am a big fan of Louis Wolheim, but an even bigger fan of Marie Prevost, the nearly forgotten silent star. She made it into talkies easily, as did Wolheim, only to be told by movie producers that she was too fat. Her career dwindled as did her figure, and she was dead by the beginning of 1937. Wolheim died too soon in 1931, and it's a shame we lost these two supremely talented character actors. Who knows what they could have done.
Prevost was a living doll, cute and perky, with a great sense of humor, a perfect Sennett bathing beauty. She was a talented actress as well, moving into the best friend/loose dame roles that we so enjoy in the pre-codes. I have yet to see a film in which she didn't do a good job, sometimes stealing the picture from the much blander stars. If I could go back in time to the 1920's, I'd want to go looking like Marie Prevost.
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moira finnie
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Re: The Racket (1928)
I like Marie and Louis very much too and was sadly aware of their early deaths (Hollywood did seem to have that effect at times). Have you seen this article by MorlockJeff on TCM about her?
I hope that you caught The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) right after The Racket (1928) yesterday. Marie appeared in that Helen Hayes vehicle as a Frenchwoman married to Cliff Edwards, who played a farmer in Normandy! Uh, aside from the hilarious notion of either of these actors appearing as "zee veree--how you say?--veree Amereecahn" French peasants, Marie was darling in one of those "gal pal to the star" parts that Una Merkel was usually assigned. Prevost was struggling with the battle of the bulge during this time, but she looked so appealing, especially in one particularly fetching and well designed dress that framed her cherubic face.
I wish that Marie Prevost could have lived long enough to become a character actress, perhaps as a kind of working class Spring Byington.
I hope that you caught The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) right after The Racket (1928) yesterday. Marie appeared in that Helen Hayes vehicle as a Frenchwoman married to Cliff Edwards, who played a farmer in Normandy! Uh, aside from the hilarious notion of either of these actors appearing as "zee veree--how you say?--veree Amereecahn" French peasants, Marie was darling in one of those "gal pal to the star" parts that Una Merkel was usually assigned. Prevost was struggling with the battle of the bulge during this time, but she looked so appealing, especially in one particularly fetching and well designed dress that framed her cherubic face.
I wish that Marie Prevost could have lived long enough to become a character actress, perhaps as a kind of working class Spring Byington.
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JackFavell
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Re: The Racket (1928)
I had not seen that article on Marie Prevost before, Moira! I thank you for all this information.... I think she could have been great in more earthy Spring Byington roles. Although she probably couldn't see it, she was already on her way to being a really good character actress. I like her so much in the movies listed in the morlocks blog and agree completely with their assessment of her in the Crawford film, Hands Across the Table, and Ladies of Leisure.
I unfortunately missed The Sin of Madelon Claudet. It sounds hilarious. Had I known she was in it, I would have recorded it. I already have The Racket on disc and for some reason didn't feel the need to watch TSOMC. I don't know, I've only seen one pre-code Helen Hayes film that I liked, so I purposefully skipped this one. Darn it! That's what I get for being judgmental.....it's all Helen's fault.
I unfortunately missed The Sin of Madelon Claudet. It sounds hilarious. Had I known she was in it, I would have recorded it. I already have The Racket on disc and for some reason didn't feel the need to watch TSOMC. I don't know, I've only seen one pre-code Helen Hayes film that I liked, so I purposefully skipped this one. Darn it! That's what I get for being judgmental.....it's all Helen's fault.