The Racketeer (1929)

Director:

Howard Higgin

Writers:

Paul Gangelin (story)
A.A. Kline (dialogue)

Release Date:

9 November 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

STRANGE...THRILLING...COMPELLING! (original poster - all caps)

Plot:

A dapper gangster sponsors an alcoholic violinist in order to win the love of a glamorous divorced socialite.

Plot Keywords:

Violinist | Poker | Concert | New York City | Gangster

Cast

Robert Armstrong	...	Mahlon Keane
Carole Lombard	...	Rhoda Philbrooke (as Carol Lombard)
Roland Drew	...	Tony Vaughan
Paul Hurst	...	Mehaffy - Policeman
Kit Guard	...	Gus
Al Hill	...	Squid
Bobby Dunn	...	The Rat (as Bobbie Dunn)
Budd Fine	...	Bernie Weber (as Bud Fine)
Hedda Hopper	...	Mrs. Karen Lee
Jeanette Loff	...	Millie Chapman
John Loder	...	Jack Oakhurst
Winter Hall	...	Mr. Sam Chapman
Winifred Harris	...	Mrs. Margaret Chapman

Also Known As:

Love's Conquest (UK)

Runtime:

68 min (copyright length) (sound version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Photophone System)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Pathé Exchange

Goofs:

Continuity: When Gus spots rival gangster Bernie Weber riding in the back of a taxi, he tells his driver Squid to pull alongside it so he can shoot him. Gus refers to it as a gray cab, and in the studio close-up it appears to be white or at least a very light gray. In the subsequent cut to the location shot done outdoors on location, the cab with the dead mobster appears to be black.

Interesting story but lousy movie

"The Racketeer" stars Carol (deprived of the "e" that usually appeared at the end of her first name) Lombard as a woman thrown out of society because she left her husband for a concert violinist (Roland Drew) who has since become a down-and-out alcoholic, and torn between her love for him and the interest of New York crime kingpin Robert Armstrong (top-billed). It's virtually a compendium of what was wrong with the earliest talkies: stiff direction, immobile cameras, stagy acting and ridiculously slow-paced delivery of lines. At the time the sound crews were telling the directors to have their actors speak every line s-l-o-w-l-y and not to start speaking their own line until after the previous actor had finished theirs. Done about five years later, this could have been an interesting movie, but director Howard Higgin faithfully follows his sound recorder's dictates and systematically undercuts the talents we know Lombard and Armstrong had from watching their later movies. "The Racketeer" was made in 1929, a year that despite the transition problems from silent to sound nonetheless gave us some legitimate masterpieces — Vidor's "Hallelujah!," Mamoulian's "Applause," Wyler's "Hell's Heroes," Capra's "Ladies of Leisure" — all from directors with strong enough wills to tell the soundboard dictators to get stuffed and let their actors talk and act naturalistically. Too bad Howard Higgin wasn't that strong; as it is, watching a naturally rapid-paced actor like Armstrong slog through the part in the ridiculous way he's been told to speak, one can't help but wonder where that 50-foot gorilla is when Armstrong needs him.