"Racket Squad" (1950) TV series

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Frank McDonald

Writers:

George Carleton Brown (writer)
Richard Carr (writer)

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

This series dramatizes confidence games which fall under the jurisdiction of Captain John Braddock.

Plot Keywords:

Confidence Game | Con Artist | Con Game

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys.

Cast

Reed Hadley	...	Capt. John Braddock / ... (98 episodes, 1951-1953)
Hugh Beaumont	...	Narrator (prologue) / ... (35 episodes, 1952-1953)

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Filming Locations:

Hal Roach Studios - 8822 Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Hal Roach Studios

Trivia:

In the RACKET SQUAD comic, Captain Braddock's name was changed to John. J. O'Malley and he was dropped after about ten issues, although the stories that feature him were reprinted in later issues.

Quotes:

[Introduction to each episode]
Captain Braddock: [to the camera] What you are about to see is a real-life story, taken from the files of the police racket and bunco squads, business protective associations and similar sources around the country. It is intended to expose the confidence game - the carefully worked-out frauds by which confidence men take more money each year from the American public than all the bank robbers and thugs with their violence.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Steele Spawning (#4.12)" (1986)

Airing Racket Squad

KWVT in Salem is airing these shows, we take each show and in most cases have over 175 renders for each. We adjust levels, cut out the bad stuff as much as we can without affecting the content (bad splices and fast level shifts) remove as much audio and video noise as we can. So all in all we do the best we can.

The reason these stories are in most cases as relevant today as they were in the 1950's If you change a couple of points (change Sacks of wheat to new computer programs) you could pull most of these off today.

As I edit each show I learn a little more on how easy we can make it for those that will take our money or other items.

Ken