Mobs Incorporated (1956)
"Mobs, Inc." (original title)

Captain Braddock of the Los Angeles Racket Squad schools a group of cadet policemen by telling them of three precarious and dangerous cases of con artistry. Included are tracking down a ... See full summary »

Director:

William Asher

Writers:

Will Gould (screenplay), Lee Loeb (screenplay)

Stars:

Reed Hadley, Lisa Howard, Marjorie Reynolds

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Reed Hadley	...	Capt. John Braddock (archive footage)
Lisa Howard	...	Ronnie Miles (archive footage)
Marjorie Reynolds	...	Mary Hale Browne (archive footage)
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Leland Cameron James (archive footage)
Linda Leighton	...	Mary Higgins (archive footage)
Jess Barker	...	Jim Edwards (archive footage)
Will Geer	...	Harry Robinson, banker (archive footage)
Paul Cavanagh	...	Harrington (archive footage)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Erville Alderson	...	Town Insurance Agent (archive footage)
Hugh Beaumont	...	(archive footage)
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	Telegraph Boy (archive footage)
Paul Birch	...	(archive footage)
King Donovan	...	(archive footage)
Harvey B. Dunn	...	Mr. Platt (archive footage)
Alvin Hurwitz	...	Peters, Harrington's aide (archive footage)

Storyline

Captain Braddock of the Los Angeles Racket Squad schools a group of cadet policemen by telling them of three precarious and dangerous cases of con artistry. Included are tracking down a dance hall girl, who, together with a big operative, are thwarted in attempting a robbery; a racketeer fleecing a book publisher on a Trans-Atlantic voyage, and the tripping up of the plans of a phony land syndicate.

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Plot Keywords:

syndicate | racket | racketeer | publisher | slang | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 March 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Con Man

Company Credits

Production Co:

Premier Sound Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

62 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was composed from three edited episodes of the TV series Racket Squad with new, framing sequences and voice-over material by Reed Hadley.

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Connections

Edited from Racket Squad: The Case of the Miracle Mud (1951)

User Reviews

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Thie feature film consists of three episodes of the syndicated-television series "Racket Squad" stitched together and sold to theatre-exhibitors as a real movie. It opens at the Los Angeles Police Academy with a lecturer telling the class of LAPD-rookies three stories of confidence rackets.

Story 1: A taxi-dancer meets a small-time racketeer and becomes partners with him in some small-time scams. Another racketeer, playing for bigger stakes, gets her to join up with him. They gain access to a wealthy man's home by pretending to be a photographer-writer team sent by a magazine to photograph his palatial home. The police arrive in time to stop the burglary. They arrive in time only because the small-time,sore-loser, ex-boyfriend had gone to the police department and snitched on them.

Story 2: A crooked stock-syndicate swindles a wealthy newspaper publisher out of $40,000 with the aid of a glamorous sophisticated woman as a decoy. A snitch many have been involved here, also.

Story 3: A crippled young man shows up in Smallville and buys a dilapidated, abandoned farm for $1750, spot-cash American. The townspeople, always ready to add a new citizen to the tax-roll, help him fix it up and he becomes a sympathetic and popular citizen in the community, especially with the pretty female real-estate broker. He claims the spring on his property has a therapeutic healing effect on his crippling arthritis and, considering he showed up in a wheelchair and is now running and jumping all over the place, the town-council is now ready to buy back the formerly-worthless property for $50,000, and let the budding-decathlon star walk away with a net profit of $48,250 on his two-bit investment. And he would have, too, if the L.A.P.D. hadn't shown up with proof he was never crippled and didn't have arthritis. Yes, that's correct, the pretty female real-estate broker had overheard him discussing his plans with a confederate...and snitched on him. But young Clark Kent was having some doubts about this character, also.

The end of the film leaves the viewer with one question and two-lessons learned:

Question 1: What in heck was the Los Angeles Police Department doing busting citizens outside of the Los Angeles city limits in Smallville?

Lesson 1: Never under-estimate the value of a Snitch.

Lesson 2: Never under-estimate the ability of American film-goers to line up and pay money to see a film in a theatre that they could have stayed home and seen for free on television.