Tonight's Movie: The Racket (1951) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

It's hard to believe it's been close to two decades since I first saw THE RACKET (1951), which has just been released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

THE RACKET is a solid telling of a classic film noir tale about organized crime and corruption in the big city.

Robert Mitchum plays Captain Thomas McQuigg, an honest cop who's been pushed from precinct to precinct by shadowy criminal forces trying to keep him from interfering with their business interests.

Mitchum's fellow noir icon Robert Ryan plays Nick Scanlon, a mobster who's now being controlled by a crime boss known simply as "the old man."

A battle between good and evil ensues, with several people caught in the middle, including Nick's brother Joe (Brett King); Joe's fiancee, nightclub singer Irene (Lizabeth Scott); McQuigg's wife Mary (Joyce MacKenzie); a newspaper reporter (Robert Hutton); and another honest cop, Officer Bob Johnson (William Talman).

Mitchum's performance in this is extremely low-key, but I wonder if it was a conscious decision on his part in order to provide contrast with the flashy Ryan, whose character at times seems mentally unbalanced. The rest of the cast all do a fine job, on the level one would expect.

Perusing my 2006 review, my feelings about the movie remain the same: It's a well-crafted film, and I only wish one character's doomed end wasn't telegraphed virtually from the start of the film.

Otherwise it's quite an entertaining 88 minutes thanks to a marvelous cast. Ray Collins joins his fellow PERRY MASON alum Talman in the cast, plus William Conrad, Les Tremayne, Herb Vigran, and Virginia Huston. I found Conrad particularly fun to watch as a cop on the take.

This RKO film was a Howard Hughes production directed by John Cromwell and a host of uncredited contributors including Nicholas Ray, Tay Garnett, and Mel Ferrer.

The film was written by W.R. Burnett and William Wister Haines, along with uncredited script work by Samuel Fuller.

One humorous note: Mitchum's character refers to Talman as a "kid," when in real life Talman was 2-1/2 years older than Mitchum.

Another interesting trivia note is that Mitchum shares a single scene with Huston, his angelic girlfriend Ann from OUT OF THE PAST (1947).

George E. Diskant's black and white photography gleams thanks to this Warner Archive Blu-ray. The film looks great, and the disc's sound quality is a match for the print.

The lone extras are the trailer and a commentary track by Eddie Muller which was imported from the original 2006 DVD release.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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