The Racket
US (1928): Crime/Film-Noir/Silent
A taut underworld drama, adapted for the screen from Lewis Milestone's own play by Bartlett Cormack. Politically connected bootlegger Nick Scarsi (Louis Wolheim) and police captain McQuigg (Thomas Meighan) have a long-standing beef, which intensifies after Scarsi's trucks are stopped by the police then released because of his pull with local politicos. Scarsi tries to pay off McQuigg, and when McQuigg refuses, Scarsi uses his juice to have McQuigg transferred to a precinct in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, Scarsi is having trouble on the home front. His younger brother Joe (George Stone) has the hots for a chanteuse named Helen (Marie Prevost). She and Nick have a run-in at Joe's birthday party, where Nick deliberately humiliates her. She decides to seduce Joe just to make Nick mad, and the two of them go out for a drive in Joe's roadster. Helen and Joe have a squabble on the road, and she storms out of his car just as a police cruiser happens by. Joe hits the gas, and in the ensuing high-speed chase hits an innocent bystander. The police arrest him for hit-and-run driving. Joe is booked under a false name, but Helen tips off a reporter (Skeets Gallagher) that he's really the younger brother of a notorious gangster. Nick later murders a policeman and is arrested. He cuts a deal with the District Attorney (Sam De Grasse), who then double-crosses him and has Nick shot as he tries to escape. McQuigg finally has his revenge. (TV Guide.com)
Previously unavailable for viewing by the general public, The Racket was recently discovered in a collection of Howard Hughes memorabilia at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, restored and released for broadcast on Turner Classic Movies in 2004. Two other Oscar®-nominated Best Pictures -- East Lynne (1931) and The Patriot (1928) -- remain either lost or unavailable.
1 nomination
· Production 1927-28: Howard Hughes, producer