Racket Busters (1938)

The Age of Commercialism

One of my all time favorites.

hyped garbage

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Humphrey Bogart (Martin), George Brent (Denny Jordan), Allen Jenkins (Skeets), Gladys Dickson (Nora Jordan), Walter Abel (Allison), Penny Singleton (Gladys), Henry O'Neill (governor), Oscar O'Shea (Pop), Anthony Averill (Dave Crane, Martin's chief henchman), Eliott Sullivan (Charlie Smith), Fay Helm (Mrs Charlie Smith), Joe Downing, Norman Willis, Ethan Laidlaw, James Pierce, Harry Tenbrook (Martin henchmen), Robert Strange (Martin's lawyer), Don Turner, Dick Wessel, Jimmy O'Gatty, Paul Panzer, George Lloyd, Bob Perry, Dick Rich, Lew Harvey, Jack Kenny, Joe Devlin, Alan Davis, Eddy Chandler, Glen Cavender (truck drivers), Irving Bacon (counter man), Egon Brecher (Peters), Cecil Weston, Jean Maddox, Loia Cheaney (angry women), Nat Carr, Harvey Clark, Harrison Greene (merchants), Dale Van Sickel (special officer), Monte Vandergrift (detective), Charles Trowbridge (judge), Edwin Stanley (doctor), Cliff Saum (policeman), Jack Mower (plainclothesman), John Ridgely (Yellow Stripe truck driver), Wedgwood Nowell (businessman), James Nolan (Allison's secretary), Harry Myers (court stenographer), Bruce Mitchell (deputy), Vera Lewis (Jordan's neighbor), Georgie Cooper (woman on subway platform), Mary Currier (Mrs Allison), William B. Davidson (Manhattan Trucking chairman), Joe De Stefani (proprietor), John Dilson (Robbins), Jack Gardner (gas station attendant), William Gould (police sergeant), Jack A. Goodrich (clerk), John Harron (Allison's stenographer), Gordon Hart (minister), Herbert Heywood (gas station owner), Stuart Holmes (Vic Thompson, a cleaner), Jan Holm (sanitarium nurse), Paul Irving (John H. Herbert), Frank Jaquet (City Hospital doctor), Jack Wise (cashier).Director: LLOYD BACON. Screenplay: Robert Rossen, Warren Duff. Story: Robert Rossen, Leonardo Bercovici. Treatment: Mark Hellinger. Photography: Arthur Edeson. Film editor: James Gibbon. Art director: Esdras Hartley. Costumes designed by Howard Shoup. Music composed by Adolph Deutsch, orchestrated by Hugo Friedhofer, directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Assistant director: Richard Maybery. Sound recording: Robert B. Lee. Producer: Samuel Bischoff. Executive producer: William Randolph Hearst.Copyright 1 June 1938 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. A Cosmopolitan Production. New York opening at the Strand: 10 August 1938. U.S. release: 16 July 1938. Australian release: 22 September 1938. 71 minutes. SYNOPSIS: The underworld tries to muscle in on the trucking industry.COMMENT: Despite its rich production values with loads of extras milling around seemingly authentic locations, we know this is a program picture, because it has no stars billed above the title. None! Not even Bogart, who is billed first. His star had not yet risen. (Here he plays the typical 1930s gangster. Almost a caricature, if it wasn't so sinisterly menacing). Nor George Brent. His star was fading. (His portrayal comes over as lively and vigorous enough, but lacks the charm he brought to his earlier roles). Nor Penny Singleton. Her life as Blondie didn't begin until November, 1938. (This is one of her best performances and probably inspired her later real-life work smashing graft and breaking up underworld influence in the entertainment industry). The other main player, Allen Jenkins, rarely received above-the-title billing. Here, he convincingly handles a more serious part than usual, albeit with comic overtones. Mind you, the script is the work of Robert Rossen. Powerful enough, though it offers little that seems original or especially striking. It's director Lloyd Bacon (normally a rather humdrum type) who unexpectedly gives the movie a lift. Not only are the action scenes vividly staged, but even some dialogue exchanges are delivered at a pleasing run in front of a fast-tracking camera. With the director in this rare inventive mood (maybe he was inspired by the brilliant cameraman Arthur "Casablanca" Edeson), and lots of money to throw around, "Racket Busters" emerges as a fast-paced exposé. Brisk editing also helps.

This was the first Humphrey Bogart movie I ever saw when I was a young kid growing up in the 60's & 70's. I first discovered Bogie on "Humphrey Bogart Theatre" on TV. I was very impressed with his portrayal of a mafia style crime boss. Gangsters were once Bogarts specialty, he was good at it, this movie pre-dates "On The Waterfront" & is almost as good. The film opens with Bogart bent on wanting to take over the entire town & muscle in on the trucking business. "I got plans & I got organization", "nothings going to stop me", "I'll make this whole town pay off from blue-backs to bankers".This is Bogart playing the lead role as John "Czar" Martin, Manhattens most powerful gang chief, Bogie is very cold & ruthless in this one & it's clear he is the main character even though he's not in every scene, most of the film focuses more on the George Brent character as one of the truckers who complies with Martins underworld organization after Bogie's henchmen sets Brents truck on fire. Eventually he & Allen Jenkins rally all the truckers against Bogart in a free for all. It's a propaganda movie showing why unions were needed & organized in the 1930's but it also shows how corrupt unions can get by bribery & intimidation by the syndicate.The absence of Bogarts character doesn't really weaken the film but creates an interesting mystique for his character is much talked about but hardly ever seen which heightens & magnifies Bogarts exciting screen presence. Like in "The Petrified Forest" Bogie played a famous celebrated John Dillinger style outlaw. He doesn't enter the film until the 2nd half of the movie but his character is mentioned consistently from the very beginning of the film creating this mystique. Kind of a sense of mystery so you just sit & watch the movie just waiting in suspense to see when "Duke Mantee" first enters & dominates the movie from that point on."Racket Busters" does a similar thing with Bogart's character as "Czar" Martin & the gimmick works & for once Bogart doesn't get killed in the end unlike his other gangsters where he gets bumped off. Sometimes less is more, a character that lays low or not seen much makes the character that much more interesting & desirable. In "The Maltese Falcon" Floyd Thursby was a character much talked about all through the entire movie..... but never seen. I have a bootleg copy of "Racket Busters" & I don't think it's out on DVD yet, it should be because it's not too bad, it's a standard programmer & it's worth watching if you're a fan of Bogart & gangster films like I am. Racket Busters is the precursor to On The Waterfront. What more can be said ?

Racket Busters (1938) ** (out of 4) Tired crime flick from Warner has Humphrey Bogart playing a racketeer who decides to form a truckers union so that he can take over all the store, drivers and the produce. If people don't go along with this they end up beaten but one man (George Brent) decides to stand up to them. I've always been a fan of Warner's various "B" pictures but this one here left me disappointed for many reasons. For starters, the screenplay really doesn't offer up anything that original as we've seen this story countless times before. Some might say that all of these pictures had the same story and that's true to an extent but I think most took that basic structure and tried to do things their own way. That really doesn't happen here because there isn't a single second in the film where you feel anything for the stuff that's going on. Some of this problem should fall on the shoulders of Bacon who seems to be sleep walking in his director's chair. He usually manages this type of material quite well but perhaps he too found the story boring. Another problem is the D.A. who is extremely boring and his character just doesn't have enough fire behind him to make anyone interested in anything he has to say. Even the performances are rather disappointing as Bogart doesn't do too much and doesn't have half the energy he usually delivers in this type of role. It was somewhat fun seeing Brent in this type of picture but the screenplay doesn't do him any justice either. The normally reliable Allen Jenkins is here playing the comic sidekick but even he can't deliver any laughs. The movie is mildly entertaining if you're a fan of this genre but I think most people are going to sit here and just know that there are much better movies out there and this here is strictly by the numbers.

Though it might mean absolutely nothing to today's audience when you see the small mustached frame of Walter Abel who has been named a Special Prosecutor back in 1938 there was no doubt that Abel was a very thinly disguised portrayal of real life Special Prosecutor and newly elected District Attorney of New York County, Thomas E. Dewey. Among the many rackets that Dewey did investigate and prosecute was an effort to organize truckers and get a stranglehold on the produce markets of New York City. This film is taken from some very true and recent headlines back in the day.Warner Brothers loved Mr. Dewey and his prosecutorial exploits. A few years earlier Humphrey Bogart, the chief villain in this film, played a Dewey like prosecutor himself in Marked Woman which is based in part on how Dewey convicted Lucky Luciano via his stranglehold on houses of prostitution.The hero in Racketbusters is George Brent, stepping into a role that James Cagney probably turned down. He's a truckdriver who resists organization either by an honest union or the racketeers. And he's got ideas from the street about the social standing of stool pigeons.When things happen to his wife Gloria Dickson and his friend Oscar O'Shea, Brent himself becomes as big a racketbuster as Walter Abel.Allen Jenkins is a surprise here. Usually a mug whether a good guy or a bad guy, Jenkins steps up to the plate here as a man who went from the truckdriving game to the produce business. He understands the point of view of both sides and urges them to settle and kick out Bogart and his henchmen. Good job by Jenkins.No doubt in 1938 who this film was all about.