The Racket
directed by John Cromwell
This 1951 movie is often described as a noir film. The Racket certainly looks like a noir film but I don't think it quite meets all of the criteria. The Racket is really just more of a crime movie.
directed by John Cromwell
This 1951 movie is often described as a noir film. The Racket certainly looks like a noir film but I don't think it quite meets all of the criteria. The Racket is really just more of a crime movie.
Neither of the film's two primary male protagonists are particularly sympathetic nor do they suffer from any moral uncertainties or psychological battles. The film's female lead provides the only character growth.
Cromwell also directed Dead Reckoning, reviewed here. The Racket is a remake of a 1928 silent film of the same name. It is interesting and occasionally enlightening to see how attitudes around sex and violence and righteousness have changed for good or bad since 1951.
The Racket hints at things that are obvious to any adult and would be explicitly and tediously spelled out in any of today's films that used the same source material. Although this was marketed at being hard hitting at the time I didn't see it as such.
As is usual in many of these older films the hooker with the heart of gold archetype is recast as some other "questionable" female worker.
However whatever job title she holds her role is usually to tempt the hero or his friends and then die or perhaps help the good guys, be reformed and become a decent woman.