The Racket

Sunday night, Turner Classic Movies aired The Racket, one of the very last best picture nominees I have not been able to find. As the film was being introduced, it confirmed more of what I had heard.  For decades the film had been lost, feared to have no surviving prints. After Howard Hughes, who produced the film, died, a copy was found in his film collection.  The film was then restored and preserved at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas film department.  There was no audio for the film, so the music had to be recorded again.  It’s a longshot miracle that this film has been found, preserved and aired on television, so if you get a chance, make sure to catch The Racket next time it is aired on TCM.

Directed by Lewis Milestone The Racket is a silent crime film set in Chicago during the era of prohibition.  Good guy police officer James ‘Mac’  McQuigg (Thomas Meighan), walks the straight and narrow trying to stop bootleggers.  His main offender is Nick Scarsi (Louis Wolheim), a mafia leader.  Catching Scarsi red handed is the easy part for Mac.  Scarsi is protected by crooked politicians and a judge that gets him out of jail before he’s hardly in the station.  It’s all very frustrating for Mac.

After trying too long to scare Mac off, Scarsi pulls some strings and has Mac transferred out of the city and into the quiet suburbs.  But when Scarsi’s little brother slips up in Mac’s new town, a cast of newsmen, officers and a gold digging flapper girl come together in a big attempt to bring Scarsi down.

As tired as I was while seeing The Racket (TCM aired it around midnight), I found it surprisingly thrilling.  Many scenes have a great suspenseful build and the chaos of crime can be very exciting at times.  One of my favorite scenes was when Mac goes into Scarsi’s nightclub and witnesses a murder.  The dialogue slows, all we get is building music and many people giving menacing looks across the room, yet the tension becomes very thick very quickly.

One thing I noticed about the music it that it has a different tone than most films from the late twenties.  This is not a complaint, and since the music was written at the time of the film’s production, I believe this comes from its modern recording.  In fact, it sounds wonderful.  The music has a big, warm sound, rather than an a very brassy, wavering sound like many older recordings.  It gives the whole film a revitalized sound.

An early film trick that worked wonderfully in The Racket was a superimposed moment.  In a funeral scene, Scarsi looks at two lines of men, seated across from each other, each with a hand under a bowler on their laps.  The moment fades the hats to reveal each man pointing a gun underneath their hat.  I love how Scarsi seems to smile at the quiet tension and loyalties to him.

The Racket is a gem for any classic film fan to find.  The story of crime and corruption is thrilling and fun.  And of course,  Meigham and Wolheim are amazing to watch as perfect enemies.

“-Take a tip, Mac… change your racket. ”

All Quiet on the Western Front

It was in a high school history class that I first encountered All Quiet on the Western Front.  Even as my classmates groaned over the black and white, I think Mr. Acton realized this was one of those films that everyone needs to see.  Between then and now, the film based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque and directed by Lewis Milestone, resonated just as well within me, just as it has for generations over the past eight decades.

In Germany, WWI is beginning like a fanfare outside the windows of a classroom full of young men, barely old enough to sign up for the war.  Their old teacher fills them with pride, calling them the “iron men of Germany” and asking if they will join up.  While he makes war sound like a romantic and honorable duty, some of the boys drift into their own fantasies about making their parents proud in the German uniform and riding in a parade in their honor with women all around.  Throwing their young ambitions to the wind, the entire class signs up and together they learn the cruel truth about war.

All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the most violent and graphic films of its time.  It was not until 1934 that the Production Code was enforced, keeping films less graphic and racy.  We see the gritty side of trench warfare full of rats, barbed wire, amputations, men being mowed down in waves from the early machine guns and bombs exploding at all hours.  Between seeing these young men cope with dying, being driven mad and becoming ruthless killers the psychological aspects of the film are just as compelling as the visuals.

One of the most captivating scenes in the film is when Paul (Lew Ayres) is stuck in a ditch overnight with a man he wounded.  With bombs and gunfire all around, he cannot risk leaving, but between that and a man slowly dying by his own hand, he becomes very disturbed.  He goes back and forth from hating the man, wishing he would die faster to wanting to help him.  It is such a poignant and emotional scene that puts faces to either side of the war and shows an inner struggle within Paul that many soldiers try not to think about.  This was one of the most memorable scenes back in that classroom nearly ten years ago, and it remains one that affects me the most.

The crushing sense of disillusion these young men face is what sets this apart from many other war films.  The stark contrast between the boys as they cheer around their classroom to the realizations of a violent death in a muddy trench is startling.  After seeing this level of soul crushing brutality, it is hard to imagine anyone willing to go to war.  That is something rare to see in war films until the Vietnam era, and I believe makes this better than many modern war films.

Because of the film’s realistic and unflattering look at war, it was banned in many European countries until the fifties.  It was playing for a short while in Germany, but during many screenings, Nazis would interrupt the film by storming into the theater chanting their slogans, releasing rats or setting off stink bombs.  While it was still playing in neighboring countries, there would be busses secretly shuttling people from Germany to the screenings.

All Quiet on the Western Front is one of those essential films that everyone should see.  The fact that it is over eighty years old seems to drive people away, but I assure you, it is one of the best quality films you will find from the thirties.  Many times, today’s war films are all gore and no substance.  This is a film that is not too gory by today’s standards, but holds its merit within its ideals.  Between its strong anti-war message, heartbreaking storyline and intense images, the film can still captivate viewers today.

“You’re just a man like me and I killed you.  Oh God, why did they do this to us?”