Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1928)

Muffling "The Racket" The Underworld Has Sought to Silence This Fil m F usillad e Trained On It r 'AY OFF, you lousy so-andso, or we'll take you for a ride." "Lay off, or we'll plant a pineapple in your something-else theater!" So Tommy Meighan moved from the Beverly-VVilshire, the hotel at which ne had been staying, to the Ambassador — and Chief Jailer Frank Dewar, of the Los Angeles County Sherifr s office, appointed himself as personal bodyguard. Several plain-clothes men from headquarters mingled with the crowd in and about the Metropolitan Theater when "The Racket" opened and for several days thereafter. How come? Just a case of a little too much realism. When Howard Hughes, the president of Caddo Productions, bought Thomas Meighan's contract from Paramount and decided to trv to stage a come-back for that sadly faded star, he realized that strong medicine was necessary. Spineless ga-ga had killed Meighan; to bring him back, the opposite would be necessary — the story must carry a wallop, as well as the dauntless hero's strong right arm. So he bought the screen rights to Bartlett Cormack's "The Racket," a stage play that had been banned in sensitive Chicago; a play dealmg with the alliance between bootleggers and corrupt politicians. Chicago would be sensitive. Not satisfied merely to start with raw meat, Hughes then hired a cook who could be depended on to save all the bloody juices. Lewis MilestDne, the director he chose, is known to have taken as his By DUNHAM THORP T TCLUNG THE STORY ROC'BLE ■ baat KMwiicDMJ bj A >ulliei ud Racket." ■ mo<ien.pictiira ttkan from ifaa mm* t^y •( 1^ «■>• ■«■<■ Thcjr Bmi AmX at tomt dtaaa dM pictar* ia bund wU* ■■ nifciti ii a pTodm^t •! 'TW As maajr know, "Th* Rack«t** wm written to portny lk« ftHinacn tkat nmt» in mom cilW« bctw««n orT*niz«d ▼!<• mnd crim* on oa« imni. and *K« pol«« mad pobtjcs on ikn otknr. Crooks poltticknn* do not lik« dM pktut* at nil. Thc7 do not cnr« to knr* dM poopW r«nlin tm» dM pOMibilitiM of •ocK an alli«fKO which cajals not onlf ia Qtocnco and Loa Antalaa but in n.anjr Urf« cidf* throuvKeat Ai% land So poHtjcal ccnaor* kova in cartain jnatam-aa aotifkl to Jaatiuy tK« ef{#<l of tka production in gattif onr ikc oMaaafa of political daapohntioo. That's on« nrgiimcnt a^init caoaofdup thai m ha/d to meat. Tb« mcaaat* of THa Raekat" ia aaa ikal rvvry city raatdant iKouId «•' Ortaaocd vica fcu lis hold tapoA oar city |o«crnm«nla not bacausc lk« majonty of tka volan want anything othar than th« baat in fovatnmant hot bacaiMa gctMrally lh« maionty have no idea of what it m all about. Orgaaiicd vica caanot control a police department and a cily't aovernmmtal tnachiiMiy wfcaia the poblic ia ialonaad. Organtzad vka tkffvaa oa lh« ignoiMca of the piibkc. If the matiopolima aawipapen wiH not kaep the pwblic iafoiaaad aa t«« the actoal conditiona. a few playa aad inotioai pktaraa aock aa 'Tka Racket' are graally neaded Above, a few of those who contributed "The Racket": Lewis Milestone, center; Louis Wolheim, extreme right; extreme left. Sergeant Cock of the Los Axigeles police. Below, an editorial from the "Hollywood Citiren" hobby a study of the underworld. In his turn, Milestone felt that he could add an extra touch of pepper if he were to engage same originals to help him with the incidental details. So he called in a friend who had often loaned him money when he was flat — the biggest bootle^er in Hollywood and proprietor of a high-class dive on Sunset Boulevard — and they went into conference. But this was diflFerent from most movie conferences in that it had results. Eight genuine Chicago racketeers who, for various good reasons, were "on the lam" and temporarily going straight in Los Angeles, were rounded up and induced to work m this crook melodrama. They were led to believe that it was "just one of those thin«"; no hint was dropped at all that this was to be real stun. I have said that these men are real. They are. The leader, whom we will call John Doe, is a peUrman, a safecracker, well known to all the night-men of the country' who ply the original racket of treating a keister to a little grease (meaning expanding a safe with a little nitro-glycerine). He has served seventeen jolts in the stir. Another was a hypo, a drug addict, who cured himself with, of all things, absinthe. Yet another practiced the gentle art of writing. Lately, to that of putting other people's signatures on checks, he has added the craft of the short stor>-, but without the success that attended his former vocation. The remaining five were bootleggers and their little hijacker playmates. These were the little boys who got together and made a movin' pitcher. Just a pretty family group. WTioopee! (Continufd on page 66) 63