Smashing the Rackets

1938 ""

Smashing the Rackets

6 | 1h9m | NR | en | Drama

Jim 'Socker' Conway, former boxer and FBI hero, is maneuvered for political reasons into a do-nothing job in the district attorney's office. Meanwhile, he meets wild debutante Letty Lane, girlfriend of mob mouthpiece Steve Lawrence; and Letty's much nicer sister Susan. Now the slot machine gang brutally beats Jim's friends Franz and Otto. And Jim finds a way to use his nominal position to go into the racket- busting business. But his success puts Letty in deadly peril...

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6 | 1h9m | NR | en | Drama , Crime | More Info

Released: August. 08,1938 | Released Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures , Country: Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

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Cast

Chester Morris , Frances Mercer , Bruce Cabot

Director

Nicholas Musuraca

Producted By

RKO Radio Pictures ,

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Trailers & Images

Cast

Chester Morris

as Jim "Socker" Conway

Schlitzie: One of Us Complicated Women The Great White Hope The She-Creature Gang Busters Boston Blackie's Chinese Venture Trapped by Boston Blackie Blind Spot The Phantom Thief

Frances Mercer

as Susan 'Pat' Lane

Piccadilly Incident Blind Alibi Vivacious Lady The Mad Miss Manton Crime Ring Smashing the Rackets

Bruce Cabot

as Steve Lawrence

Diamonds Are Forever Big Jake WUSA Chisum The Undefeated The Green Berets The War Wagon Cat Ballou Black Spurs

Reviews

bkoganbing Smashing The Rackets casts Chester Morris as a square jawed hero who is a combination of Thomas E. Dewey and Melvin Purvis. An FBI agent like Purvis who reaped a lot of publicity by taking down public enemies like John Dillinger and BabyFace Nelson, Morris decides to leave the FBI and practice law as he was trained to do. He takes a job with District Attorney George Irving who believes that Morris's presence on his staff is worth a lot of votes.Not that he's looking for real work out of Morris because Irving is in the pocket of the crime syndicate. Nevertheless Morris proves to be quite resourceful and brings down several racketeers.The most elusive of these is Bruce Cabot who is a smooth talking white shoe type lawyer, but who in reality is Mister Kingpin in that city of all the rackets. Cabot is a cunning and resourceful foe and Morris's job is made complicated by the fact that Morris is courting Frances Mercer of the society set, her sister Rita Johnson is running around with Cabot for kicks. Cabot has the best role by far in the film. In fact it's one of the best performances I ever saw him give.Dewey and Purvis were role models for a slew of films in the Thirties though Smashing The Rackets is the first I ever saw that combined their characters. This is a well constructed film with a good story line that gives a bit of a twist in the ending.