The Racket (1928 film)

The Racket is a 1928 American crime drama film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Thomas Meighan, Marie Prevost, Louis Wolheim, and George E. Stone. The film was produced by Howard Hughes, written by Bartlett Cormack and Tom Miranda, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures.^[1] It was adapted from Cormack's 1927 Broadway play The Racket.^[2]

Background

Due to the controversial portrayal of a corrupt police force and city government both the film and the play were banned at the time in Chicago.^[3]

Reception

The Racket poster.

The Racket is one of the first films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (then called "Outstanding Picture") in the 1929 Academy Awards.

Preservation status

Only one copy of the film is known to exist.^[4] It was long thought lost before being located in Howard Hughes' film collection after his death.^[5] A print was shepherded by Dr. Hart Wegner of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, film department for restoration by Jeffrey Masino, along with another Hughes-produced film, Two Arabian Knights (1927). In 2004 and 2006, Turner Classic Movies broadcast The Racket, Two Arabian Knights, and The Mating Call (1928), the first showing of any of the three films in decades.

See also

• List of rediscovered films

References

External links

• The Racket at the Internet Movie Database
• Australian daybill long poster