HomeyTao
For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Tymon Sutton
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Tweekums
Mahlon Keane, the racketeer of the title, is in control of New York; if a serious crime takes place he knows about it; whether it is a bank robbery or the theft of the police commissioner's car. He enjoys winding up the police; in the opening scene we see him give a drunken violinist fifty dollars and put him in a cab so a cop can't arrest him for vagrancy. The violinist is a friend of attractive divorcée Rhoda Philbrooke; she is determined to get him off the booze and back on the stage but lacks the money she needs. She takes the fifty bucks to a charity evening and proceeds to a poker table where Keane is acting as dealer. Things start well but then it looks like she is going to lose; until she is able to switch a card while the other players are distracted. Keane sees her cheat but covers for her. Later he visits her and helps with her friend. As time passes they grow closer but Keane's business could ruin their relationship.Being over eighty years old it isn't surprising that the film looks dated… literally. No doubt it was nice and crisp when first shown but by the time it was put on DVD the print was inevitably rather scratched and otherwise degraded. At sixty six minutes it is fairly short but it doesn't feel too rushed. Robert Armstrong does a good job as Keane; a believable villain who can be threatening one minute and charming the next. Carole Lombard is equally good as Rhoda; attractive and likable but also a flawed character. The ending won't come as much of a surprise as no criminal could be seen to get a happy ending in those days. The action seems very tame by today's standards and some of the talking seems a little stagey; still I found this an enjoyable way to pass an hour.
st-shot
After two of four straight interminably labored scenes that open this early sound primitive it becomes apparent the filmmakers are content just to capture the turgid dialog in flower potted mikes. The Racketeer is one numb clunker of poor pacing and bad acting.Sartorial resplendent racket chief Mahlon Keane ( Robert Armstrong ) is living the good life by way of prohibition and other illegal activities. Upbeat, good natured and generous he thinks nothing of putting a fifty dollar bill in a vagrant/street musician's pocket to prevent him from being nailed for vagrancy. In this particular case it will come back to haunt him both personally and professionally when he gets mixed up with the violinist's former wife Rhoda (Carole Lombard) who is struggling to get Tony Vaughn back on his feet and back onto the concert stage. With a big assist from Keane he gets his chance but shows his gratitude by trying to wrest his ex back from him.As the dapper racketeer Armstrong looks and carries himself convincingly but sometimes is left with nothing to say from one sluggish scene to the next. Lombard rotates between strident and flat while Roland Drew's Tony serves up thick slices of ham. Howard Higgins direction does seem to be relegated to making sure the microphone is on but given the pedestrian audio should nevertheless be commended for trying to capture it on actual city streets, albeit poorly and unimaginatively.
warmbear
Carole Lombard stars in this transition period film. This film is a typical example of a very early "talkie" (First practical sound film was "The Jazz Singer", 1927). Overall, the acting in this film tends to be extremely broad and very melodramatic.The viewer may easily note that the actors are still "acting" for a silent film, and this combined with the overly pronounced, overly earnest dialog (It seems most likely a diction-elocution-drama coach was employed extensively to teach the "silent" actors to speak lines), creates some rather comical scenes which were not at all intended to be comical.Carole Lombard's later great acting ability is all but unrecognizable underneath all the broad gestures, melodrama, and eager earnestness.Mainly interesting as an historical curiosity of the period, and for it's completely unintended comedy-camp value.
elginbrod2000
I enjoyed this 66 minute film despite the overly theatrical delivery of almost every line. One gets the impression that this film was directed by an eighth grade home economics teacher. Despite this annoying drawback, the story is sweet and there is a genuine chemistry between the leading lady, Carole Lombard, and the head gangster played by Robert Armstrong.Carole Lombard is attractively photographed and has a large amount of quality screen time here. She is pulled in two directions by two men who genuinely care for her. One is a concert violinist who we are introduced to early on in the picture as a man who has been reduced to nothing more than a bum in the gutter. The other is the suave gangster who for the first time has found something in this life greater than himself. The question is: who needs her most and who truly loves her? And in what direction will fate allow her to go.The dramatic ending will tug at your heart-strings. This was Carole's last picture for Pathe studios.
