Racket, The (1951) [ID6994TU]

Oddball later RKO production that falls into the Noir category but is really more of a crime drama of an older vintage. This may be due to the fact that it is a remake of a 20's silent gangster drama-both of which were produced by Hoard Hughes.

Because this is a Hughes RKO film, it does not work and is instead piecemealed together and has no hope of ever overcoming the constant tinkering behind the scenes. Robert Mitchum and Robert Ryan do their best but the material is very dull and outdated. Many hands were involved in getting the picture finished, and it doesn't really bore-but then again it never really clicks.

Also released on DVD as part of WB's Film Noir Vol. 3 with commentary. I stumbled across this LD in the bins. Another cheap Image release via Turner. This one is print sourced, and fluctuates between video-ized and filmic. Not a bad presentation with virtually no aliasing through the comb filter, but too much of a contrasty image and very little grain.

PCM mono is great with little to no distortion, surprisingly clean audio, but I guess this film wasn't really touched after 1951.

Video- 3/5 for the clean print
Audio- 4/5 for the cleanliness and reproduction
Overall-3/5 for fans and noir/crime-heads only