Racket Busters (1938) **

Release Date: July 16, 1938

Running Time: 71 Minutes

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, George Brent, Gloria Dickson

Directed By: Lloyd Bacon

This little film is touted as being a true crime drama presented as a warning against those who wish to pursue the lifestyle. What it does well is paint a portrait of how things really were during the era of racketeers and victims too afraid to stand up to them. Where it falters is keeping the whole affair exciting and engaging. The subject is of great interest, especially all these years after the fact, but the way it is presented is a little too slow and plodding at times. A skillful editor was needed to tighten it up a little and breath life into some of the scenes.

The story is about Manhattan gangster czar John Martin (Humphrey Bogart) looking to expand his control on the rackets by moving into the trucking industry and, consequently, the fresh produce market. Through intimidation he secures the loyalty of most of the truckers but there are a few holdouts. Those holdouts find themselves beaten, their families threatened, their trucks destroyed, and some of them even end up getting killed. Meanwhile, the law is cracking down on Martin’s rackets. The police, lead by Hugh Allison (Walter Abel), are narrowing in on the man but find it difficult to find anyone willing to point the finger at Martin for fear of retaliation. 

Young trucker Denny Jordan (George Brent) and his wife Nora (Gloria Dickson) are among the few holdouts from Martin’s trucking racket. Soon after, Denny’s truck is torched and Nora is threatened by some goons. Denny hides Nora from them and, to help fund this, steals from Martin. Unfortunately he is caught. But rather than attack Denny or have him killed, Martin recruits him using the money as leverage to force Denny to do his bidding. This forces tension between Denny, his wife, and this friends behind the wheel. Eventually he will have to decide where his true priorities and loyalties lie. 

As with most films from this era, Racket Busters is about showing the audience that crime doesn’t pay. The film, however, spends entirely too much time depicting scenes of strife among the truckers who don’t want to fall in line behind Martin but feel helpless to do otherwise. We see plenty of scenes of the drivers in groups arguing about whether they even have a choice in the matter. What we don’t get enough of is the behind the scenes drama. We get very little of John Martin beyond a token appearance here and there to explain what his overall plan is and how he plans to accomplish it. We also get little with the law as well. There is a scene or two here and there but it is scattered like breadcrumbs throughout leaving us primarily with just the drama with Denny and his family. This can sometimes be a help, serving to focus mainly on the impact on one family, but here it makes it harder to fully see the impact Martin’s racket is having throughout the city. It also doesn’t help that neither Denny or Nora are particularly interesting characters to pin this drama to.

Racket Busters is an interesting concept that fails to live up to that interest. Denny is too easily forced into a role of stooge for Martin and then, just as easily persuaded to get himself out of that role. Martin’s plans, beyond simply taking over the produce market and holding the city at ransom over food, seems a little too understated in what the final goals are. At one point he orders all the drivers to cease delivering their loads to bring the city to its knees and for a while it works. It’s hard to buy that this tactic would work even for a short period of time.

The true-crime aspect of the screenplay is really all this film has going for it. It’s an interesting look at a by-gone era for the trucking industry, an industry the world still relies on to this day, and how gangsters attempted to control it. But it falls flat in trying to give us compelling personal dramas and an overall narrative that we can care about. Ultimately it is a disappointing drama about criminal aspirations and the inability of law enforcement to do much of anything without the assistance of men willing to risk their lives to take down the criminal element. This might have worked better with better characters personifying that drama but here it just falls flat.