The Racket is an American crime film directed by Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front , both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director...

 and starring Thomas Meighan

Thomas Meighan

Thomas Meighan was an American actor of silent films and early talkies. He played several leading man roles opposite popular actresses of the day including Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. At one point he commanded $10,000 a week....

, Marie Prevost

Marie Prevost

Marie Prevost was a Canadian-born actress of the early days of cinema. During her twenty year career, she made 121 silent and talking pictures.-Early life:...

, Louis Wolheim

Louis Wolheim

Louis Wolheim was an American character actor.His trademark broken nose was the result of an injury sustained while playing football for Cornell University. Despite his rugged visage, Wolheim was intelligent and cultivated, speaking French, German, Spanish, and Yiddish. He was also a mathematics...

, and George E. Stone

George E. Stone

George E. Stone was a Polish-born American character actor in movies, radio, and television.-Career:Stone's slight build and very expressive face first attracted attention in 1927, in the popular silent-film romance Seventh Heaven...

. The film was produced by Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes

Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...

, written by Bartlett Cormack

Bartlett Cormack

Edward Bartlett Cormack was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, and producer best known for his 1927 Broadway play The Racket, and for working with Howard Hughes and Cecil B. DeMille on several films....

 and Tom Miranda

Tom Miranda

Thomas Lee "Tom" Miranda, Jr. is an American bowhunter, trapper, television host and author. He originally gained fame as a fur trapping instructor by producing video trapping lessons...

, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

.

Background

Due to the controversial portrayal of a corrupt police force and city government both the film and the play were banned

Banned films

For nearly the entire history of film production, certain films have been banned by film censorship or review organizations for political or moral reasons...

 at the time in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

Reception

The Racket is one of the first films nominated for the Academy Award

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

 for Best Picture

Academy Award for Best Picture

The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...

 (then called "Best Picture, Production") in the 1929 Academy Awards

1st Academy Awards

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 1927 and 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in Los Angeles, California. AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks hosted the...

.

Preservation status

Only one copy of the film is known to exist. It was long thought lost before being located in Howard Hughes' film collection after his death. A print was shepherded by Dr. Hart Wegner of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

University of Nevada-Las Vegas is a public, coeducational university located in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada, USA. The campus is located approximately east of the Las Vegas Strip. The institution includes a Shadow Lane Campus, located just east of the University Medical Center of...

 film department for restoration by Jeffrey Masino, along with another lost Hughes-produced film, Two Arabian Knights

Two Arabian Knights

Two Arabian Knights is an American comedy film, directed by Lewis Milestone and starring William Boyd and Mary Astor. A silent film, Two Arabian Knights was produced by Howard Hughes and was distributed by United Artists.-Plot:...

(1927

1927 in film

-Events:*January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.*April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premiers at the Paris Opéra and would demonstrate techniques and equipment that would not be used for years to...

). In 2004 and 2006, Turner Classic Movies

Turner Classic Movies

Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...

 broadcast The Racket, Two Arabian Knights, and The Mating Call

The Mating Call (film)

The Mating Call is a 1928 silent drama film about a WWI vet who takes on the Ku Klux Klan when he loses his wife to a womanizing Klansman. The film was produced by Howard Hughes for his Caddo Corporation, and was originally released by Paramount Pictures...

(1928), the first showing of any of the three films in decades.