So George Raft goes illegally undercover to bust up a loan shark racket and at the same time gives the mob a new idea to prey on house wives and if they cant pay up - well in the real world would have been exploited for very obvious sexual payments of various kinds.Hollywood certainly comes up with some odd morality tales.Good little film for what it is and another combination of films like Souls for Sale, I was a Communits for the FBI - that kind of thing. Lots of B-Grade familiar faces, fasted paced with typical tough guy dialogue sprinkled throughout. Looking back on these times, i am not sure if i would want to go back to this era.

It's marvelous what skillful photography and a good tailor can do. Here's George Raft, just a year away from his tired, weary, sagging, crumpled pseudo-hero of Man from Cairo, looking as neat and natty and almost as vigorous as his just-stepped-out-of-a-bandbox tough-guy of the 1940s. George not only looks like a star, he's in fiery action and smart-talking fettle. And he has a wonderful support cast here too, led by superbly costumed Dorothy Hart. Margia Dean in a small role as a café waitress is also up front in the looks department as is gorgeous TV cheer-leader, Spring Mitchell, in her only movie appearance. The villains are top too, with Paul Stewart in fine form as a suspicious blood-sucker. The plot, stolen from Richard L. Breen and Warren Duff's Appointment with Danger (1951) – and used again by Lippert in Portland Expose (1957) – generates plenty of excitement, thanks to the pacey, always-on-the-mettle direction of Seymour Friedman, one of the more inventive and astute of "B" men. Of course with this movie, he did enjoy four big advantages in the solid cast line-up; the ability to use atmospheric natural locations such as the Goodyear Tire Factory; and the inventively noirish cinematography contributed by Joseph Biroc, a master of the art of black-and-white suspensers such as Johnny Allegro, Cry Danger, Glass Wall and World for Ransom; and last but not least, a $250,000 budget!

Loan Shark is a nice little gangster melodrama centering in on the loan sharking racket. By the time this movie was made, George Raft's popularity was dwindling. But for George Raft fans, this movie still makes the grade. In my opinion, with the exception of "Each dawn I Die", "They drive by night" and "Invisible Stripes", his best movies were done in the 1950's. In Loan Shark, Raft is cast as Joe Gargan, a tough ex con who wants to settle down and go straight by working with his brother-in-law's tire company. But alas, the tire plant is infected by a wave of assaults and killings. The plant's general manager pleads with Raft to find the criminals responsible and perhaps put an end to the bloodshed. Watch for Russell Johnson (TV's "the professor" on Gilligan's Island")in an early role.

George Raft is Joe Gargan, an ex con who is hired by a tire factory owner and a union leader to help smash a loan sharking mob that has been preying on factory workers. Joe works his way into the loan sharkers operation in order to get the goods on the guy who killed his brother in law and find out who the mobs top boss is. Since Joe can't tell anyone what he is up to, this puts a strain on his personal life; his sister no longer wants anything to do with him and he gets dumped by his girlfriend. Of course Joe clears everything up at the end.Although LOAN SHARK has a somewhat weak script, the film is a fast paced, well acted, and efficient gangster thriller. Dorthy Hart, who played Jane to Lex Barkers Tarzan the same year as this film, looks lovely. Overall, LOAN SHARK is recommend for fans of George Raft and post war gangster movies.