Woman Racket, The (1930)** (out of 4) A cop (Tom Moore) saves a show girl (Blanche Sweet) from a pinch and soon the two are married. Things start off well but soon the wife grows bored of her housewife role and soon she's back in the nightclubs where she gets caught up with a dangerous gangster (John Miljan). THE WOMAN RACKET is your typical crime picture from MGM and sadly it's really not all that good. I think the main reason for people to tune into this thing is for Sweet who most film buffs will remember from her remarkable work with D.W. Griffith. This was one of her few sound films so that will be the main draw and there's no doubt that she's the best thing in the movie. As someone who has seen over a hundred Griffith films, it's always fun seeing his original troupe in other people's work. With Sweet she was always playing that "down home girl" and she was usually dressed in rags or made to look less attractive. It was really pretty strange seeing her in this role playing a sexy singer who uses her looks to gain a thing or two. I was really caught off guard at how well Sweet looked in this role but she also comes across extremely charming. There wasn't a single second where you don't believe her in the part and she perfectly sells that sexuality and charm. Moore, on the other hand, doesn't come off as well. I think he's a tad bit too laid back at times and it seems like he was struggling with some of the dialogue at times. He's certainly far from horrible but he doesn't add too much. Miljan is pretty good in the role of the gangster as he has no trouble coming off like a snake and he makes it easy to hate this character. Like many early talkies, this one here suffers from talking way too much as there are way too many dialogue scenes that just keep on and on. There are a couple musicals numbers, which aren't too bad and especially those performed by Sweet. Buffs will notice Sammy Lee served as musical director and he would eventually become a director at the studio doing various musical shorts. THE WOMAN RACKET just doesn't have enough life, energy or style to make it work so in the end it's mainly for those interested in Sweet.

Blanche Sweet was a huge star during the silent era--having appeared in something like 150 films. However, by the time talking pictures came along, her career came to an almost complete halt. In 1930 she made three minor talkies--and then retired from the movies to play on Broadway and have a family. Only in the 1950s did she return for a few small TV roles. What's amazing about this is that her movie career was over by the time she was 34--even though she was a very popular silent star. I don't think the problem was her voice (although here in "The Woman Racket" they had her sing....and this was NOT a good idea but her speaking voice was fine) but simply tastes as well the Hollywood love of the very young.The plot idea for "The Woman Racket" is a bit hard to believe. The film begins with a raid on a speakeasy. When one of the cops finds a lady there and feels sorry for her (Sweet), he lets her go. Soon they begin dating and marry. As I said, it's a bit hard to believe. However, in a nod to reality, the marriage is not all it's cracked up to be for her. Staying home and being a housewife is dull stuff and soon Sweet is sneaking out to her old life as a singer in nightclubs--which was a serious problem since these sort of clubs sold liquor and it was during Prohibition. Eventually, she leaves him...and that's only the first quarter of the movie. What happens next? See for yourself.When you watch a film from this era, you need to change your expectations a bit. Early talkies had relatively poor sound, lacked incidental music and were a bit more static (as they hadn't yet figured out how to pick up the sound while folks moved about the set). So, taking this in mind and comparing the film to like films of the same era is how I rated this film--not compared to the much more polished products being released just a few years later. And, keeping this in mind, it's an average film--no better, no worse than others. It is a bit scandalous and moralistic. Tom Moore, who co-stars, has the on-screen personality of saw dust--and that also doesn't help much. But, the story is a big racy--and that might keep you interested. Had it been made a few years later, I would have probably given it a 3 or 4.By the way, according to IMDb, like many early talkies, this was filmed in both a sound and silent version. This made sense, as the switch to sound was not instantaneous--and many smaller theaters simply weren't wired for sound. Plus, in the case of MGM (the slowest of the major studios to switch to sound), I really think they were just hoping sound was a passing fad and hoped it would vanish.

THE WOMAN RACKET (MGM, 1930), directed by Robert Ober and Albert Kelly, is a vintage melodrama that marked the feature talking debut of a silent screen actress named Blanche Sweet. Virtually forgotten today as is this movie, with title that gives an indication of being a crime drama about a female gang leader, the legend of Blanche Sweet rests upon the films she made starting as early as 1909, while the legend of Blanche Sweet ended with three 1930 talkies, including "The Silver Horde" (RKO), with "Show Girl in Hollywood" (Warners) starring Alice White, being the most acceptable and enjoyable of the trio.The story opens one evening as The Blue Moon, a speakeasy, is being raided by the police. Tom Hayes (Tom Moore), a cop who goes by the book, meets up with Julia Barnes (Blanche Sweet), an employee attempting to make her escape. Instead of arresting her, he not only lets her go, but takes her out for evenings of fun, including Coney Island. Within a short time, the two marry. A year later, Julia finds that living in an apartment on Eighth Avenue and being a policeman's wife isn't all that's cracked up to be. She spends her evenings in total boredom while Tom is out all night doing his job by walking the beat. Against her husband's wishes, Julia, who had acquired a new dress gifted to her by Tom, decides to go out and visit the old gang at the Blue Moon. While there, for old time's sake, she gets to sing a song sitting on top of a piano (in the Helen Morgan tradition), thus, attracting the attention of Chris Miller (John Miljan), Ben's (Tenan Holtz) new partner and manager, and offers her a job. When Tom learns of this, Julia at first agrees to abide by his wishes, but finds she can't. She leaves Tom a farewell note, returns to the Blue Moon where she not only works and enjoys the night life, but becomes Miller's mistress, a decision she would live to regret.Songs featured in this production include: "He's Good Enough for Me" (sung by Blanche Sweet), and the catchy tune, "Call Me to Arms" (sung and performed by Robert Agnew and Sally Starr). Choreography is credited to Sammy Lee while the songwriters go without credit. Agnew (who sings like "Broadway Melody" star Charles King and occasionally resembles MGM comedian actor William Haines) and Starr appear as the secondary couple singing and dancing as well as arguing amongst themselves regarding her future career.Top-billing goes to a now obscure actor named Tom Moore, who appears to have spent much of his movie career playing Irish cops. Blanche Sweet's voice registers well in this early talkie, giving her an opportunity to sing a song, but of all the actors in the supporting cast, including Lew Kelly as Tish; Nita Martan as Rita and Richard Travers as Wardell; John Miljan comes off best. A resident MGM performer who specialized in playing villains, is really mean in this one, so mean that he arranges for the murder of Wardell (Richard Travers) and placing the blame on his mistress Julia, with an attempt to go away to Chicago with his star dancer (Sally Starr). On top of that, when Julia attempts to expose Miller, he knocks her out and places her in a trunk to dispose of her, and stops at nothing to get what he wants. Quite common in movies, one would wonder why anyone would tell what he or she attempts on doing to expose a villain's evil doings to the police, knowing full well that the villain in question is dangerous enough to do something drastic. As for Sweet, her character is off the screen for quite a long stretch (being locked up in a trunk), leaving reliable cop now promoted to detective Tom Moore to do some investigating.In an after movie interview following a rare presentation of the Blanche Sweet silent version to "Anna Christie" (1923) which played on public television's 1978 weekly series, "Lost and Found" (WNET, Channel 13, New York City), as hosted by Richard Schickel, Blanche Sweet herself discussed her invitation to MGM where she was to star in the talkie remake of "Anna Christie", a role that eventually went to Greta Garbo. One wonders how far Sweet's career might have gone had she acted in "Anna Christie" instead of Garbo, but since the Anna Christie character is of Swedish decent, Sweet would have been all wrong in the role that rightfully belonged to Garbo, a natural born Swede. Since THE WOMAN RACKET is far from a prestigious movie project, in spite of it being distributed by a prestigious movie studio, Sweet's career in talkies was short-lived in spite of some promising results in the new medium.The plot of THE WOMAN RACKET might have played well had it been produced at the Warner Brothers studio that specialized in dramas such as this, with the likes of its resident actors as Pat O'Brien, Ann Dvorak and Ricardo Cortez in the Moore, Sweet and Miljan parts, but such as it is, THE WOMAN RACKET is a rarely seen 70 minute drama as well as Blanche Sweet movie that was last seen during the after midnight hours on Turner Classic Movies. (**)

Apparently shot in both silent and sound versions, The Woman Racket now exists only in the latter format. It's interesting to note that stars Tom Moore and Blanche Sweet were big names in the silent era who failed to make the transition to talkies. On the evidence seen here, that's a little surprising, especially in Sweet's case--her winsome good looks and natural smile are complemented by a pleasant speaking voice. The craggy faced Moore is a little more problematic, but is a warm presence as a police officer who sets a good time girl on the straight and narrow and then marries her. The inertia of home life soon becomes too much for his bride (Sweet, naturally), who is lured back into the urban netherworld of gambling houses by sleazy Chris (John Miljan, superb as always). This is a well made and still watchable pre-Code drama that also includes some throwaway musical numbers and some suitably risqué costumes.