Love Is a Racket

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays a worldly-wise newspaperman whose beat is Broadway. He always seems to be one step ahead of everyone and is never a chump...except when it comes to one woman (Frances Dee). This lady has written some bad checks and he decides to help her. However, it all ends up backfiring on him. It's a shame, as his lovely assistant (Ann Dvorak) can't get him to notice her. When his lady love gets in trouble, he decides to help her....with results he never anticipated. Along for the ride are Lee Tracy as his sidekick and Lyle Talbot as the tough guy who has the rubber checks.

While this isn't a bad film, it isn't all that great either. One way I knew this is that as I watched, I kept finding my attention drifting. The dialog is a bit snappy but there just seems to be SOMETHING missing. I think it's fun...and perhaps an interesting plot. A time-passer and nothing more.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Is the Broadway columnist for a big New York paper. He's also in love with gorgeous Frances Dee, just back in the City with her aunt Cecil Cunningham. She's trying to promote a career, either on the stage or Park Avenue, and Doug is trying to help her with the former, as well as a fortune in rubber checks she's passed. But gangster Lyle Talbot is also interested in the lady, and has paid off the checks. He's expecting something in return. Can newspaper pals Lee Tracy and Ann Dvorak figure out where Fairbanks has been kidnapped to?

With that title and William Wellman directing, I was expecting a sardonic comedy; after all, he would helm NOTHING SACRED and ROXIE HART. But Wellman was a master of the tough-men-bonding-in-tough-circumstances stories that Howard Hawks and John Ford liked to tell, and it became clear about halfway through that this movie is about that. The humor starts to drain out of movie about a third of the way in, along with the idea of romantic love. It is replaced, though, with love born of respect and risks faced together. Nor does it limit itself to men, with Miss Dvorak giving one of her graceful, understated performances.

The quality of films from 1931 was variable to say the least but if William Wellman's name was on the credits you could be assured of getting slick, professional and expertly made entertainment.

This is no exception although it's not exceptional.

Although Douglas Fairbanks Jr is definitely Clarke Gable if your studio can't afford the real Clarke Gable, he's fabulous in this. He's like someone you meet on holiday and think you've known since school. How he manages to do this is something only a few actors can do. His character is not unlike the role he played a year later in (the much better) 'Union Depot' but a bit more cynical. The rest of the cast too are all exceptional as well - everyone one of them. It's brilliantly put together, it's got excitement, plays with your emotions with menace, excitement and hope and you will enjoy watching this ...but somehow 24 hours later, like that bloke you met on holiday, you'll have forgotten it as though you were at the bathtub brew, had a great time somewhere but can't quite remember.

Maybe because it's so well made (not just for 1931) you don't notice how lightweight the story actually is. Maybe because you'll forget that you've seen it is a good excuse to watch it again - it's worth it.

A "pretty good" starring role for the dashing Douglas Fairbanks jr, who had good movies and bad movies. Here, he is a newspaper reporter Jimmy Russell, trying to catch a gal who cannot seem to settle down. Co stars are Ann Dvorak (Merrily we Live and Three on a Match) and Frances Dee (Little Women, Human Bondage), and Lee Tracy (Dinner at Eight), who has a most interesting biography on his page on IMDb. Oddly, we don't really know much about his character in this movie... he's just kind of there. Dedicated black- and- white- movie watchers will see Eddie Kane and Gino Corrado, who play waiters at Sardi's restaurant – they were assistants or sidekicks in just about every movie made since dirt was invented. Of course Russell (Fairbanks) has an adversarial relationship with his newspaper boss (although this film probably pre-dated most of the others that used that ploy).... and there are a couple of other hard to believe things going on here, but I won't spoil any plot monkey-business. Watch for the cool telephone gadget at the very beginning....and a long, lecture on love and life at the very end.

Love is a Racket (1932)

** (out of 4)

Boring melodrama about a gossip writer (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) who falls in love with a struggling actress (Frances Dee) but she might be two timing him with a gangster (Lyle Talbot). William A. Wellman must have fallen asleep in the director's chair because there's not an ounce of energy in this film. Even by 1932 standards the film seems dated and rather routine. There's really not a single thing going for it as we sit there waiting for something to happen yet it never does. Fairbanks is very bland and boring in his role. At the end he gets a big speech about love, which comes off very silly. Frances Dee is good in her role but she doesn't have too much to do. Lee Tracy and Ann Dvorak co-star.