The Worst Film Ever

Such a frustrating disappointment

Pretty Good

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I love old TV shows and often watch them on my computer. How? Well, archive.org has a lot of public domain TV series and I have tried quite a few over the years. One of these is "Racket Busters". While they don't have every episode, they have quite a few and they are well worth your time--even if they are a bit dated when you see them today.Each episode features Captain Braddock (Reed Hadley) as the seemingly all-knowing cop. He investigates cases involving frauds and con artists. Each episode begins and ends with the same spiel--a weakness of the show. Instead of tailoring the narration for each episode, it's just tacked on to the standard introduction--a preachy one at that.What follows are various recreations of various crimes. Some are rather unusual but many (such as one about pyramid schemes) are timeless and might help you avoid such scams today. In each case, the crime is recreated AND Braddock always catches them. And, surprisingly, in most cases, he gets the money back to the victims! Not exactly real life, but quite enjoyable and worth your time--particularly if you like shows like "Dragnet" or "The Naked City".

Beginning his career as a policeman in "Sunset Murder Case" Reed Hadley's dead pan delivery (wooden acting) assured him a career as a cop in over a decade of movies culminating as the voice over narrator for the chilling noir "He Walked By Night". The spin off series "Dragnet" saw Jack Webb in the main role but the show also ushered in a period of gritty police shows that tried to show the realities of the badge wearing heroes. Fortunately Hadley scored the series "Racket Squad" which zoomed in on fraud and "bunco" in the Los Angeles area. With a similar "dah dah dah dah" theme like "Dragnet", Hadley, as Capt. John Braddock was always part of the action and to ram home the message of why crime didn't pay!! Several can be seen on "Best of TV Detectives"."Kite High" - a term used for the illegal method of falsifying cheque amounts. It involved a funeral director whose carping mother in law drives a wedge between him and his wife. He flees to Las Vegas and falls victim to a casino conman (Robert Shayne, later of "Superman" series). Director is B stalwart William Beaudine. "The Bill of Sale Racket" - Helen Parish has a guest role as an excitable housewife who decides to sell their gas station to a couple of shifty characters while her husband is stationed in Korea. Even though she was very thorough in checking everything out, Hadley pops up to remind viewers that promisary notes and bills of sale don't make things legal!! "Desperate Money" - an old tailor is not making ends meet so his bartender pal puts him in touch with a nasty loan shark. "The System" - William Ching (a name from the past) as Don Riordan falls for a girl who, along with her father, plans to fleece him of his life savings. They have a system that falsifyies race results relayed through a microphone. Lola Albright is the blonde hustler and it was directed by silent film director Erle C. Kenton. "His Brother's Keeper" - a lovable conman gets the idea of cadging money by pretending to be deaf but is then captured by a "Fagin" style gang which prey on the vulnerabilities of beggars who really have an affliction. Veteran James Gleeson stars and Hadley's homily for this one "Check their credentials before you check your heart"!!! "Take a Little, Leave a Little" - has to do with the old story of a breezy stranger who insinuates himself into a group of businessmen friends, tantalizing them with tales of oil well investments (similar plot to "The Bad Sister" which had a very young Humphrey Bogart as the big city hustler).Recommended.

Three episodes of Racket Squad were edited into a 74m. second feature. Released in UK cinemas, in July 1955, by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors under the title Mobs Incorporated. Classified with an A certificate by the British Board of Film Censors. No child under 16 could see an A film, unless accompanied by an adult. It was a common practise back then for kids to get around this minor difficulty by approaching a complete stranger in the cinema queue and pleading " 'ere Guv'nor, can you take us in ? ". Reed Hadley gives an authoritative performance as a police captain with integrity and an overwhelming desire to see lawbreakers apprehended and taken into custody to face justice. Highly entertaining series of television films, featuring Hadley, the great all-rounder, who never failed to turn in a polished performance.

KWVT in Salem is airing these shows, we take each show and in most cases have over 175 renders for each. We adjust levels, cut out the bad stuff as much as we can without affecting the content (bad splices and fast level shifts) remove as much audio and video noise as we can. So all in all we do the best we can.The reason these stories are in most cases as relevant today as they were in the 1950's If you change a couple of points (change Sacks of wheat to new computer programs) you could pull most of these off today.As I edit each show I learn a little more on how easy we can make it for those that will take our money or other items.Ken