Race Street

"Stay with it"

Race Street, directed by Edwin L. Marin and adapted to screenplay by Martin Rackin from a story by Maurice Davis. Starring George Raft, William Bendix, Marilyn Maxwell, Frank Faylen, Gale Robbins and Harry Morgan. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by J. Roy Hunt.

Story centers around two friends played by Raft and Bendix, the former is a turf accountant and night club owner, the latter a plain clothes policeman. With a syndicate racket moving in on the Frisco bookmaking circuit, Dan Gannin (Raft) refuses to co-operate, putting himself in grave danger. Barney Runson (Bendix) wants to move in and do it the official way, begging Dan to step aside and let the police do their job. But when the syndicate make a deadly m...

This is a superior crime noir let down by a most nondescript title! Harry Morgan ("Hal") is found at the bottom of a flight of stairs - George Raft ("Gannin") and detective "Barney" (William Bendix) know his death is a bit fishy, and decide to investigate (separately!). Soon it transpires that the former is involved in dodgy bookmaking, as was the deceased, and that someone is trying to muscle in on their business. Raft is good as he tries to avenge his dead friend, never quite sure to trust, as are femme fatale Marilyn Maxwell as "Robbie" and Gale Robbins as his sister "Elaine" who sings a couple of quite decent numbers too. It's quite a tense short feature with plenty of darkly lit scenes and a tight dialogue to keep the suspense going un...