****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This 'Crime and Punishment' double feature by Alpha Home Entertainment-- both films starring 1930s/40s Hollywood workhorse Robert Armstrong ('The Most Dangerous Game,' 'King Kong,' 'G-Men')-- offers a couple poverty-row artifacts of varying entertainment value and print quality. Top-billed we have Monogram Pictures' 'The Mystery Man' (1935), a cute but routine caper-comedy involving a newspaperman (Armstrong), a sassy dame (Maxine Doyle), a killer and a frame-up, and injected with ample doses of boozing and rapid-fire wisecracks. Enjoyably corny. 2 1/2 stars. Next, 'The Racketeer' (Pathe, 1929), a very early talkie, is less a gangster picture as its title suggests and more along the lines of a social drama with Armstrong and an 'undiscovered' Carole Lombard giving strong performances amidst a fairly banal story. 3-minus stars. As to the integrity of the transfers, TMM fares better than TR, with clearer image and sound, though there is plenty of damage to the source print evident and several annoying instances of hissing and purring throughout, resulting in muddied dialogue. TR is almost unwatchable by comparison (the best copy I've come across is from Platinum Disc's 'Mobster Movies' collection). Also note that both Amazon's and Alpha's specs are incorrect regarding running time: TR clocks in at 65 minutes and TMM at 60 (Alpha states 101) for a package total of 125 (Amazon states 90). Content rates somewhere south of 3 stars combined; presentation drags it closer to 2.
