Road Games - 2015 - France

Road Games - 2015 - 7/10
AKA - Fausse Route

 
Jack, English, doesn’t understand French.
Otherwise, he would not be hitchhiking in rural France, in front of a sign that warns against picking up hikers.
And he might be aware that a serial killer is extremely active on this lonely stretch.
Fortunately, he meets a stray French girl, also on walkabout.
Then a car stops and the driver, a talkative soul, offers them a ride.
The lies are small initially, as lies so often are.
Convoluted thriller excels in offering numerous shady characters, including Jack.
Similar to Only The Animals (2019) with a tangle of threads that stitch together.

The Racket - 1928 - USA

The Racket - 1928 - 7/10

 
Silent mobster film, packed with bullets, steeped in cynicism.
Mob boss Scarsi (think Capone) is muscling in on a rival’s territory.
Despite a police presence, the downtown shootout is violent with a surprising amount of deaths.
Copper McQuigg, trying to arrest the criminals, is reassigned to an outlaying precinct.
By the mayor – per request by mob boss, Scarsi.
Louis Wolheim as Scarsi steals the film from star Thomas Meighan.
The notion that crime controls politicians would be whitewashed by the Production Code.

 
Marie Prevost fetching as a gold digging hussy.
On par with The Underworld (1927) this provided a template for hundreds of gangster flicks.