LOAN SHARK

US, 1952, 80 minutes, Black-and-white.
George Raft, Dorothy Hart, Paul Stewart, John Hoyt, Helen Wescott, Lawrence Dobkin.
Directed by Seymour Friedman.

Loan Shark is a small feature of the early 1950s combining thriller and gangster aspects along with social concerns of the period.

The setting is a tyre factory where a number of the workers take out loans, sometimes because of gambling, have to pay a high percentage of interest on the loans, cannot repay and experience thuggish violence and extortion. One of the workers is a suspect in enticing the workers to become involved in the gambling.

This is a George Raft film, playing the kind of role that he did frequently. He is just out of prison for assault, wants a job, is attracted to the factory owner’s secretary who gets him an interview. The owner knows his background and asks him to investigate. When his sister’s husband is killed, he becomes involved, going further underground by taking a loan, making contact with the criminals (Paul Stewart and John Hoyt), even suggesting further extortion rackets by targeting housewives and laundry services as a cover.

The film builds up to a confrontation, the revelation of the big boss behind the rackets and a shootout in a theatre.

1. Thriller? Social and social justice issues?

2. Title, the targets for loan sharks, factory workers, housewives? Rackets, money demands and extortion? In the setting of the early 1950s?

3. George Raft and his style, his character, Joe Gargan, emerging from prison, the background of the fight, his experience in prison (even making his suit), the dapper look and style, coming to see his sister, wanting to go straight, the encounter with Ann, the immediate flirting and her reaction, her brother and his being protective? And the factory owner, the offer of the job, the factory owner knowing all about him, wanting to get behind the loan sharks, the rackets and the bashings?

4. The opening, the man trying to escape, the thugs following him, the bashing? The introduction to the factory, making tyres, the men, the discussions about the bashing, their own loans, Thompson and his being on the men’s side, yet his persuading them to borrow the money, gambling and the back room, the various men and their debts? Joe and his unwillingness to take the job? His sister, her husband, his denouncing Thompson, as being killed?

5. The head of the factory, his concern about the men, the work, the bashings, wanting Joe to find out who was behind the racket?

6. Joe at work, tough, letting Thompson take him to the gambling, meeting Donelli, the personality clashes, the borrowing of the money, the interest, taking Ann out, the romance of the dancing? Outings together?

7. Joe and his decision to defy Donelli, the encounter with Phillips, their offering him a job, getting the money back, the various victims? Joe and the suggestion about the laundry, the housewives and the needs for loan? His sister’s experience?

8. Getting on well with Phillips, Phillips and his high lifestyle, the singing and dancing girlfriend? Joe following him? The experience with the accountant, Joe keeping his own books?

9. The test, that Joe should confront Ann’s brother, the bashing, Ann and his sister and their disgust? The plan to go to the police?

10. Joe, shrewd, wanting the money to leave town, getting Phillips to lead him to the factory owner, the drama in his living above the theatre, the discovery that the factory owner was the accountant, the shootout in the theatre?

11. The commendation of the factory owner, the reconciliation With Ann?

12. Social justice concerns and the thriller touch?