Tuesdays in January at 8pm | 20 movies
In January, TCM celebrates the legacy of actor George Raft with a month-long tribute. With a toss of the coin, Raft established himself as one of the original cinematic gangsters with the film Scarface (1932). Raft made a name for himself playing a variety of criminals and hard-working men, always carrying himself with the elegance and charm he developed in his early days as a professional dancer. His coolness on screen came with a hint of danger as his roles often mirrored his real-life connections to the criminal underworld. What Raft lacked in acting skills, he made up for in intrigue, notoriety and style. Raft’s legacy is a complicated one, overshadowed by some of the poor career decisions he made in turning down roles in films like The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942). But perhaps Raft should also be remembered as someone who made the studio system—which was notorious for mistreating its contract stars—work for him. He used his star power and his connections to keep working in an otherwise unforgiving industry.
George Raft was born on September 26, 1901, in New York City to Jewish-German immigrant parents. Although Raft himself would claim his birth year as 1895, census records have since shown that 1901 is more accurate. An earlier birth year was most likely a guise to help the young and ambitious Raft get a head start on his career. Raft grew up in Hell’s Kitchen and at an early age befriended mobsters like Bugsy Siegel and Owney Madden. Raft’s mob connections would become an intrinsic part of his success and allure in Hollywood. By the time Raft was 13 years old, he was working odd jobs to make ends meet. He dabbled in bootlegging and gun running and even enjoyed a brief career as a prizefighter.
Willing to try anything to make a buck, Raft soon became a dancer and developed a proficiency in multiple styles and at one time was named the best Charleston dancer in New York City. His dancing skills helped him get onto Broadway where he appeared in a stage show with performer Texas Guinan. It was Guinan who insisted that Warner Bros. give Raft a small role in what would become his film debut, the Queen of the Night Clubs (1929). With the encouragement of his mobster friends, Raft pursued a career in Hollywood. With no formal training as an actor, Raft made his entry point with a skill he’d already mastered: dancing.
He appeared in the two-strip Technicolor musical Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) and played bit parts as a dancer in crime movies like Side Street (1929). Raft would soon snag a bit part in Taxi (1932), a Warner Bros. crime drama about a cab driver who fights back against a criminal syndicate. James Cagney, a fellow hoofer, recommended Raft for the part of his dance competition rival. Raft caught the eye of director Howard Hawks and would soon be cast in what would be his first big Hollywood break playing the tragic sidekick Guino “Little Boy” Rinaldo in Scarface. One of the seminal early gangster films, Scarface was loosely based on the life of Al Capone, someone with whom Raft had a real-life connection. Raft, however, was no match for the talents of the highly skilled Paul Muni who played Capone. To counter this, Hawks encouraged Raft to flip a coin in his scenes opposite Muni. This coin flip became Raft’s signature move and was referenced at many points in his career.
Thanks to the success of Scarface, Raft received a lucrative contract from Paramount, and he soon emerged as a leading man. He starred in Night After Night (1932) playing an ex-boxer turned speakeasy proprietor opposite Mae West, who played a fictionalized version of Raft’s old friend Texas Guinan. This film catapulted West into stardom and proved that Raft could hold his own opposite a strong leading lady.
Throughout the 1930s, Raft starred in a variety of Paramount pictures playing casino and nightclub owners, con artists, thieves, prison inmates and the occasional dancer. In Fritz Lang’s crime-doesn’t-pay-themed musical You and Me (1938), Raft stars opposite Sylvia Sidney as an ex-con trying to go straight. As much as Raft excelled in playing hard-bitten criminals, he gravitated towards roles with redemption arcs. In fact, Raft often spoke up about the roles he was being offered at his home studio. Now that he had some star power, he insisted on having a say in his director, his leading lady and his dialogue. When it came to his projects, Raft’s increasing inflexibility put him at odds with Paramount executives who threatened suspension. Most of these suspensions were negotiated with Raft getting his way. However, by 1939 Raft and Paramount parted ways.
It was in the late 1930s and early 1940s when George Raft reached his peak as a major screen personality. Now signed with Warner Bros., Raft appeared in Each Dawn I Die (1939) which reunited him with his old friend and fellow movie gangster James Cagney. This prison drama about an investigative reporter who befriends a convict was one of the most successful films of 1939.
At Warner Bros. Raft made a pair of very successful crime thrillers alongside rising star Humphrey Bogart. Raft was instrumental in Bogart’s career. His refusal to appear in films like High Sierra (1940) and The Maltese Falcon paved the way for Bogart’s transcendence to stardom. With Bogart, Raft starred in the drama Invisible Stripes (1939). Arguably Raft’s best performance came with They Drive By Night (1940), Raoul Walsh’s noir about a pair of truck-driving brothers framed for murder. Walsh—who had worked with Raft previously on The Bowery (1933)—noticed a great improvement in Raft’s acting techniques. While Raft’s performances lacked the complexity or nuance of his screen peers like Bogart, he still managed to maintain his star power and allure.
Loyalty became crucial to Raft’s acting work throughout the following decades. He starred in another crime drama directed by Walsh in 1941, Manpower. This film stars Raft and Edward G. Robinson as romantic rivals for a nightclub singer played by Marlene Dietrich. The film became infamous for workplace accidents—both Raft and Dietrich suffered injuries—and a falling out between the two leads. Raft’s friend Bugsy Siegel, who became one of the most notorious mobsters of the 20th century, frequented the set of Manpower and it was there that he met his mistress, actress Virginia Hill. A scene from Manpower was recreated in the Siegel biopic Bugsy (1991) with Joe Mantegna playing George Raft.
Trying to make up for the big career mistake of turning down Casablanca, Raft agreed to appear in another Raoul Walsh film. In Background to Danger (1943), Raft plays an American expat in Turkey among a cast that also includes Casablanca alums Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Unfortunately, this project would not make up for Raft’s career failure and led to the termination of his contract with Warner Bros.
Raft pivoted to working freelance and fell into a rut of making mostly forgettable films but ones that kept him working as a leading man. According to Noir Alley host Eddie Muller, Raft made six crime pictures in three years with director Edwin L. Marin whose “specialty became working with veteran actors who were pretty much punching a clock and didn’t need any hotshot directors with big ideas.” The best of these were Nocturne (1946) and Race Street (1948), two stylish RKO noirs that were successful at the box office.
In 1946, Raft formed a production company with producer Sam Bischoff called Star Films Inc. It was a short-term venture that produced the noir Intrigue (1947) and the adventure film Outpost in Morocco (1949), the latter being produced under Moroccan Films, a subsidiary created with Star Films Inc. and producer Joseph N. Ermolieff.
By the late 1940s, Raft’s star power was on the decline. He kept working sporadically throughout the following decades relying on his notoriety and his connections with key people in the industry to remain relevant. No longer a leading man, Raft got bit parts in movies with all-star casts. The first was Around the World in 80 Days (1956), the Jules Verne adventure film starring David Niven and Cantinflas. In this film, Raft reunites with his Manpower co-star Marlene Dietrich. In the Rat Pack heist film Ocean’s Eleven (1960), Raft appears as one of several casino owners eager to negotiate for a return on their losses. He received what was to be his last substantial onscreen role in Billy Wilder’s comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). Tapping into his expertise at playing flashy gangsters, Raft appears as Spats Colombo, a Chicago mobster. This role essentially bookended his career as one of cinema’s greatest gangsters.
After this production, Raft ran into some serious financial trouble when his Havana casino was abruptly closed as a result of the Cuban Revolution. Raft sold his life story to Allied Artists who in turn made the biopic The George Raft Story (1961), a fictionalized version of Raft’s life with Ray Danton in the lead.
His name recognition as well as his signature coin toss kept him in the public eye throughout the years. He was a frequent guest on variety shows, starred in his own short-lived TV drama “I’m the Law” and had small parts in several comedies including Jerry Lewis’ The Ladies Man (1961) and The Patsy (1964), where he played himself to great effect.
Raft kept working despite his declining health. His final on-screen appearance was in The Man with Bogart’s Face (1980), an homage to the era that made Raft a star.
