The Racketeer is a 1929 American Pre-Code drama film. Directed by Howard Higgin, the film is also known as Love's Conquest in the United Kingdom. It tells the tale of some members of the criminal class in 1920s America, and in particular one man and one woman's attempts to help him. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper appears in a minor role. The film is one of the early talkies, and as a result, dialogue is very sparse.

Plot

A busker playing a violin is harassed by a group of street punks until Police Officer Mehaffy (Paul Hurst) chases them away. The intoxicated violinist passes out. When Mehaffy is about to arrest him for vagrancy the powerful Mahlon Keane (Robert Armstrong) places $50 in the violinist's pocket and has the officer place him in the next taxi where Keane will pay for a night's accommodation at the YMCA for him to sleep it off. The nearest taxi contains socialite Rhoda Philbrooke (Carole Lombard) who knows the violinist as her lover Tony Vaughan (Roland Drew); she takes him in her taxi.