STACK #162 April 2018

EXTRAS FEATURE

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than just silently standing still in the scene, he began to continually flip and catch a coin which he became so adept at, he could flip and catch it even when staring at someone. Hawks kept it in the movie, including the scene where Camonte, after accusing Rinaldo of fooling around with his sister (in fact they had secretly got married), shoots him. As

Publicity photo for Bolero with George Raft and the beautiful Carole Lombard Below: Film poster for Souls at Sea  in which Raft co- starred with Gary Cooper

Coin flipping. Raft in a scene from Scarface

Old New York pals – mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and George Raft

Rinaldo slides down the inside of a doorway he flips the coin one last time but dies before he can catch it. Hawks would state, “The coin represented a hidden defiance that made George stand out in the picture. It probably helped make him a star”. Raft was asked to make personal appearances in New York and Chicago when  Scarface was released across the US. Returning to his hotel in Chicago following the

other hoods, they drove the increasingly nervous Raft to the Lexington Hotel – Capone’s Chicago headquarters. He was led into a private office and sitting there behind a huge mahogany desk was Al Capone himself. Some years later, Raft would relate what was said at that meeting. “Capone looked up at me and said, 'Georgie, so ya been playin’ my bodyguard, Frank Rio, in this Scarface pitcha.' 'Yes, I did, Al,' I said. ‘But it’s nothing personal – as an actor you

propelled him up the Hollywood ladder. All the major film studios now sought his services as a potential leading man. He signed a contract with Paramount and made over two dozen films for the studio. The standout movies during this period were Night After Night  (1932) with Mae West in a supporting role; Bolero  (1934), where he played a dancer opposite Carole Lombard; and  Souls at Sea  (1937), co-starring with Gary Cooper. But he quickly gained a reputation of being difficult to manage and was suspended by the studio numerous times for refusing roles specifically designed for him. Raft also had a penchant for women, and his natural charisma attracted many of Hollywood’s glamorous actresses who were often seen with him at all the best Hollywood nightclubs. They were intrigued with his connections to the underworld and George revelled in his “dangerous ladies man” image. When the 21 st Amendment repealed Prohibition in December 1933, it brought an abrupt end to the Mob’s most lucrative income – bootleg liquor. The organised crime syndicates in New York and Chicago were now forced to search for new areas to exploit. Hollywood had always been a rewarding marketplace for illicit booze supplied by the Mob. Subsequently, Meyer Lansky, known as the “Mob’s Accountant”, sent the syndicate’s enforcer, “Bugsy” Siegel, to Los Angeles. Siegel’s brief was to look for new ways for the syndicate to extort money from the movie colony. When Siegel arrived in LA he was met and greeted by his old New York friend and now prominent movie star – George Raft.

do what you’re told.' Capone rubbed the long scar on his face then, leaning toward me, said, 'Well you tell them Hollywood schmucks, they don’t know Al Capone. They bumped me off in the end and nobody’s bumpin’ Al off while he’s running Chicago. Yeah! You tell ‘em that Georgie.'"  Raft later heard that Capone liked the film and was flattered with the attention the movie had brought him. However, a few weeks following their meeting, Capone was sentenced to eleven years in prison for tax evasion. Scarface  proved a movie sensation and broke box office records across the US. It was – at that time – the most authentic motion picture on a Chicago mobster’s rise and fall tale that audiences had ever seen. But more importantly for George Raft, the movie

He was led into a private office and there, sitting behind a huge mahogany desk, was Al Capone

showing of the movie, he was met by an ugly looking hoodlum with a bulge under his arm who said, “Raft, the big guy wants to see ya”. Bundled into a black limousine filled with

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To be continued...

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APRIL 2018

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