MovieChat Forums > The Racket (1951) Discussion > "This is Hoosier Stuff Nick"

"This is Hoosier Stuff Nick"


The line fretfully spoken by the driver in which Nick Scanlon is in the back seat. Scanlon wants to assassinate Liz Scott who is walking on the sidewalk, but the driver protests, "this is Hoosier stuff..."

Then Nick Scanlon gives him an epic beatdown for questioning his orders. Love it.

Being from Indiana, I never heard 'Hoosier' spoken in this context before.

Elaboration anyone?

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Seven years and nobody's had an answer. I thought alydar21 might have misheard the guy, so I put the movie on, fast-forwarded to that scene, and listened carefully. Rewound a couple of times and listened again and again. Yep, he definitely says "this is Hoosier stuff".

The term "Hoosier" was originally derogatory, used in the South to refer to uncouth, uneducated hicks. It's still used that way by some people in Missouri. It wasn't used in a friendly or proud manner to denote Indianans until around the 1820s.

By saying "this is Hoosier stuff", Scanlon's driver probably meant that knocking off Irene right there in the street would be a dumb move, as opposed to the more sophisticated way the Old Man's organization preferred to deal with people they wanted to silence.

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