The Secret Six (1931)

A Major Disappointment

The first must-see film of the year.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer usually dealt with glossy subjects, but the studio got down and dirty with "Tell It to the Marines" director George W. Hill's gangster saga "The Secret Six," with Wallace Beery, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Lewis Stone, and Johnny Mack Brown. Incidentally, scenarist Francis Marion, one of the top-paid female scripters in the business, was none other than Hill's wife. She wrote some snappy, tough-guy dialogue in this exercise in testosterone between mobsters, the media, and the law. This dated but atmospheric tale of crime and corruption takes place in the gangland capital of America: Chicago. This crime doesn't pay melodrama casts beefy Beery as a hog-killer in a Chicago livestock yards.Briefly, we see a blue-collar Beery wielding a sledge as he kills hogs that we cannot seek off-camera. Nicknamed 'Slaughterhouse,' Louis Scorpio (Wallace Beery of "Treasure Island") changes his vocations and becomes bootlegger when mobster Johnny Franks (Ralph Bellamy of "The Professionals") recruits him for his mob on the principal that there is more money in bootlegging that hog-killing. Johnny Franks looks like a carbon copy of Al Capone with the brim of his fedora curled up on one side and a scar on his chin. This marked Bellamy's cinematic debut. Anyway, Scorpio signs on, and he learns that greedy Johnny would sell out his best friends to keep from being killed. Although Johnny is the figure-head of the gang, the real leader is their mouthpiece, Richard Newton - Attorney at Law (Lewis Stone of "The Big House"), who buys and sells juries. The natty Newton knows how to use the law not only to keep Scorpio out of the clink but also make a pile of dough for himself, too. One night, Johnny, Scorpio, and Nick Mizoski - the Gouger (Paul Hurst of "Slave Ship") muscle in on the territory of rival racketeer Joe Colimo (John Miljan of "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold"), and they shoot it out with Colimo's gang. During the fracas, Colimo's younger brother Ivan (Oscar Rudolph) dies in a hail of gunfire. Earlier, Colimo did his best to keep Ivan out of the rackets, but the lure of 'easy money' was too much for poor Ivan. Colimo follows Johnny back across town and confronts him. All Colimo wants is the identity of his younger brother's killer. Treacherous Johnny Franks, who gunned down the younger Colimo, informs the elder Colimo that Scorpio killed Ivan. Hill staged the gunfight in the dark after somebody doused the lights and machine guns rattled and roared. Earlier, Johnny had told Scorpio to go down to Pier 14 and wait on him. Later, as Scorpio is dutifully waiting for Johnny, a group of gangsters riddles the area with a fusillade of bullets where Scorpio is standing, and Scorpio catches a slug in the arm. Scorpio returns to headquarters where he finds Newton and Johnny. Scorpio guns down Johnny Franks in the back without warning, and Scorpio takes over the gang.Two chummy Chicago reporters, Carl Luckner (Clark Gable of "China Seas") and Joe Rogers (Johnny Mack Brown of "Bad Man from Red Butte") are rivals for a blond on Scorpio's payroll, Anne Courtland (Jean Harlow of "The Public Enemy"), and Joe gets her, but dumps her when he learns that Scorpio leaned on her to please him. We don't get to see much of the police. Mainly, "The Secret Six" concentrates on the rackets and the efforts of newspaper reporter Luckner, who has been taking Scorpio's bribes, but clandestinely funneling the loot to law and order projects. Weirdly enough, the eponymous group, the Secret Six, are unveiled later in the film. These guys all wear black masks and they have pooled their resources to see that Scorpio is prosecuted for his crimes. Indeed, the Secret Six are pretty secret, like future Lone Rangers, and eventually, they manage to land Scorpio in jail. At one point, to make up for his bad judgment in allowing Scorpio to influence his newspaper coverage, Rogers tries to steal Scorpio's gun. This is a mildly tense scene when Rogers sneaks into Scorpio's headquarters and burgles him for his firearm. Rogers is hoping that ballistics tests will show that the bullets that killed Johnny Franks were fired from Scorpio's gun. Unfortunately, Scorpio's henchmen catch up with Rogers and mow him down in the subway. Hill uses darkness again to mask the violence. Ultimately, Carl exercises a bigger role in the downfall of Scorpio, but Newton gets Scorpio off the hook until the Secret Six come up with warrants involving income tax evasion.Make no mistake, "The Secret Six" is a good movie, but it lacks the raw-edged violence that characterized similar gangster classics such as "The Public Enemy" and "Little Caesar" over at Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers always made the best gangster sagas. "The Secret Six" would have been better if Wallace Beery's hoodlum had been a peripheral role rather than the lead. Indeed, Ralph Bellamy's ruthless character Johnny Franks would have made a better mobster chieftain. Gable gives a stellar performance as does Bellamy. Jean Harlow gives a good account of herself as the blond who sings at Scorpio's trial. "The Secret Six" would have been far better had the film dealt in greater detail with the titular group of good guys. The overall slackness in Marion's script is another weakness. Production values, however, are top-notch.

This crime drama features both an excellent cast and an excellent script by Frances Marion. The story could easily be filmed today and become a huge box office hit. Louie Scorpio (Wallace Beery) is an uneducated meathead from the streets with a thirst for money. He learns that bootlegging is a great way to get what he wants, so he joins up with Johnny (Ralph Bellamy) and "Newt" (Lewis Stone) who run a powerful gang in town. After bumping Johnny off, Louie becomes the leader and fixes half the town in his favor. Among the most desirable allies are the town reporters Hank (Johnny Mack Brown) and Carl (Clark Gable). He uses a beautiful dame (Jean Harlow) to keep them in line, but can't seem to shake the cops.For an early talkie, the camera-work here is surprisingly innovative. There are scenes that feel very static and others that move fluidly through various sets. The lighting is fantastic and creates a beauty for a bleak storyline. Unfortunately, the sound quality isn't so impressive. Sometimes the dialogue is difficult to understand, so the story can become confusing in some areas. Thankfully, audiences will be able to figure things out fairly easily.

This is an odd movie on two accounts. First, the plot for this movie appears to have been stolen by Warner Brothers just four years later in SPECIAL AGENT. Both films feature a newspaper reporter who is actually a government agent. And both have these reporters gaining close access to mob leaders in order to convict them of tax fraud. I just can't believe the story parallels are just coincidental. Second, while he receives very low billing, Clark Gable is given one of his first starring roles. Despite the low billing, he is second only to Wallace Beery in the film in regard to time on screen and importance to the story.As mentioned above, this film concerns Gable getting close to mobster Beery in order to help a secret grand jury gain enough information for an indictment. However, unlike SPECIAL AGENT, there is more emphasis on the exploits of the mob leader and the newspaper reporter's role is slightly less prominent. While the film was certainly more original that SPECIAL AGENT, the film wasn't quite as polished and seemed a bit shrill. As a result, if you only want to see one film, SPECIAL AGENT is probably a slightly better film.

While not on the level of the work being done in Warners crime films during the same period ("The Public Enemy," "Little Caesar"), "The Secret Six" is a fine picture with a lot to recommend it.Primarily, this comes from the cast. Wallace Beery, then at the height of his fame, makes for a good central figure as Louis "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio, as the name implies, a former slaughterhouse worker turned bootlegger and murderer. His ordering "a hunk o'steak" after spending all day crushing animals heads with a sledgehammer suggests, right at the beginning, that killing means nothing to this huge primate of a man. Lewis Stone, on the wrong side of the law for once, is Newton, the dandyish crooked lawyer and head of the gang, giving an understated, sinister performance and making every scene count. Ralph Bellamy, one of the movies' perennial nice guys, plays a very, very bad guy here, as the gangster who brings Scorpio into the gang, to his later regret. And veteran Marjorie Rambeau, while she has little to do overall, is good as Bellamy's blowsy mistress, Peaches, a far cry from the society matrons she would specialize in later in her career.But the big surprise, and one of the main reasons for watching this picture, are the solid early performances of Jean Harlow and a young, sans-mustache Clark Gable. Both were free-lancers who were hired for this film on a one-time basis. MGM was so impressed with their work as, respectively, Anne, the cigarette girl who loves and loses reporter Johnny Mack Brown, and Carl, the crusading reporter who aids the Secret Six of the title in bringing down Stone and Beery's criminal organization, that they were hired to long-term contracts right after the picture was completed. Both turn in solid performances. Those who think Harlow couldn't act should see her in the last third of the film, particularly the trial scene. And the sheer mile-a-minute energy Gable brings to his role makes his every scene watchable. Within the next few years, these two would establish themselves as the stuff of Hollywood legend.Directed by the excellent, underrated George Hill ("Tell It To the Marines," "Min and Bill," "Hell Divers"), scripted by the great Frances Marion, and with the aforementioned solid cast and the usual MGM gloss, "The Secret Six" makes for a very enjoyable film, for historians, crime film buffs, fans of the stars, and just those of us who appreciate a good, involving story.