The Secret Six (1931)

Very disappointing...

Sorry, this movie sucks

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

While undeniably entertaining "The Secret Six" does suffer from a rather messy screenplay courtesy of Frances Marion that makes the audience feel as though they are random passersby who picked up a few bits and pieces from some strangers' conversation. The plot which treads on familiar ground as it regards the rise and fall of a gangster (Wallace Beery) whose rise commends as his criminal friend (Ralph Bellamy) brings him in front of a crooked drunken attorney (Lewis Stone) who is also the brains behind a large underworld bootlegging operation. Later on as our main crook nicknamed "Slaughterhouse" begins to climb up the ranks within this gang of low lives by backstabbing pretty much anyone that stands in his way for the top. Two investigative reporters (Clark Gable and Johnny Mack Brown) decide to stop him from getting there with the help of an employee (Jean Harlow) who works at a restaurant operated by the bootleggers as their front. This is all quite easy to follow despite plenty of lousy dialogue (which the phrase "oh yeah?" makes about 30% of) but it's the final execution itself that's confusing. The movie starts off with us following "Slaughterhouse" for better or worse but then when those two male Nancy Drews show up the picture shifts gear and they become our main protagonists afterwards there's hardly any glimpse of him unless one of these guys is hanging about.Despite all of that "The Secret Six" does manage to provide lots of entertainment mainly thanks to it's colorful players - Beery is one mean bum, Bellamy fits surprisingly well is this dreary setting, Gable while he doesn't really have all that much to do except spit out his iffy good guy dialogue still manages to give a good show the same goes for Brown, Harlow's character seems like the biggest casualty here since there are little glimpses into her personalty but not much else.Marjorie Rambeau, Paul Hurst, John Miljan, DeWitt Jennings, and Murray Kinnell deliver highly stellar performances in their supporting roles but there's no doubt that my absolute favorite of the bunch was Lewis Stone he was simply tops. Of course one can't forget the masterful direction by George Hill. All in all very enjoyable could have been a classic if it wasn't for it's so-below-so writing.

The Secret Six (1931)This is MGM's attempt at a "B" gangster movie which was always Warner Brother's specialty. The film is well done thanks to Director, George W. Hill from a screenplay by Frances Marion but pretty much covers every cliché in the genre. MGM puts out a full cast, and includes the studio's relative new-comers, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow (their first movie together).Richard Newton (Lewis Stone) is an alcoholic defense attorney who secretly is the brains behind the Central outfit run by Johnny Franks (a sleazy looking Ralph Bellamy). Johnny brings in some new talent, Louie "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio (Wallace Beery) who sledgehammers cattle and does pig-sticking for a living, so you know he's going to be pretty brutal in his new career goals.Johnny is a bootlegger and owns a speak-easy, and has a gangster mall, Peaches (Marjorie Rambeau). You know that Scorpio is going to eventually take over the gang and Peaches too.Two competing reporters, Hank Rogers (Johnny Mack Brown) and Carl Luckner (Gable) are out to grab the crime story for their papers, as well as vying for the attentions of cute cigarette girl, Anne Courtland (Harlow) who, in fact, is working for Scorpio. She slides up to Hank to influence his coverage of Slaughterhouse Scorpio's activities, but she slowly falls in love with the guy. Unknown to anyone Carl is Operator 36, working undercover for the "Secret Six", a secret crime fighting organization of businessmen and political kingpins. When they talk to people, they need to be blindfolded to protect their identity. There was an actual Secret Six organization in Chicago that may have influenced the FBI.Hank has got an angle to steal Scorpio's gun and using modern ballistic technology to prove that his gun was used in several murders, but Scorpio is hot on his trail. Anne testifies against Scorpio in court, but you know that Scorpio is going to beat the rap until the Secret Six get on him.

I saw this recently on TCM and was quite impressed. This film came before the better known gangster movies of that era-- "Little Caesar," "Public Enemy," and, the greatest of them all-- "Scarface." It was also made at a time when sound recording technology for motion pictures was very new and still in development. The first talkie gangster movie, which happened to be the first all-talkie movie, was "Lights of New York," made in 1928. In that film the equipment was so clunky that the actors had to speak loud and slow and stay close to the microphone. By 1931, several improvements had come along, but it was still a difficult technical achievement to make a film like this.There is a scene towards the beginning where Ralph Belamy, who does a great job as a sinister hood, fires a tommy-gun in a night club and kills a guy. Then, he and his cohorts run out and jump in a car. The rival gang pursues them, firing their own tommy-gun. Finally, the rivals crash. But during the chase scene, we are taken through city streets, with the cars running fast and the machine guns blazing. Granted, this was done much better a year or so later in "Scarface," but this film set the precedent.The film is also worth seeing for the Clark Gable role. He shows the charm that made him a star. Harlow is also great as the moll. For a film made that long ago-- at the very beginning of the sound era-- it is well worth viewing whenever it appears again on Turner or any other channel.

THE SECRET SIX looks like an antiquated crime film, despite some of the comments here talking about "MGM gloss". It doesn't have any gloss and it doesn't compare favorably to the tougher Warner Bros. crime dramas of the same period.The only surprises here are in the odd casting choices. RALPH BELLAMY (Mr. Nice Guy or "other man" in most films) playing a rotten gangster type with lines like "Easy on the rods" to his fellow gangsters and a tough guy sneer on his face. He's a double-crossing leader of a gang who tries to get rid of WALLACE BEERY, but fails and is shot in the back by Beery for his efforts. Since this comes pretty early in the film, it's a bit of a surprise. So is seeing Bellamy as a gangster.The other surprise is seeing LEWIS STONE (Andy Hardy's dad) as a crooked lawyer who rules the mobsters with a firm hand, but makes the fatal mistake of turning his back on Beery toward the end. Stone seems out of his element here as the dapper lawyer with the cane.And finally, into the film comes a very young CLARK GABLE (sans moustache) looking fit and chipper as a rather callow newspaper man who jokes around with another newspaper guy JOHNNY MACK BROWN, who happens to be Harlow's love interest (instead of Gable).Despite these surprises, the film itself is as ordinary as they come, a simple gangster story with a Prohibition background about bootleggers who get mixed up with gun molls, crooked lawyers and crime stoppers like "The Secret Six" who are able to capture bad guy Beery and put an end to his monopoly on crime in the city. The plot sounds vaguely like it may have been based on Al Capone's true-life story.Summing up: Only gets lively toward the end with all the shoot-outs, but pretty stale stuff most of the time.Trivia note: Interesting for the glimpse it gives of CLARK GABLE and JEAN HARLOW before they hit the big time stardom waiting for them.