The Secret 6 (1931) User Reviews

Polluting The Justice System

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 23 March 2011]

The Secret Six, produced by William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Pictures for MGM, has an interesting message about extralegal means to bring down systemic corruption. The title figures are six notable citizens who are all masked, representing all kinds of interests who come together when organized crime takes over a city. We never see The Secret Six, they only come in the last third of the film. But we do see how they operate.

The films is the story of the rise and fall of Wallace Beery who becomes an Al Capone like figure, the real brains of the outfit however is the mob's lawyer Lewis Stone. With Stone pulling the strings and polluting the justice system, Beery rises to power in a typical gangland battle. When the regular law enforcement channels don't work, The Secret Six start working with the federal government to bring Beery down. Working with them are a pair of reporters Johnny Mack Brown and Clark Gable. A key witness in the events is Jean Harlow in her first MGM film.

For those who are used to seeing Lewis Stone as the rock of integrity as Judge Hardy, Stone as a bottom feeding shyster lawyer will be quite the revelation. Maybe because he's cast against type he's so good, he just oozes sanctimony in front of a jury.

One character I wish that we'd seen a bit more of is Paul Hurst who is Beery's friend and whom the gang elects mayor of a small town. Once doing that the gang moves on to a big city where they take down top gangster boss John Miljan. The situation parallels Al Capone's takeover of Hawthorne, Illinois. I wish Hurst hadn't just disappeared from the story after his election.

The Secret Six was the first of six films that Clark Gable and Jean Harlow worked in. Next to Joan Crawford, Gable teamed with Harlow more than any other leading lady. Neither of them however are the stars here, they are billed way down in the cast list. Marjorie Rambeau also has a nice role as a good time girl who Beery uses as a doormat, but Rambeau has the last laugh on him.

Although Warner Brothers was the gangster studio with their emphasis on working class films, The Secret Six could give any of the Warner products a run in quality.

Great direction

[HotToastyRag · 5/10 · 12 January 2021]

As far as 1930s gangster movies are concerned, I was a little disappointed by The Secret Six. I'd heard a lot of hype about it, but it wasn't nearly as captivating as The Roaring Twenties, The Public Enemy, or The Beast of the City, each revolving around bootleggers and policemen out to catch them. Unless you're a big Wallace Beery fan, or you want to see Jean Harlow before her eyebrows, you can rent one of the better ones. Wallace Beery stars as a gangster who wanted to go straight but gets very quickly seduced by his old crowd and goes to work for bootlegger Ralph Bellamy, who works under mob boss Lewis Stone. I wasn't used to seeing Lewis Stone in such a villainous role, but he certainly made the most of it! Where does Jean Harlow come in? Besides showing off her lovely figure and using her sex appeal to distract a do-gooder reporter from exposing the criminal underworld, she doesn't do much. Wallace Beery hands her a wad of cash as she disappears with the naïve young man, then tells her to report to him in the morning. Yes, folks, this is a pre-Code movie.

I was very impressed by George Hill's direction. For 1931, it was very forward-thinking. The start of the movie shows Wallace walking across the block, and the camera, mounted on an extensive dolly, follows him. The streets are filthy, with puddles and trash, making it seem like it wasn't just any old set in the studio. During the scenes when gangsters are making a stereotypical getaway, the camera shows the driver's point of view, and as pedestrians leap out of the way, the camera swerves, narrowly missing them. It must have been very exciting to watch in 1931!

The plot itself, and the execution of it, isn't very fast-paced or interesting. I'm not the biggest Wallace Beery fan, so I probably wasn't the best audience for the film. Keep your eyes open for Marjorie Rambeau, a stereotypical "rotten tramp", and a pre-mustached Clark Gable who shows his energetic screen presence to the audience with a promising future ahead of him.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. During the driving scenes, the camera bounces around and swerves to mirror the road, and that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

One of the earliest "Talkie" gangster movies

[voacor · 7/10 · 8 September 2007]

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.

Good cast really makes this early crime drama

[BobLib · 11 November 2003]

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.

The atmosphere and acting are great, but that screenplay- Yikes!

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 17 February 2015]

I have a hard time believing that Frances Marion - one of my favorite screenwriters of the silent and early talkie era - wrote this, it has so many holes. It's almost like someone locked Frances Marion in a closet, wrote this script, and forged her signature to it. Let me just say only one paragraph at the end of the review somewhat spoils the film. I try to leave out details in the rest of it.

First off, the film is like two different movies. At the beginning you see "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio, so-named because he is working in a slaughterhouse, take up with the gang of his pal Johnny Franks (Ralph Bellamy). Scorpio has an extra "rod", actually has it on him, and likes the idea of extra money for what seems like the relatively easy work of bootlegging and whatever violence comes with it. Upstairs to gang headquarters trudges the gang.Then all of the questions start to appear.

There is an older man, Robert Newton (Lewis Stone), in a somewhat drunken stupor, who seems to be in charge and is suspicious of the new gang member. Newton insults the gang freely for "thinking", but for some reason he is not afraid of them just shooting him and they just take these insults. Why?

Is Robert Newton head of the gang? Is Johnny Franks? Why are Johnny and Scorpio fighting over a run-down used-up looking woman who is obviously trading on rapidly diminishing if not completely depleted assets (Marjorie Rambeau as Peaches) when the beautiful Anne (Jean Harlow) is working downstairs? Why would Newton or any of the gang think that trespassing on a bigger gang's territory, headed by John Miljan as the tux-wearing piano-playing Colimo, lead to anything but violence and little or no profit - which it does? And that's just the first half of the film.

The second half of the movie, in almost one frame exactly, introduces for the first time three of MGM's biggest stars - Jean Harlow is Anne, who is a cashier at the restaurant that serves as a front for the gang, and Clark Gable and Johnny Mack Brown are two newspaper reporters, Hank and Carl, friends but trying to best each other for the biggest scoop. Anne is enlisted by Scorpio to sweet-talk Hank into not writing so much scathing material about him, and Carl seems to be on the take - but is he? Now more questions, raised not by a good plot, but by plot holes. If Newton has so little respect for Scorpio, why does he just accept him as the new gang leader? Why bother to use the courts to try Scorpio for murder and then, when that fails, that very night just use the Secret Six - who have been introduced some time before as some quasi-legal branch of law enforcement - to flood the gang with legal papers that deport practically the entire gang, disbar Newton, and indict Scorpio for tax fraud? Why the orderly arrest of Scorpio for murder but this no holds barred tommy-gun blasting surrounding and invasion of Scorpio's headquarters over all of these non-violent offenses?

Let me just say I can't even see the reason for putting the secret six in the same room. They never say anything to each other, and those skimpy masks they wear are not going to fool anybody who might know them as to who they are anymore than The Lone Ranger's mask would have fooled anybody who knew him.

And the second from the last scene is just goofy, and the only reason I have a spoiler warning on this review. There is Scorpio and his gang on death row, practically queued up, with ten minutes between the executions of all of them. Scorpio was arrested the second time around for tax fraud not murder...how did he wind up with the death penalty? Perhaps we can lay all of this nonsense at the feet of William Randolph Hearst, whose Cosmopolitan Production company backed the film and a film with a similar tone "Gabriel Over the White House". It seemed that when dealing with thugs Hearst didn't mind throwing the law books out the window and just lining everyone up and shooting them. Plus Hearst had so much money and power nobody was going to tell him - your film is goofy.

What's the last scene? Gable as reporter Carl, telling his editor he's going to sleep for a month, he's worked so hard...but, no, there's a big story brewing and he's out to cover it like the energetic trooper of a reporter he is. Huh??? How did this film start out being about gang warfare and end up being about a reporter not introduced until the film's midpoint? Inquiring minds want to know.

I'd watch this for some great acting and the great gangster film atmosphere. Then there is the irony. Plotwise there is the irony concerning how Scorpio is apprehended -I'll let you watch and find out what I'm talking about. Film history wise, there is the irony of seeing Gable and Brown as rivals on film, when in fact Gable's appearance at MGM was curtains for Johnny Mack Brown, because Gable's growly voice is what people expected Johnny Mack Brown to sound like, plus Gable just had such screen presence. I'd recommend it, but prepare to be confused.

Worth watching to see Clark Gable before he was a star

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 28 May 2007]

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.

A pretty good gangster movie...

[CityofNY · 7/10 · 2 June 2000]

This movie is a thinly veiled attempt to portray the life of Al Capone. The violent rise and fall of the gangster, portrayed by Wallace Beery, the taking over of the government of an adjacent small town, the eventual tax problem that Beery's character has...these and other subplots are mirror images of Capone's Chicago. While not as well known today as "The Public Enemy" or "Little Caesar", this movie is definitely worth watching. It also features a very young Clark Gable is a supporting good-guy role and, of all people, Ralph Bellamy as a gangster.

The cast is what makes this sing

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 25 June 2011]

sounds like a super hero movie but it's not.

Its about a Victor Mclaughlin who works in the stock yards in Chicago. His buddy Raplph Bellamy brings him into the bootlegging business where he excels and eventually takes over for Bellamy. Into the mix comes Jean Harlow, Johnnie Mack Brown, and some guy named Clark Gable, who impressed MGM so much they made him into a superstar (actually watching him he did it on his own- they just signed him). Its a crime pays until the final fade out tale that Hollywood used to do so well.

This is a dense potboiler of a film. Its full of great characters and sets and lines and is super meaty. The trouble is it's almost too much. Actually its too much and too knowing. This is a big budget picture and it knows it, wearing it on it's sleeve. It's the sort of attitude that kind of gets in the way since it has too polished.

I like the film, though the film to me is more curio for the casting and the filmmaking. rarely have I ever seen a film quite like this (the title refers to a band of good citizens who hide their identity to trip up our antihero.

Definitely worth a look. Its something you'll probably like more than love and which you'll sing it's technical and casting praises more than it's story.

Terrific early gangster flick

[frankfob · 8/10 · 11 August 2004]

In the '30s, Warner Bros. specialized in gritty, violent urban crime dramas, and no studio did them better. This tough-as-nails gangster film is, surprisingly enough, from MGM, and compares favorably with the Warners product--in fact, it comes out ahead in several respects. The cast is terrific--with Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Ralph Bellamy and Clark Gable, to name a few--and George Hill's direction is as energetic and forceful as any of the directors at Warners. Another bonus is the well-known MGM gloss; it may have been just a B picture, but a "B" at MGM was as good as, and often better than, an "A" at other studios. Although this is one of Gable's earlier performances, his star quality is unmistakable--he explodes onto the screen, his good looks and charm in full force. Ralph Bellamy, whose career was spent mostly playing good-natured second leads, does a top-notch job as a two-timing, scheming gang leader who gets his just desserts after a double-cross. Even Wallace Beery manages to rein in his tendency to ham it up and contributes a solid job as the murderous "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio, who takes over Bellamy's gang. Lewis Stone as a corrupt lawyer who actually runs the gang shows what a good job he could do when given a part he could sink his teeth into, and Jean Harlow proved that she wasn't just another pretty face (and great body); she really shines in the last part of the film, especially during the courtroom scenes. This is a first-rate picture, with sharp writing, tough, no-nonsense direction and superior performances from all concerned. Don't miss it.

The Beast of the City

[lugonian · 7/10 · 15 November 2015]

THE SECRET SIX (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1931), directed by George Hill, with story and dialogue by Frances Marion, became MGM's contribution to the gangster genre. Following numerous prior crime melodramas produced by other motion picture studios at the time, along with the current success of LITTLE CAESAR (First National, 1930), that launched Edward G. Robinson to overnight stardom, THE SECRET SIX is quite extraordinary as well as underrated. Feature billing goes to Wallace Beery, whose secondary presence under Chester Morris' leading performance from the Frances Marion scripted prison drama, THE BIG HOUSE (MGM, 1930), that has earned Beery an Academy Award nomination. For THE SECRET SIX, it's Beery's turn to take leadership in the cast, holding his own along with scene stealing support by future stars on the rise by Jean Harlow, Ralph Bellamy and the pre-mustache Clark Gable.

Plot summary: Louis Scorpio (Wallace Beery), better known as "Slaughterhouse," employed at the Centro Stockyards and Packing Company at $35 a week, is introduced to a new profession, a life of crime in bootlegging by ringleader, Johnny Franks (Ralph Bellamy, in movie debut) and his assistant, Nick Mizoski (Paul Hurst), earning $150 a week a piece, while dining in a café where they are serviced by Johnny's moll, Peaches (Marjorie Rambeau). While invading the territory of rival mob boss, "Smiling Joe" Colimo (John Miljan), a gangland shooting ensues, killing Colimo's kid brother, Ivan (Oscar Rudolph) in the process. Later, as Colmino confronts Johnny to find out who was responsible for Ivan's death, Johnny places the blame on the absent Scorpio, waiting for further orders on Pier 14. Colimo and his mob drive by, gun down Scorpio, and leave him for dead. Slightly wounded, Scorpio, suspecting a double-cross, surprises Johnny upon his return, and puts him out of circulation. Now the new underworld leader rising to power, Scorpio acquires the services of Johnny's former aids, Richard Newton (Lewis Stone), a drunken criminal lawyer and personal mouthpiece; Metz (Murray Kinnell), a deaf mute wearing thick glasses posing as his lookout; and Anne Courtland (Jean Harlow), a café cashier working on high salary by Scorpio under orders to keep a couple of Herald reporters, Hank Rogers (John Mack Brown) and Carl Luckner (Clark Gable), from writing stories on Scorpio's gangland activities while investigating Johnny's unsolved murder. As Hank and Carl receive bribes from Scorpio, it turns out that one of the reporters is working undercover for a masked secret organization known as "The Secret Six," that's to put an end to Scorpio's criminal activities, maybe.

Interesting that THE SECRET SIX is the movie's title, considering the organization in question, first mentioned 47 minutes into the start of the story, is hardly mentioned again after its initial introduction. Anyone unfamiliar with the movie itself would assume by its title that The Secret Six is the name of Scorpio's mob. However, Beery, the milk drinking thug sporting a mustache to give him a mean looking appearance, is the prominent figure throughout its 83 minutes, but, as mentioned before, its the fine support by platinum blonde Jean Harlow and seventh billed Clark Gable, together or separately, that gathers enough attention. Harlow performs is quite good here, compared to her weak performance in another gangster melodrama classic of THE PUBLIC ENEMY (Warner Brothers, 1931) starring James Cagney. Interestingly, Gable, who got his start playing thugs and/or villains on screen, is happily cast here as a wisecracking reporter whose gig on "Aunt Emma" becomes his running gag throughout. It was a role as a reporter that would win Gable an Academy Award as Best Actor for IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (Columbia, 1934). Being Gable's first of six films opposite Harlow, their scenes together are quite limited, with Harlow working more opposite Brown, the same Johnny Mack Brown who, in his final film for MGM, who would achieve newfound popularity shortly after-wards in matinée westerns through the 1950s.

True to the tradition of these gangster stories of this period, THE SECRET SIX fails to disappoint with its gun-play, car chasing and police sirens racing down the city streets, as well as tough talk to go around. Other highlights include Hank's close calls of getting caught while strolling through Scorpio's luxurious apartment searching for evidence against the crime boss during the background orchestration playing to the song, "Sing" originally introduced from the Buster Keaton military comedy of DOUGHBOYS (1930); the execution style shooting inside a subway car of one of the characters; the courtroom scene with Anne (Harlow) testifying against Scorpio at the risk of her own life; and how way Peaches gets her vengeance on Johnny's killer; and the Beery-Stone on-screen chemistry at their best.

Not shown on commercial television since the 1970s or earlier, the rediscovery of THE SECRET SIX surfaced again in the wake of cable television, notably on Turner Network Television (TNT) anywhere between (1988 and 1993), before becoming a prominent fixture on Turner Classic Movies after 1994. Though never distributed to video cassette, THE SECRET SIX has earned its place on the handful of classic movie titles on DVD display through Turner Home Entertainment. And that's no secret. (***)

How much can crime buy?

[michaelRokeefe · 5/10 · 6 August 2001]

This is a great gangster movie with a very talented cast. Wallace Beery plays a Capone-type hoodlum that allows nothing to stand in his way. Well, tax problems do put his power and glory on the skids. The veteran actor Lewis Stone is a 'high brow' crime lord. Usual good guy Ralph Bellamy is a bootlegger/night club owner. The Chicago night life and gangland activity keeps this flick rocking back and forth, but well worth watching.

Talk about a great supporting cast. Get a load of this: Johnny Mack Brown, Clark Gable and the enchanting Jean Harlow. Fun to watch on the same evening with SCAREFACE(32) and THE STAR WITNESS(31)

Very Modern

[Maleejandra · 8/10 · 25 July 2007]

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.

Flawed MGM Gangster Saga

[zardoz-13 · 6/10 · 22 June 2017]

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.

The only real surprises are in the cast, not the plot...(POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD)...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 16 May 2007]

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.

a thug rises to the top

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 30 October 2021]

Clark Gable and Jean Harlow are emphasized in modern descriptions of this film, but they are not the leads. The leads are Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Ralph Bellamy, and Johnny Mack Brown. Harlow and Gable have supporting roles, along with Marjorie Rambeau.

Bellany plays Johnny Franks, a bootlegger who owns a club. He gets a thug named Scorpio (Beery) to work in his gang, which is actually run by an attorney, Newton (Stone).

Scorpio manages to kill anybody in his way, including Franks and take over the organization. It will be up to the Secret Six - a group of masked businessmen to work to bring him and his team to justice.

Jean Harlow was something like 20 here - she plays a kept woman who falls in love with a reporter (Brown) who is killed by Scorpio. Gable is a rival reporter of Brown's. Gable is sans mustache and gives his role a lot of charm.

Who buys the liquor you! No! I make my own!

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 15 August 2011]

***SPOILERS*** The movie chronicles the rise and fall of big time hoodlum Louie "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio, Wallace Beery, who made no bones in what he wanted,total control of the town of Centro, and stopped short at nothing to get it! Slaughterhouse started small time nickel and diming his way through life in the Centro meat market until ,after he tried to set Slaughterhouse up, he knocked off his two timing boss Johnny Franks, Ralph Bellamy, and took control of his gang. Not stopping to catch his breath Slaughterhouse went for the jugular and got his hand picked and paid off candidate for Mayor Nickolaus "Big Nick" Mizoski, Paul Hurst, elected by having his boys stuff the ballot boxes. On top of all that Slaughterhouse had his #1 hit-man Dummy Metz, Murray Kennell, knock off his #1 rival in town oppression gang leader Smilling Joe Colimo, John Miljan, to considerate his power.

Despite Slaughterhouse's strong arm tactics in getting to the top the man who really got him there is mob shyster lawyer Richard "Newt" Newton played by Lewis Stone. It was Newt who used his shyster skills in court, as well as paying off and threatening jurors, to keep Slaughterhouse in business as well as keep his boys out of jail. In the meantime the city fathers were planning to put Slaughterhouse and his gang out of business by forming this secret committee called the "Secret Six". It's the shadowy "Secret Six" who's members wore Lone Ranger masks to hide their identities that was given total power by the City Fathers and law abiding people of Centro to do everything in their power to put an end to Slaughterhouse's reign of terror. It was up to hard hitting reporter Carl Luckner, played by Clark Gable without his famous mustache, to infiltrate Slaughterhouse's mob and get the goods on him, back taxes, that would put him away behind bars for as much as 10 to 15 years!

It was pretty blond Anne Courtland who worked as a cashier at Slaughterhouse's stake restaurant who finally got up enough courage to finger him in court as the man behind the non-stop crime-wave going on in Centro. With Slaughterhouse having Anne's boyfriend newspaper reporter Hank Rogers, Johnny Mac Brown, knocked off for knowing and talking too much in front of her eyes on the subway that she finally had enough of him going to the state D.A as well as Federal law enforcement to spill all she knows about his criminal enterprise.

***SPOILERS***What in fact did Slaughterhouse in was his own brainless violence in gunning down,in the back no less, the brains behind his operation big-time shyster Newt Newton! That's when Newt tried to smooth thing out when the hammer, the local state and federal law enforcement police, was about to land on his head. Instead of going along with Newt and checking out of town, and the country, with their ill gotten gains Slaughterhouse decided to duke or shoot it out with police which lead to his very predictable and ignominious downfall.

"What is beer, mama?"

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 13 September 2016]

MGM hits the streets with this Pre-Code gangster flick starring Wallace Beery as Slaughterhouse Scorpio, a thuggish stockyard worker turned racketeer. After rising from the bottom to the top, he eventually meets his match when the ever-dreaded "concerned citizens" form a vigilante group called The Secret Six. Despite the title, the Six figure into the plot very little and look positively ridiculous with their little silly masks on. Aside from being a nifty (and non-Warner Bros) gangster picture, it's interesting today for its supporting cast which includes Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, and Johnny Mack Brown, as well as the screen debut of Ralph Bellamy. Gable shines in his role. Lewis Stone is great as a gentlemanly attorney/crime boss (what would Judge Hardy say?!?). Wallace Beery is good fun as Scorpio, bringing a bit of humor to an otherwise serious film. It doesn't hurt that he was a bit of a bruiser in real life, so it's easy to buy him as a gangster. He has most of the movie's quotable lines. It's a good watch, especially if you love the old gangster pictures of the 1930s. This one isn't as gritty as many of the WB classics of the era (the vigilantes here only want to bring the criminals to trial, not kill them), but it is entertaining thanks to George Hill's nice direction and a terrific cast.

Great Cast

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Secret Six, The (1931)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

MGM gangster film should have been better under George Hill's direction with an amazing cast including Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Johnny Mack Brown and Ralph Belamy. Mastermind Stone sets up a gang led by Belamy but after a frame up goes wrong Beery takes over with a vengeance taking out anyone who gets in his way. Gable and Brown play reporters wanting to bring the gang down and Harlow is her usual mole sell. The film starts off with a terrific bang and gets off to a great start but things go way off track during the middle act when the gang tries to get elected into office. This here slows the action down and the other problem is that there are just way too many characters doing way too much for a short running time. However, even with all that said, it's impossible not to enjoy the movie due to the terrific cast with Stone stealing the way in a role, which is a lot like we saw from Brando years later in The Godfather.

Screen Heavies in a So-So Gangster Flick

[evanston_dad · 6/10 · 23 September 2016]

This early sound film from MGM is all over the place, cramming an awful lot of plot and a large group of characters into its lean running time. The result feels like the cinematic equivalent of an appetizer plate -- it gives us just enough of each character to want more but not enough to ever really satisfy us.

And what a shame, because those characters are played by a powerhouse cast who between them have enough screen presence to start a fire. Wallace Beery is the closest thing the film has to a main character, playing a lunkhead turned crime boss who's brought down by the Secret Six, a collective of government agents who are rooting out organized crime. Beery's performance is all over the map -- he can't decide whether he wants to play his character as a menacing hood or comic buffoon, so he takes turns playing it as both. Ralph Bellamy, in his first film role, is truly scary as the gang leader whose death grants Beery his promotion. Jean Harlow is that old gangster movie cliché, the moll with a heart of gold. Clark Gable is a sharp reporter who feeds intelligence to the government. And Marjorie Rambeau, in the smallest but in many ways most memorable role, is the wronged floozy who ultimately brings Beery to justice. Rambeau's boozy hysterics, especially in the scene where she turns Beery over to the police, are a sight to behold.

This film isn't anything special, and it's not the kind of film that would ever even have come across my radar had it not been for TCM. It's one of those movies that's more interesting as an artifact than it is for any entertainment value, but that doesn't mean it's a waste of time.

Grade: C+

Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Johnny Mack Brown ...and they're just the co-stars!!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 14 November 2008]

While Warner Bros. focused on the individual (Rico in "Little Ceasar", Tom Powers in "The Public Enemy") MGM's few early crime films were ensembles ("The Big House") and usually showing the action from the crime fighters' point of view ("The Secret Six", "The Beast of the City"). Frances Marion was quite amazing in her ability to deliver gritty and realistic dialogue - "The Big House" was not her only venture into crime - she also wrote the dialogue and story for "The Secret Six", an unusual crime melodrama from MGM.

Scorpio, nicknamed "Slaughterhouse" (Wallace Beery) is an abattoir worker who is talked into a life of crime by his friends, bootleggers Johnny (Ralph Bellamy) and Nick (Paul Hurst). The gang is run by philosophizing alcoholic lawyer Newton (Lewis Stone) and Slaughterhouse is ambitious to take over from Johnny. In a gun battle between a rival bootlegger, Smiling Joe Colimo's (John Miljan) kid brother is killed and Colimo vows revenge. Johnny tells Colimo that it was Slaughterhouse that killed his kid brother (even though it wasn't) - Johnny wants him out of the way, he is getting too ambitious. But Scorpio survives a shoot-out on the wharf and Johnny's days are numbered.

Time passes and "trigger happy" Scorpio is now the boss and under Newton's guidance, he invades the city. He is now wealthy and has also inherited "Peaches" (Marjorie Rambeau), Johnny's moll, although Scorpio now has his eyes on Anne.

Two newspaper reporters Carl (Clark Gable) and Hank (John Mack Brown, just loved his sweet southern accent) vie for the attentions of Anne (a ravishing Jean Harlow). There was such a rapport between Harlow and Gable - a real natural friendliness. This was the first of their 6 pairings. Unbeknownst to Hank, Carl is working with the "secret six" - "representing the greatest force for law and order in the United States" . Hank is also working on a hunch - that the same gun killed Johnny and Colimo - and goes to Scorpio's house to confront him. Snooping around, he finds the gun. Hank is shot dead on a train but not before Anne reveals her love.

She now insists on testifying against Scorpio - even at the risk of her life. When the jury retires there is much discussion - one of the jurors passes around a diamond encrusted cigarette case - a gift Scorpio uses to bribe people. He is found not guilty this time, but the "secret six" have an ace up their sleeve.

It is a ripping good story about the rise of a cold blooded killer - like "Little Caesar" but without the raw realism of that film. MGM went more for style.

Highly Recommended.

"Maybe you're traveling a little too fast for this gang."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 5 March 2016]

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way but I don't think the Secret Six had very much to do with the story. Quite late in the picture the masked tribunal is introduced as the greatest force for law and order in the country, formed to go up against the power of gangsters run amok. Once they come on the scene though they're gone just as quickly. Oh well, the title sounded cool anyway.

For all it's inconsistencies and outright gaffes though, this was a pretty entertaining picture. An opening scene shows 'Slaughterhouse' Scorpio (Wallace Beery) plying his trade by using a sledgehammer, presumably to whack a side of beef to death. Shortly after, he's shown leaving the plant with one of his buddies, and they're both dressed in suits and ties! Think about that one for a minute.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but the way Scorpio made his way up the ranks of the mob world seemed pretty peculiar to me, especially since his IQ seemed to place him at the lower end of the scale. I cracked up when he took out gang member Johnny Franks (Ralph Bellamy) with a burst of machine gun fire and when the camera panned back to him he was holding a revolver! Better yet, when reporter Hank Rogers (Johnny Mack Brown) filed his story with The Tribune, he stated that Franks had three bullets in his back. How did he know?

Say, did you catch the signage at Franks Steak House after Scorpio took over - 'Eighteenth Amendment Strictly Observed"! Just like a bootlegger to flaunt his support of Prohibition. I wouldn't have minded trying his twenty five cent chili though, I bet it was pretty good.

Well forget about the screwball stuff for a minute, this film has a cast list that would be the envy of most films of the era. Besides those already mentioned you have Lewis Stone, Jean Harlow, and Clark Gable, and they're just some of the supporting players. This might be the earliest picture I've seen Clark Gable in and it was uncanny how much he resembled a young George Clooney - check it out. Or if you're watching a Clooney flick, maybe he looks like a young Clark Gable - it works both ways.

As an early gangster flick, this MGM picture doesn't quite measure up to the ones Warner Brothers put out the same year 1931 - "Little Caesar" and "The Public Enemy", but I'd still recommend a viewing to see all the principals at work. You have to see the look on Scorpio's face when he knows he'll get the chair for his misdeeds, it's enough to write Grandma and Aunt Emma home about.

Not exactly Enid Blyton

[1930s_Time_Machine · 3/10 · 22 October 2022]

Unlike the Warner Brothers contemporaries, this has more of a documentary style about it. The husband and wife team of George Hill and Frances Marion tried to make this less sensationalist and more realistic but in doing so they sacrificed any back-story or emotional engagement with the characters. This gives this film a feeling of distance, somewhat similar to a crime reenactment tv programme. It doesn't really grab you and makes an hour and a half seem very long.

Like 'Scarface,' there's a message here but unlike'Scarface' it doesn't focus on the character but rather on the events; too many events in fact. Because Frances Marion had a lot to say, she tried to put a bit too much in her script and so cannot devote enough time exploring each idea. For example, the actual 'Secret Six' were real but they only appear in the film for about twenty seconds - who are they? What motivated them to become this bunch of vigilantes or whatever they are? What did they do? Why were they wearing silly masks? As they are portrayed in this they look like they've just been shoe-horned in during the edit.

Except for Clarke Gable and Jean Harlow in very minor roles, everyone is horrible and you cannot develop any empathy or care what happens to them. Even Gable and Harlow don't have fully developed characters so don't come across as real so the day after you've watched this you'll have forgotten what they did or even how terrible an actress Jean Harlow was (in this). Wallace Beery, Oliver Hardy's evil twin and inexplicably MGM's biggest star is particularly unpleasant as an absolute thug, which allegedly was not too far away from Beery's real personality.

Comedy content is almost zero but saved by having the most inadvertently hilarious back-projection to simulate driving on any movie. Laurel and Harry's 'County Hospital 'springs to mind!

MGM's try at a classic gangster picture.

[rickrudge · 8/10 · 31 January 2017]

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 won't be surprised if the script originated from a "Slaughterhouse"

[ksimkutch · 6/10 · 27 April 2017]

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.

Scorpio Rising

[AAdaSC · 5/10 · 28 July 2019]

Wallace Beery ((Slaughterhouse) rises up the ranks of the criminal world but he makes trouble for himself by being trigger-happy. He shoots people that he needs and there are women involved so you know to wait for some tell-tale shenanigans. Especially when gangster moll Jean Harlow (Anne) falls in love with reporter Johnny Mack Brown (Hank) who is trying to expose the gang. Marjorie Rambeau (Peaches) plays another moll who also holds a grudge. Alongside Johnny Mack is Clark Gable (Carl) who is a rival reporter and is enlisted by an influential group called the Secret Six to help stop the reign of gangster terror.

Well, the film crams too much in so it becomes involved and confusing. I'm afraid that despite watching the film a week ago, and the cast being pretty good, it doesn't really stick in the memory. Gable and Johnny Mack get to deliver annoying scenes where they talk over each other phoning their stories in. Just like all reporters do. Yawn. Cut! The film doesn't need this. There isn't any bad acting so the film should score more highly. It doesn't, though.

It's ok to watch - nothing more to say other than it should have been better given the cast that includes an impressive Ralph Bellamy (Johnny) playing against type as a gang leader.