Stubs - The Secret Six

 

The Secret Six (1931) Starring: Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown Directed by George Hill. Screenplay by Frances Marion. Producer: Irving Thalberg. Run time: 83 minutes. USA Black and White. Drama. Gangster.

1931 seems to be the beginning of the gangster genre in Hollywood with the release of three films that sort of set the standards for the genre: Scarface, Little Caesar and The Public Enemy. Not wanting to be left out of the trend, MGM released their first such film that same year, The Secret Six.

According to Variety, writing about the film at the time it was being made, several elements of this film are traceable to actual gangster activities of the time and about a group of rich vigilantes who helped take down mobsters in 1930’s Chicago. While the film is not hailed by critics the way the other three films were, The Secret Six is notable for other reasons. The film marks the debut of actor Ralph Bellamy and the rise of both Clark Gable and Jean Harlow on their way towards stardom.

Louis Scorpio (Wallace Beery) works at Slaughter House at the beginning of The Secret Six.

The film takes place during Prohibition, in a town called Centro. Louis Scorpio (Wallace Beery), a stockyard worker in the small town of Centro is recruited by his friend Johnny Franks (Ralph Bellamy) to join him and Nick Mizoski (Paul Hurst) on a caper. Louis, who makes $35 a week, is offered $150 for a night’s work. However, things go awry when the authorities raid the distillery they’re touring.

Ralph Bellamy makes his screen debut as Johnny Franks.

They escape and return to headquarters, where Newton (Lewis Stone), the bootleggers' boss, promises to take care of things. He also appears to be an attorney, as throughout the film he offers to get his men out of jail the next day.

Lewis Stone appears as gang leader Newton.

Later, when Newton is dividing the gang's most recent profits, it appears that Scorpio, also sometimes referred to as “Slaughter House” as a reference to his part profession, is not only a gang member, but is now a rival to Johnny for leadership. Newton informs his men that he plans to muscle in on bootlegger Joe Colimo's (John Miljan) territory as their next job. They head to a speakeasy to put the pressure on an owner to buy their beer.

Scorpio flirts with Peaches (Marjorie Rambeau), who is Johnny's girl.

On the way out, Johnny is obviously in a romantic relationship with Peaches (Marjorie Rambeau), who works at the Slaughter House that serves as the gang’s cover. But Scorpio also flirts with her and that upsets her, which draws a warning from Johnny.

Things are about to go south when Newton's gang tries to sell beer in Colimo's territory.

When Colimo learns that Johnny and his henchmen are trying to force a bartender working in his territory to buy his liquor from them, he sends Eddie (Louis Natheaux), one of his gunmen, along with five other men to take care of the matter. Even though he warns his younger brother not to go, he manages to be included. When the gangs confront each other, a shootout ensues, which results in Johnny killing Colimo's brother.

Johnny and Scorpio flee to Newton's. Johnny sends Scorpio on an errand sending him down the port. Even though he resents being ordered around, he still goes.

Johnny blames Scorpio for a murder he committed.

Soon after, Colimo comes looking for his brother's killer. Even though Newton’s gang is growing, Colimo still has sway. Seeing a chance to get rid of a rival, Johnny tells Colimo that Scorpio killed his brother and tells him where he can find him. As a result, the Colimo mob shoots, but only slightly wounds Scorpio, who returns to Newton's.

Scorpio shoots and kills Johnny for setting him up.

It is only after he gets there and sees that his milk, the only thing he drinks, has been thrown out, as if they weren’t expecting him to return. In order to get revenge, Scorpio shoots Johnny and considers shooting Newton, but the police burst in and he escapes. Johnny’s murder is blamed on someone else. Peaches becomes hysterical when she sees Johnny’s dead body.

Carl (Clark Gable) and Hank (John Mack Brown) are rivals for the attention of Anne Courtland (Jean Harlow).

 

Meanwhile, Carl (Clark Gable) and Hank (John Mack Brown), reporters from rival newspapers, arrive on the scene and compete for the murder story. Both men are also rivals for the attentions of Anne Courtland (Jean Harlow), another Newton moll who works the cash register.

 

Hank appears to win her affection, even though Anne is hired by Scorpio to keep the reporters off the gangsters' trail.

Once Scorpio gains a position of power in the bootlegging racket, he orchestrates Mizoski's Centro mayoral election victory. One of Mizoski's first acts is to fire the chief of police, who promises to continue his fight to avenge his son's murder by running the hoodlums out of town. Colimo comes to arrange a possible truce with Scorpio, who sends Metz (Murray Kinnell), a deaf-mute called The Dummy, to kill him.

Anne comes clean with Hank, but he still breaks up with her.

When Scorpio tries to bribe Hank with a monogrammed cigarette case filled with thousand-dollar bills, he learns that Anne was on the take to date him. Even though she’s changed her mind and genuinely loves him, he still breaks it off with her.

The Secret Six wear masks to protect their identity.

Scorpio now sets his sights on the big city. In response to the arrival of Scorpio's gang, a special police force is created, which calls itself the "Secret Six", comprised of six masked men representing the "greatest force of law and order in the U.S."

The force enlists Carl to gather evidence against Scorpio and the mob, but he is instructed to wait until all the gangsters are in town before making any arrests.

During a gang celebration, Hank breaks in and snoops around the office looking for clues, we have to assume. Anne finds him and pleads with him to leave, but despite the warning, Scorpio sees him leaving his office. Carl, who is there undercover, tries to save his old friend by making up a story that he had invited him, but Scorpio isn’t fooled. After Carl escorts Hank out, Scorpio sends a hit squad to kill him.

Hank is shot dead by Scorpio's henchmen on a subway car.

Knowing this, Anne runs after Hank and onto a subway car to warn him, but is too late. As soon as she tells Hank that she loves him, the lights on the train go out and a shot kills him.

Scorpio is about to be arrested at Hank's funeral.

At Hank’s funeral, Scorpio is arrested for his murder. He is jailed without bail and forced to watch as Metz cracks under police pressure and agrees to testify against him at trial.

Metz (Murray Kinnell), thought to have been a deaf-mute, agrees to testify against Scorpio.

Also testifying against him is Anne. She testifies that she heard Scorpio threaten to kill Hank. Scorpio, who has an in on the jury, bribes the other members and buys his not guilty verdict. While the judge angrily calls the verdict a miscarriage of justice, he still lets him go.

After testifying against him, Anne is roughed up by Scorpio's henchmen.

Scorpio has Anne grabbed and roughed up and has Carl brought to him. Carl is hit over the head and interrogated about the identities of the Secret Six. Both Anne and Carl are about to be taken for a ride when the police arrive laden with local, state, and federal warrants for the arrests of the gang members.

When the shooting begins, Newton and Scorpio try to escape. Newton takes the cash on hand and Scorpio wants his share. He doesn’t buy Newton’s promise to meet him later and shoots and kills him. The police surround him and he seeks refuge in Peaches’ apartment. She hides him and locks him in her closet and then turns him over to the police, her last revenge for his killing Johnny.

Peaches gets her revenge by hiding and then locking Scorpio in her closet so the police can arrest him.

 

This time, Scorpio and his men are soon imprisoned and condemned to death row.

Carl makes arrangements for the Secret Six to take care of Anne. He seems eager to find another line of work before he gets a call about another salacious murder and he hurries off to cover it.

Watching the film, the first thing you might notice is that you rarely see Ralph Bellamy play gangsters. It somehow seems to be casting against type for an actor who would later be best known for his supporting roles in such films as The Awful Truth (1937) and His Girl Friday (1940). In both, he would play Cary Grant’s rival for the affections of the leading lady. And, not surprisingly, in both would he lose. Bellamy was a very busy film actor through the 1930s and early 1940s. He would appear in films like Brother Orchid (1940), The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), and Lady on a Train (1945) amongst many other films. Bellamy would move on to TV in the 1950s.

Bellamy might have made his debut in the film, but Clark Gable was the one seeing his career on the rise because of it. The original part of Carl was rather small, but as filming went on, Irving Thalberg had his part increased to the point that his role ended up being three times longer than originally written. Gable had come to Hollywood, but initially only garnered extra roles in such films as Erich von Stroheim's The Merry Widow (1925), The Plastic Age (1925) starring Clara Bow, and Forbidden Paradise (1924) starring Pola Negri. He graduated to larger roles in such films as Night Nurse (1931) at Warner Bros. before moving to MGM.

He may have had seventh billing in this film, but later that year he would have his first leading role in Dance, Fools, Dance opposite Joan Crawford. His leap to superstar was only a year away with Red Dust (1932) opposite another Secret Six co-star Jean Harlow.

When Harlow made The Secret Six, she was still under contract to Howard Hughes, having made his Hell’s Angels (1929). When Hughes tired of her, MGM put her under contract and she was soon on her way to stardom.

All three of these young actors do good work. Bellamy is believable as a gangster, though this would not necessarily be typical roles for his career. Gable already has the charisma that would make him “The King of Hollywood” and the camera loves Jean Harlow.

But the star of the film is easily Wallace Beery. He was already a star at MGM and he was very popular with audiences. The Secret Six was a hit, but was overshadowed at the box-office by another Beery film, The Champ. Beery, in private, was much like he was on screen, per Harlow’s biography Platinum Blonde, “violent, coarse, and outspoken, greatly talented but a bane to costars and employers alike... A veteran of every form of show business, he did not take kindly to sharing the spotlight with an untested upstart, and his natural contempt for women asserted itself." He was apparently obnoxious during the film, especially towards Harlow. As her biography states, “The two detested each other.”

Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow apparently detested each other.

Also with a prominent role was Lewis Stone, playing Newton. Again, for a man best known for being Judge Hardy in the Andy Hardy series with Mickey Rooney, it seems to be a bit against type. However, Stone was a versatile actor and seems up to the role, though it seems itself to be uneven. I’m not sure if he’s the gang leader or its lawyer. He also comes off in the first scene as a bit of a drunk, though that’s not really played out later.

Interestingly, despite the title, the Secret Six themselves have a very small presence in the film, not appearing until more than halfway through and even then, in Lone Ranger-type masks and with very little lines of dialogue.

Released on April 18, 1931, The Secret Six would make back double its $494,000 budget, bringing in $994,000. The profit was $148,000. The film proved so successful in its portrayal of violence that it was banned in some areas including the state of New Jersey, while other local censors cut what they considered to be objectionable scenes.

In his review of the film, Mordaunt Hall at The New York Times, notes the Beery “handles the role of a milk-drinking thug, whose business or racket is beer, with the same excellent sense of humor he displayed in his part in The Big House." While Harlow and Gable gets mentions, Hall’s review does not make note of Bellamy’s part in the film. He does note “George Hill's direction is splendid. The picture moves along swiftly and the dialogue is quite well written.”

The dialogue is pretty snappy, but the plot is all over the place and the main character is as well. Scorpio starts out like a regular guy, a milk drinker at that, who takes to the violence and corruption fairly easily. Maybe he’s numbed from his time working in a Slaughter House, but he never really has any regrets until he shoots Newton, the one man that has been able to protect him.

While I enjoyed the film, it wasn’t without its issues. The film, even with its violence, lacks the grittiness of a Warner Brothers gangster film. It was interesting to see the stars of the future just on the precipice of greatness and if you’re of a like mind, then you will want to see The Secret Six.