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 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.

Despite the title, the Secret Six (a group of masked crime-fighting citizens) don't have much to do in this gangster thriller. On the other hand, it's a chance to see a young Clark Gable just a few years before MGM promoted him to super-stardom. As a probing newspaperman, he's billed way down in the cast list but gets more than ample time to show off his acting chops. Another surprise is Ralph Bellamy before he was sentenced to a life of losing the girl in countless comedies as an urbane mobster -- and he's surprisingly menacing. The star of the movie is Wallace Beery as a slaughterhouse worker turned mob boss and he does his usual job, growling, grimacing and chewing the scenery. Well worth watching in a genre that MGM usually left to Warner Bros.

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.