Sat 16 May 2009
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE SECRET SIX (1931).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[3] Comments
THE SECRET SIX. MGM, 1931. Wallace Beery, Clark Gable, Lewis Stone, Jean Harlow, Ralph Bellamy, Marjorie Rambeau, Johnny Mack Brown. Screenwriter: Frances Marion (later the author of a novelized edition). Director: George W. Hill.
I stumbled onto the last half of this crime film in Paris, while I was checking channels to find something other than the French-dubbed American TV series that seem to dominate French television.
The film was shown in the original English-language version and featured an impressive cast, as enumerated above, including Johnny Mack Brown in a non-Western role.
Beery and Stone form an unlikely pair as a crime Syndicate ganglord and a crooked lawyer opposed by a masked group of concerned citizens. Harlow is the good/bad girl, and Gable the undercover agent working to dethrone Beery and expose Stone.
Pre-classic-period MGM films don’t turn up on American TV these days, and it was a pleasure to see even part of this skillful thriller by another director previously unknown to me.
[EDITORIAL COMMENT.] This was written, of course, before Turner Classic Movies came along. The Dark Ages are over, and movies of the same era as The Secret Six can be seen on TV several times a week. Nor are films with stars such as this one obscure any longer, even if the stars weren’t stars at the time. With both Gable and Harlow in the film, it’s easy to find stills taken from it to go along with reviews like this one.
Here’s another:
May 16th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
The Secret Six is an interesting film in many ways. It’s a chance to see Gable and Harlow right before they became stars (it’s not often you see Gable as second lead to Johnny Mack Brown), or Ralph Bellamy a gangster and Lewis Stone the power behind the crook.
The plot is that old saw about the citizens’ vigilance committee set up to bring down the power of the gangs, only unknown to everyone the man behind the gangs is also the leader of the vigilance committee (also the plot of The Saint in New York), but elevated by a first class cast. Harlow is particularly good as the bad girl who falls for reporter Johnny Mack Brown and later helps his pal Gable bring down her boyfriend Beery and the real power, Stone.
This one has real energy for a talkie of this period, it isn’t shot with the too static camera that marks early talkies, and the performances, if a little broad, are perfect for the subject matter. Bellamy is clearly having fun playing a gangster (he played a few villains in his career, but only rarely), and Gable and Harlow both clearly saw this as a stepping stone to something else.
Johnny Mack Brown, who was a better actor than he’s given credit for, seems comfortable in the lead and for once out of cowboy costume. His fate is a real shocker, and sets up Gable as the avenging friend. Gable’s scenes with Harlow could almost come out of Black Mask. They have real snap and bite.
The screenplay is by pioneer female screenwriter Frances Marion, and there was also a novelization from Grosset and Dunlap replete with photos from the movie which is attributed to Marion.
Wallace Beery chews the scenery with typical zeal as the milk drinking brute who murders Bellamy and takes over the gang, and Stone is all smooth charm and steel as the man behind the crime spree. Though it’s old fashioned and a bit sluggish once in a while, the cast of pros keeps it boiling to the end, with a nice hardboiled touch in Gable’s last line.
The Secret Six is the same year as Public Enemy and a year after Little Ceasar, but a much more old fashioned film than either of those, more a throwback to the silent era than the new breed of gangster film ushered in by Robinson and Cagney’s portrayals. MGM clearly hadn’t quite figured out the formula that made Warner’s the king of the gangster pics. Still, it’s a easy film to watch and enjoy, both from a point of view of film history and as old fashioned entertainment. And it won’t take long to see what they mean by star power. Gable and Harlow dominate every scene they are in without the least effort, even when they are up against scene stealers like Beery, Stone, and Marjorie Rambeau.
May 16th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Another of my favorites. A great cast and Wallace Beery gives a fine performance as the milk drinking killer. I usually don’t like Beery and as a kid always referred to him as “Wallace Beerface”.
I’m a sucker for any movie with guys sitting around in masks or hoods. It’s so pulpish!
May 17th, 2009 at 12:35 am
The three of you have talked me into it. I’d never even heard of the movie before today, and it’s now at the top of my want list!
— Steve