Overrated and overhyped

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

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.

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.

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.