The Secret 6 *** (1931, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Johnny Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Ralph Bellamy) – Classic Movie Review 7198

A classy roster of actors embellishes director George W Hill’s 1931 gangster crime thriller The Secret 6, which tells a traditional tale of gangland warfare, bribery and corruption, and the rival crusading reporters (Johnny Mack Brown, Clark Gable) who try to break the story. The reporters work with a group of six businessmen to expose the bootlegger who is systematically eliminating his gangland competition.

The Secret 6 stars Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone and Johnny Mack Brown, but two superstars of the next decade appear in their first film together here before their biggest successes. Gable as Carl Luckner and Jean Harlow as the waitress/ gangster’s moll Anne Courtland are delightful. And Lewis Stone is strong as the boozy, crooked criminal defense attorney at law Richard Newton, but full praise must go to Wallace Beery, whose charismatic performance as the bootlegging racketeer Louis ‘Slaughterhouse’ Scorpio is the backbone of the drama. Ralph Bellamy plays the bootlegger who recruits Scorpio to join his gang, masterminded by Newton.

Also in the cast are Marjorie Rambeau as Peaches, John Miljan, Paul Hurst, DeWitt Jennings, Murray Kinnell, Fletcher Norton, Frank McGlynn Sr, Theodore Von Eltz, Tom London and Louis Natheaux.

The Secret 6 is directed by George W Hill, runs 83 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Frances Marion (story and dialogue), shot in black and white by Harold Wenstrom, and produced by George W Hill and Irving Thalberg, with production design by Edgar G Ulmer.

Gable and Harlow went on to be a brilliantly successful team and make six films together, including The Secret Six (1931), Red Dust (1932), Hold Your Man (1933), China Seas (1935) and Wife vs Secretary (1936), up to her last movie, Saratoga (1937).

Harlow had already had her big break at age 19 in 1930’s Hell’s Angels.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7198

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