The Secret Six

83 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget$494,000^[1]Box office$994,000^[1]

The Secret Six is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film starring Wallace Beery as "Slaughterhouse Scorpio", a character very loosely based on Al Capone, and featuring Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Marjorie Rambeau and Ralph Bellamy. The film was written by Frances Marion and directed by George W. Hill for MGM.

Plot

Bootlegger Johnny Franks recruits a crude working man called Louis "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio as part of the gang of mob boss and lawyer Richard "Newt" Newton. Scorpio eventually becomes head of the organization himself. Then he is prosecuted by a secret group of six masked crime fighters, aided by newspaper reporters Carl Luckner and Hank Rogers.

Cast (in credits order)

• Wallace Beery as Louis 'Slaughterhouse' Scorpio
• Lewis Stone as Richard 'Newt' Newton
• John Mack Brown as Hank Rogers
• Jean Harlow as Anne Courtland
• Marjorie Rambeau as Peaches
• Paul Hurst as Nick 'The Gouger' Mizoski
• Clark Gable as Carl Luckner
• Ralph Bellamy as Johnny Franks
• John Miljan as Smiling Joe Colimo
• DeWitt Jennings as Chief Donlin
• Murray Kinnell as 'Dummy' Metz (alias of Fink)
• Fletcher Norton as Jimmy Delano
• Louis Natheaux as Eddie
• Frank McGlynn Sr. as Judge
• Theodore von Eltz as District Attorney Keeler
• Charles Giblyn ... Mr. Simms - Ballistics Expert (uncredited)
• Joseph W. Girard ... Official (uncredited)
• Tom London ... Blackjacking Gangster (uncredited)
• George Magrill ... Police Guard at Jailhouse (uncredited)
• Lee Phelps ... Smelts - Waiter (uncredited)
• Hector Sarno ... Finko (uncredited)

Context

The film was Ralph Bellamy's first screen role in what became a six-decade career. Despite being billed seventh in the cast, Clark Gable has more screen time than this implies, and much greater impact. Beery and Gable made Hell Divers (1932) the following year, this time with Gable's role and billing almost as large as Beery's. Beery, Harlow and Gable would work together again four years later in the epic seafaring adventure China Seas (1935), only with their billing reversed and all three names (Gable, Harlow and Beery) above the title.

Box-office

According to MGM records, the film earned $708,000 in the US and Canada and $286,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $148,000.^[1]

References

External links

• The Secret Six at IMDb
• The Secret Six at AllMovie
• The Secret Six at the TCM Movie Database
• The Secret Six at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films