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The Secret Six

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For other uses, see Secret Six (disambiguation).

The Secret Six
Directed byGeorge W. Hill
Written byFrances Marion
Produced byGeorge W. Hill
Irving Thalberg
StarringWallace Beery
Lewis Stone
John Mack Brown
Jean Harlow
Clark Gable
Ralph Bellamy
Marjorie Rambeau
CinematographyHarold Wenstrom
Edited byBlanche Sewell
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • April 18, 1931 (1931-04-18)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$494,000[1]
Box office$994,000[1]
Jean Harlow and Clark Gable in The Secret Six

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

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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)

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Context

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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.

Harlow and Gable would work together in five other films, Red Dust (1932), Hold Your Man (1933), China Seas (1935), Wife vs. Secretary (1936) and Saratoga (1937).[2]

Harlow and Lewis Stone would work together in four other films, Red-Headed Woman (1932), The Girl from Missouri (1934), China Seas (1935) and Suzy (1936).[3]

Box-office

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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

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  1. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  2. ^ "Advanced search". IMDb.
  3. ^ "Advanced search". IMDb.
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