***SPOILERS*** The movie chronicles the rise and fall of big time hoodlum Louie "Slaughterhouse" Scorpio, Wallace Beery, who made no bones in what he wanted,total control of the town of Centro, and stopped short at nothing to get it! Slaughterhouse started small time nickel and diming his way through life in the Centro meat market until ,after he tried to set Slaughterhouse up, he knocked off his two timing boss Johnny Franks, Ralph Bellamy, and took control of his gang. Not stopping to catch his breath Slaughterhouse went for the jugular and got his hand picked and paid off candidate for Mayor Nickolaus "Big Nick" Mizoski, Paul Hurst, elected by having his boys stuff the ballot boxes. On top of all that Slaughterhouse had his #1 hit-man Dummy Metz, Murray Kennell, knock off his #1 rival in town oppression gang leader Smilling Joe Colimo, John Miljan, to considerate his power.
Despite Slaughterhouse's strong arm tactics in getting to the top the man who really got him there is mob shyster lawyer Richard "Newt" Newton played by Lewis Stone. It was Newt who used his shyster skills in court, as well as paying off and threatening jurors, to keep Slaughterhouse in business as well as keep his boys out of jail. In the meantime the city fathers were planning to put Slaughterhouse and his gang out of business by forming this secret committee called the "Secret Six". It's the shadowy "Secret Six" who's members wore Lone Ranger masks to hide their identities that was given total power by the City Fathers and law abiding people of Centro to do everything in their power to put an end to Slaughterhouse's reign of terror. It was up to hard hitting reporter Carl Luckner, played by Clark Gable without his famous mustache, to infiltrate Slaughterhouse's mob and get the goods on him, back taxes, that would put him away behind bars for as much as 10 to 15 years!
It was pretty blond Anne Courtland who worked as a cashier at Slaughterhouse's stake restaurant who finally got up enough courage to finger him in court as the man behind the non-stop crime-wave going on in Centro. With Slaughterhouse having Anne's boyfriend newspaper reporter Hank Rogers, Johnny Mac Brown, knocked off for knowing and talking too much in front of her eyes on the subway that she finally had enough of him going to the state D.A as well as Federal law enforcement to spill all she knows about his criminal enterprise.
***SPOILERS***What in fact did Slaughterhouse in was his own brainless violence in gunning down,in the back no less, the brains behind his operation big-time shyster Newt Newton! That's when Newt tried to smooth thing out when the hammer, the local state and federal law enforcement police, was about to land on his head. Instead of going along with Newt and checking out of town, and the country, with their ill gotten gains Slaughterhouse decided to duke or shoot it out with police which lead to his very predictable and ignominious downfall.
Despite Slaughterhouse's strong arm tactics in getting to the top the man who really got him there is mob shyster lawyer Richard "Newt" Newton played by Lewis Stone. It was Newt who used his shyster skills in court, as well as paying off and threatening jurors, to keep Slaughterhouse in business as well as keep his boys out of jail. In the meantime the city fathers were planning to put Slaughterhouse and his gang out of business by forming this secret committee called the "Secret Six". It's the shadowy "Secret Six" who's members wore Lone Ranger masks to hide their identities that was given total power by the City Fathers and law abiding people of Centro to do everything in their power to put an end to Slaughterhouse's reign of terror. It was up to hard hitting reporter Carl Luckner, played by Clark Gable without his famous mustache, to infiltrate Slaughterhouse's mob and get the goods on him, back taxes, that would put him away behind bars for as much as 10 to 15 years!
It was pretty blond Anne Courtland who worked as a cashier at Slaughterhouse's stake restaurant who finally got up enough courage to finger him in court as the man behind the non-stop crime-wave going on in Centro. With Slaughterhouse having Anne's boyfriend newspaper reporter Hank Rogers, Johnny Mac Brown, knocked off for knowing and talking too much in front of her eyes on the subway that she finally had enough of him going to the state D.A as well as Federal law enforcement to spill all she knows about his criminal enterprise.
***SPOILERS***What in fact did Slaughterhouse in was his own brainless violence in gunning down,in the back no less, the brains behind his operation big-time shyster Newt Newton! That's when Newt tried to smooth thing out when the hammer, the local state and federal law enforcement police, was about to land on his head. Instead of going along with Newt and checking out of town, and the country, with their ill gotten gains Slaughterhouse decided to duke or shoot it out with police which lead to his very predictable and ignominious downfall.