Wednesday Morning, Crime Central?

[Mr. Arkadin]

Lots of crime films coming on Wednesday morning:


Law of the Underworld (1938)
The Finger Points (1931)
Baby Face Harringtion (1935)
Lady Scarface (1942)
Doorway to Hell (1930)
Special Agent (1935)
Beast of the City (1932)
The Secret Six (1931)

I am familar with and have G-Man and Brother Orchid, but I don't know that I have seen some of these other films. Can anyone give me a rundown on them?

[dfordoom]

Beast of the City is interesting in that the good guy is so obsessed with getting the bad guy that he becomes just as dangerous and creates just as much mayhem! With Walter Huston being very obsessive indeed, as only he could. Jean Harlow is excellent in a serious supporting role.

[Dewey1960]

None of these pictures rise to the level of PUBLIC ENEMY or LITTLE CAESAR, but then why should they be expected to? BEAST OF THE CITY is the best of that lot; the rest (of the ones I've seen at least) are entertaining without being particularly notable. THE SECRET SIX was always a film that eluded me; it never seemed to play on TV back when I was a kid. But the title and the cast fascinated me and I became obessessed with seeing it. I finally caught up with it (on TCM about ten years ago) and was pretty disappointed. LADY SCARFACE is a perfectly watchable "B" picture; DOORWAY TO HELL is a bit over the top in ways that only early 30s gangster picutres can be. All in all a fun line-up, provided your expectations don't run too high.

[MissGoddess]

I've set my vcr to record most of them. I mainly am interested in seeing James Cagney and Clark Gable in early roles. I watched The Finger Points this morning and had to laugh a little at the contrast between Richard Barthlemess and Gable. Here is the turn of the tide happening right in front of us: the old style movie hero getting shoved aside in audience popularity for the new, not so nice, dangerous even, but intensely alive type in the (hulking) form of Gable (RB practically looks like a midget next to him, psychologically and physically), as well (in other films) as the electric Cagney, snarling Bogart and Robinson. Fascinating!