Quick Millions

"Quick Millions" is a shadow of better gangster films made the same year (Public Enemy and Little Caesar) but for all its awkwardness it grows with the viewing and is better the second time around.

Aesthetically, it is not an important film and explores only familiar territory. Still, there are unexpected delicious moments. The studio seemed to be trying to make Spencer Tracy into James Cagney with this turn as a racketeer trying to class himself up.

In film history, "Quick Millions" is important. It was Tracy's first starring role, and he needed it badly. It's not a common character for him and yet his skills at underplaying are clear and marvelous. For George Raft, who looks totally GQ in his every scene, this film was the direct reason he landed a similar henchman role in the terrific "Scarface," which proved to be his breakthrough. It also got him his contract with Paramount. Despite a rough beginning, Tracy and Raft became good friends while filming "Quick Millions." It's an interesting aspect, almost an unconscious battle of screen chemistry. Just try to keep your eyes off Raft doing absolutely nothing in the background except shifting his weight while you're supposed to be paying attention to Tracy's important dialogue with other characters.

What works: Great lighting direction during the holdup at the "testimonial dinner." Focus on Raft's legs while dancing at a party, which initially seems to be just showing off his deft moves but in fact is leading up to the next time we see his legs in a brilliantly shot murder scene. Surprising musical interludes. Tracy incorrigible and so believable in carrying the film.

What does not work: Ham-fisted camera work - even in '31 cinematography was advanced beyond this clumsiness. Long-winded anti-racketeering speeches. While dialogue is often sharp, the storytelling leaves gaps.

And watch out for a flip of the bird.

"What difference does it make whether laws are made by a bunch of lawyers for other lawyers to break, or whether they're made by hoodlums for other hoodlums?"

Your enjoyment of this weaker entry in the pre-Code gangster film space may depend on whether lots of little things when taken together add up to an enjoyable experience. For me, let me be clear, the scene with George Raft in his first credited role dancing at 41:15 was well worth the price of admission, and there were enough other moments in its 72 minute runtime that I came away happy.

One of the things the film reflected, two years into the Depression, was the age's deep cynicism for American institutions, like the banking industry and justice system. Spencer Tracy plays the main gangster and is shown in a sympathetic light, voicing lines like the one I started this review with. We see the corruption in the powerful men of society, and hear a citizen express "Why last night at dinner by own daughter said to me, we have the best judges that money can buy. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the attitude of the younger generation..." There are also statements about millionaire racketeers avoiding income taxes by hiding their money, public money being wasted on putting people in jail, and a cynicism that extends even to the newsreels, with a producer in a truck remarking, "Gee Andy, the audiences certainly ought to be tickled to death they don't have to listen to all the baloney that I do," before literally giving the finger to what he hears about the completion of wealthy man's construction project.

Tracy's character shakes down a big businessman by forcing him to pay a percentage on a building project, otherwise the trucks won't run and the mayhem he's causing won't stop. It seems to me he was standing in for the little guys during the Depression, those wishing they could stick it to the businessmen who played a part in cratering the economy, and were viewed as just as corrupt as these crooks.

That aspect worked for me, but overall, Tracy's character is portrayed in too good a light. Let's just say, the "gangster with a heart of gold" should be considered as weak a trope as the one for hookers. Oh, there are scenes of his strong-arm tactics to rise in the world of organized crime, like him smashing up cars so their owners will start using the garage whose owner he's "protecting," and him blowing up a trucker who won't fall in line as he amasses a monopoly on trucking, but they're brief. Meanwhile he looks out for the kids in the neighborhood, and draws the line at keeping an incriminating letter from a judge's lover that comes his way, one he could use as blackmail. "It might get him in bad with his old lady," he says while tearing it up. What a guy, right? He's got a classy office, with modern art on the walls and a fancy phone, and despite a few tough words, generally acts the gentleman (and too much so for my taste). There was a fantastic moment when his ex-girlfriend (Sally Eilers) slapped him hard across the face, which is shown, but his reaction, which is to knock her to the floor, is not, softening the impact.

Tracy's actions are also shown as having positive benefits, e.g. Intimidating the foremen of the workers to have the steel girders in place on the building before a critical date when he says they might not make it. He's also far better than what we see out of his old buddy Nails (Warner Richmond) when the latter tries to take over the mob. He's got all the bases covered, running his various schemes, and says with a smile to a woman he's trying to woo, "Racketeering is just getting what the other guy's got, in a nice way." Gosh, perhaps Trump et al will use this line of defense.

George Raft as his right-hand man is also not menacing enough, though he has some nice moments aside from the stellar dancing bit, including the scene where he tries to pick up a secretary (Dixie Lee). "Say baby, what do you with your spare moments?" he asks. "I like to go to wrestling matches," she sarcastically replies, making 'wrestling' sound like 'wrassling.' After he commits a murder, he walks through a hotel lobby and looks like someone who's guilty but trying to be as casual as possible. You can certainly see why he got more parts, including of course Scarface the following year. It's pretty funny that the real-life gangster who may have played a role in getting Raft in this film, Owney Madden, is referenced in a horse racing tip (Owney M in the 5th race).

Despite the film being pre-Code, the moral forces of the community rise up, but this felt very much unforced, and like a natural reaction. It was refreshing that the daughter of the businessman (Marguerite Churchill) was a strong character, and stood up to the gangster, despite his overture of a $12,000 square-cut diamond ($241,000 in 2023 dollars). Still, the scenes they have together, like Tracy making a five-cushion finesse carom in billiards, or hitting a nice golf shot by pitching out of a sand trap while she looks on in her fetching golfing outfit, were enjoyable. I also loved that little folk song we get from one of Nails' gang near the end (I wish I knew who this was, or where the song came from):

"When I was a boy / I was the pride and joy / Of my folks way down in Arkansas / I left my old hometown / Bad company I found / I done some things that was against the law / There's one thing I've been taught / You're right until you're caught / As long as I'm free I'm gonna do just what I choose."

PUBLIC ENEMY, SCARFACE and LITTLE CAESAR are the ones we all know but this one should definitely be on that same shelf. If you like 'the big three' you're bound to like this as well. Is it as good? Not quite but still a must see for any old gangster fans.

This was so obviously made in America in 1931 which was not a happy place. Filmmaker Rowland Brown was very much part of that seedy and dangerous world and it was his mission to show everyone the reality of how he saw life. His film is therefore quite pessimistic - it offers no answer or way out of the escalating problem of crime and corruption which to so many people back then seemed unstoppable. In one scene someone says that in twenty years time, America will no longer be a democracy but a land ruled by gangsters,hoodlums and petty warlords. This film is about that society so there's not many smiles per minute!

Although a very talented writer - his DOORWAY TO HELL really was one of the very best of the early thirties gangster pictures (better than LITTLE CAESAR) but as a director he was more an enthusiastic amateur than a filmmaker. This film is packed with so much story that it doesn't quite allow enough time to develop the characters. As is often the case with first movies, he possibly tries to squeeze too many ideas into his seventy minutes? This is the first film he directed and it unfortunately shows. He doesn't quite manage to make his actors into real people. Marguerite Churchill, for example, one of the most beautiful actresses ever to grace the screen is completely wasted in this - she only has about ten lines. Her role is just decoration. And "For the ladies" there's George Raft - again we don't get to know him.

The big, big, big difference between this and the thirties' best gangster movie, PUBLIC ENEMY is that William Wellman's film was about a person you could relate to. It had focus. Cagney's character wasn't exactly likeable but you felt you knew enough about him to want to know more. You could understand why he was the way he was. Spencer Tracy doesn't feel like someone you'd want to know - he's thoroughly unpleasant.

In summary, this is a well-made film, it's watchable, interesting and entertaining but to be critical, it does lack emotional engagement. Like Brown's (excellent) DOORWAY TO HELL (and also SCARFACE), this invests most of its effort into reflecting early thirties society than telling us about the characters and what makes them tick. As a time machine it's brilliant in transporting you, body and soul to the grimy, gritty and dangerous streets of 1931. If you want a sense of that era, this is perfect.

1931 was a bumper crop year featuring up and coming movie stars (Cagney, Robinson, Tracy) who would become legends doing gangster turns, followed in 32 by Paul Muni in Scarface. While Robinson and Cagney scored in in Little Caser and Public Enemy respectively, Spencer Tracy in Quick Millions proved he was more at home with virtue than vice.

Truck driver with a sense of ambition, Bugs Raymond (Tracy) organizes drivers with some muscle and is soon running a sweet protection racket across the city. Working his way up the food chain he garners respectability and a desire to marry the upper crust daughter (Sarah Churchill) of his extorted, legitimate partner. When she rejects him he hatches an absurd plan to whisk her away, giving his former mob pals an opportunity to exploit his power.

Tracy simply is not up to the iconic mobster performances delivered by the aforementioned actors getting their starts. Too measured in his rage he lacks the operatic pretense of Rico, the natural smart alecky ways of Cagney, the disturbing incestuous lunacy of Muni to be absorbing and put spark into the picture. Margurite Churchill as the love interest also does the picture no favors with a flat performance while Sally Eilers as Daisy and George Raft as a triggerman give plus performances.

Directed by the supposedly talented but temperamental Rowland Brown and lensed by underrated Joe August, Millions displays some moments of fine mise en scene, but in total this is lack luster Spence, an actor more at home on the side of decency than immorality. More adept at hearing confessions than giving them.

Roland Brown the director was a hell of a guy. He had ties with the underworld, was a boxing sparring partner for Jack Dempsey, he knocked down a producer.... So, he was not the common bland film maker. This one is his first film, the first of a short list of features. It is a light hearted crime drama, but not a comedy. Not a pure gangster film either. However I was so surprised to see Spencer Tracy co starring George Raft, one year before SCARFACE. Spencer Tracy in a role not so far from Sylvester Stallone in F. I. S. T, a bleak character. But I would have prefered a grittier movie. I expected a bit more from Rowland Brown, maybe because of his reputation, hard boiled reputation.