Quick Millions (1931)

James Cagney attacking Mae Clarke with a grapefruit in Warner Bros.' The Public Enemy (1931) is disturbing enough, but the sight of Spencer Tracy slugging Sally Eilers in Quick Millions from that same year is downright shocking. This, of course, is not the Tracy of later MGM years, the rough-around-the-edges but basically decent guy who would gently spar with the likes of Jean Harlow and Katharine Hepburn. The Tracy at Fox is more like a first cousin of the Warner Bros. gangsters and here he is even accompanied by George Raft. Rowland Brown knew how to both write and stage violence for optimal effect, and it is a shame that his directorial career proved so brief. (Allegedly, Brown was demoted to screenwriting after slugging producer Winfield R. Sheehan.) With Brown at the helm, Quick Millions positively oozes violence even though its characters at least attempt to better themselves. It doesn't work of course -- it never did -- and Eilers is punished mainly because she isn't Marguerite Churchill, the debutante meant to advance Tracy's entry into society. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide