Rowland Brown’ (1900-1963) directed three excellent films between 1931 and 1933, then all his script were refused and he spent all his life trying to find a producer for them.
This Quick Millions, one of Tracy’s first films, it was directed by Brown who was a former screen-writer (he wrote the screenplay for another good gangster-movie, Doorway to Hell, with James Cagney). the film is probably one of the most crude and critical gangster-movie of the time, where the relationships between the ‘mob’ and the business world are more clearly and courageously depicted. After this one he directed Hell’s Highway, a ‘chain gang film’, which was released some weeks before LeRoy’s Im a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, that is as (or even more) crude, rough and sadistic as LeRoy’s film. One of the co-screenwriter of this second film was Samuel Ornitz who in 1947 will be jailed for “anti-american activities”. Another story of censorship.
“Another gangster story, but written down to the bone and directed for evervthing it contains. Brown’s direction seems to follow the lines of least resistance for the maximum effect”. (Variety, 4/22/1931)