El fraile impostor

Early in Ronald Reagan's career, he made some surprisingly good films such as LOVE IS ON THE AIR, BROTHER RAT and SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR. While they weren't exactly masterpieces, they were competently made and good B vehicles for the struggling young actor. However, among these films came the awful CODE OF THE SECRET SERVICE--ostensibly a follow-up to SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR, though the films really aren't all that similar (besides, CODE OF THE SECRET SERVICE was written by chimps, the other one was not).

Reagan once again plays the character "Brass Bancroft", though oddly, he isn't a pilot in this film nor does it have much to do with the last one--especially in tempo. Instead of an action-adventure film, this film lacks depth and has so many logical errors that it looks like a bad movie serial (such as SPY SMASHER) and condenses it all into one very brief movie. Again and again, characters defy logic and the plot is amazingly banal because the emphasis is on fist fights and guns like a bad B-Western--making Reagan seem to have the charisma of a tomato. Some examples of how bad it was were the plane Reagan rode on at the beginning of the film changed from a Lockheed airliner to a Douglas DC-3 (taking off as one and landing as the other), a car that whipped around corners on a dirt rode that sounded exactly like one on asphalt and Reagan almost getting killed again and again by the Mexican police yet all he had to do was show him his i.d. and let them know he was a US Secret Service agent!! The bottom line is that this is a super-bad B-picture that is bad enough it should be considered a "C-picture"--it's THAT bad. Warner Brothers should have been ashamed of themselves.

CODE OF THE SECRET SERVICE has RONALD REAGAN as an agent on the trail of counterfeiters in Mexico, with ROSELLA TOWNES as his co-star. She's pretty and earnest, resembling Lana Turner in her starlet days. Reagan handles all the action in a believable enough way, so it's surprising that the film was received so indifferently by some reviewers.

Actually, it resembles a cliffhanger that could have been used as a serial for Saturday afternoon programming in the kind of serial chapters that were used in the '30s and '40s to keep the kids in their seats. Reagan keeps finding himself and Townes in precarious situations that they have to use a little ingenuity to get out of, always escaping in time to keep one step ahead of villainous MORONI OLSEN.

Not bad at all, as these crime capers go, with Reagan and Townes both giving earnest performances in what feels like a Republic serial but is actually a Warner Bros. B-film with a brief running time.

Interesting mainly for a glimpse of early Reagan as action hero in a programmer.

Someone has stolen the plates used to make $100 bills, but don't worry, the Treasury Department is right on it. They know who has them, and where, and how thy're using acid to remove the ink from $1 bills so they can reprint them for enormous illegal profits. So they send Ronald Reagan, who speaks no Spanish down to Mexico across the river from Laredo, because that's how our government works. Fellow agent Charlie Foy tags along because someone has to get Reagan out of jail and make sure he hooks up with Rosella Towne. Besides, he's the brother of Bryan Foy, who runs Warner Brothers' B division. So there.

Cheaply shot by director Noel Smith, with mismatched shots and lack of attention to detail, this one was clearly intended for the Saturday matinee audience who wanted a break from the elevated performances of Gower Gulch oaters, and just wanted to see Reagan beat up Mexicans, and kiss a girl instead of a chimpanzee. It does that.

This is the second film Ronald Reagan made as Brass Bancroft, Secret Service agent, and according to Reagan the only film he made that he hated and refused to watch.

Reagan as a Secret Service agent is sent to Mexico to recover stolen Mint plates, along the way he becomes handcuffed to Rosella Towne, both of whom are going to be blown up when they escape at the last minute.

At under an hour this film is a strict programmer designed for the kiddies on a Saturday morning matinee.

It has an unbelievable plot, but it is not as bad as the film has been made out to be over the years. The producer, Bryan Foy, along with Reagan tried to stop Warner Brothers from releasing the film, and were successful in having the film released everywhere except Los Angeles.

Apparently when Reagan went to an out of town theater to see the film the ticket-taker said to Reagan "You should be ashamed," and Reagan promptly left the theater.

Code of the Secret Service (1939)

** (out of 4)

Follow up to SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR has Lt. Brass Bancroft (Ronald Reagan) trying to track down some counterfeiters. He tracks them to Mexico where they plant a murder wrap on him so Brass must escape the Mexican police while trying to do his job as well. I enjoyed the first film in the series but this one here was pretty bland from start to finish and the 58-minute running time seemed like triple that. According to the Robert Osborne introduction on TCM, Reagan was so worried this film would end his career that he begged Warner not to release it. In a compromise they agreed to release it everywhere except for Los Angeles since Reagan lived there. I don't think the film was that bad but it's still not that good. The biggest problem is that there's just no energy to the film. The first film plays out like a fun serial and this one goes for that effect but it fails because of the rather weak direction. Many films around this era dealt with money laundering and most of them handled it better than this. Eddie Foy, Jr. is certainly the best thing about the movie as he brings a few laughs. Reagan sleepwalks through the role and doesn't bring much to the film. Two more sequels would follow though.