Accidents Will Happen

Over the years I seemed to have missed this picture of Ronald Reagan, and due to his recent passing to the big screen in heaven, it was shown on TV recently. This is a great low budget B&W film of the late 1930's, however, it is very interesting to see how criminals used their talents to steal money from insurance companies with false claims during this particular time frame. I was surprised at the role Ronald Reagan,(Eric Gregg),"The Killer's,'64, played in this picture, along with a great veteran film star, Sheila Bromley,(Nona Gregg),"Nightmare Circus",'73, who was a great supporting actor. It was a great film that showed Ronald Reagan as a very young man reaching for the stars in his career in Hollywood at the time. God Bless HIM !

It would seem a given, but if a viewer forgets context, he risks missing an opportunity of enjoyment.

It is easy to carp, from the lofty heights of the 21st century, at styles and prices of the Great Depression years; but the intelligent viewer will remember that magic word, "context," and better understand and, thus, enjoy "Accidents Will Happen."

Among the actors, Ronald Reagan again showed himself a good-looking and personable guy, and again gave a right-on performance.

A reviewer earlier said Gloria Blondell played the nasty wife, but that was wrong: She plays the concession-stand clerk who has a crush on the Reagan character, Eric Gregg, but keeps hands off as long as he is married.

Gloria was cute. Not as lushly beautiful as her sister, Joan, she was still attractive and a good actress. Perhaps her looking somewhat like Joan was a detriment to having a more successful career, and it is certainly our loss.

Sheila Bromley was Mrs. Gregg, and played it well.

Other actors included Dick Purcell, and the great Earl Dwire got to play something besides a villainous cowboy.

Again, most of the players never attained the "household-name" status many of them deserved, but they by gosh gave good performances here, in a story that is still current.

Ronald Reagan stars in this B feature from Warner Brothers Accidents Will Happen about an honest insurance claims investigator who's a bit too good at his job. So he gets set up good and proper by some insurance racketeers who use his wife Sheila Bromley as part of the set up.

It's a good part for Reagan solidifying his nice guy image that the Warner Brothers were giving him. Bromley's a hateful and spiteful spouse and has some good scenes herself. The girl for Ronnie is Gloria Blondell playing a part that would have fit older sister Joan in the studios more expensive A films.

I have to say Reagan sets the villains up nicely for their final comeuppance.

Good, but routine programmer.

Even though this was an absolute B-picture (which might have even been a double-feature back in the day), the premise was actually interesting. Ronald Reagan plays an insurance investigator who find out whether or not the claims were indeed inspired by accidents. It's incredible the lengths people will go to, to try and get an insurance settlement. In the film, there's a main ringleader who engineers incredible schemes, including planting phony witnesses at the scene, in order to film a claim.

Clocking in at only an hour, this instructional flick shows that corruption can be found everywhere. If you liked Glenn Ford's early drama Babies for Sale, you might like this one. It's a different setting, obviously, but both feature virtuous young men who try to find the truth and root out corruption in an easily corruptible field. It's sad that decades and decades later, there is still insurance fraud; but I guess Ronald Reagan couldn't fix everything!

Ronald Reagan plays Eric Gregg, up-and-coming (he hopes) insurance investigator. Sheila Bromley is his wife Nona, who is decidedly not satisfied with her husband's lack of quicker progress up the ranks. The film opens with a domestic scene—Reagan burning the toast, Bromley bringing in the breakfast—that gave me the idea I was in for a breezy comedy-mystery; in fact, it's anything but a comedy, and the "mystery" here is nothing like a typical who done it.

A couple of major plot twists surprise and impress; the characters are only as deep as a 62-minute picture allows time for, but they do interact and affect each other in ways unusual and intriguing in a B movie.

Reagan is fine as the lead. Bromley is quite impressively nasty, especially when delivering lines like, "Now it happens that I'm not weighted down with tons of righteousness." Gloria Blondell has too small a role but is attractive as the girl with her eye on Ronny who perks up sweetly when told that the wife has gone to Reno….Blondell really is the brightest spot in what is, at least for long stretches, a rather gloomy picture.

An interesting if bizarre little movie. It fooled me, I'll admit that.