Accidents Will Happen

Honest young insurance agent Ronald Reagan (as Eric Gregg) is optimistic, but poor. His wife, scheming Sheila Bromley (as Nona Gregg), longs for the finer things in life. Describing herself as "not weighted down with tons of righteousness," Ms. Bromley begins to spend more money than Mr. Reagan earns. Bromley obtains the finer things in life, but puts the couple in debt. Bromley is a fun shrew.

Handsome Reagan attracts other women, like perky clerk Gloria Blondell (as Patricia Carmody); but, he doesn't indulge. To pay the bills, Bromley gets tangled up in the insurance fraud racket - which helps get her husband fired. An unemployed Reagan seems to be tempted into a life of crime - will he remain straight up, or get crooked? Clinton Rosemond has an uncomfortable "broken arm" scene.

*** Accidents Will Happen (1938) William Clemens ~ Ronald Reagan, Sheila Bromley, Gloria Blondell

Eric Gregg (Ronald Reagan) is an incredibly smart insurance adjuster. Again and again, he's able to unravel insurance fraud cases and is really a marvel. However, despite this he's blind to a serious problem at home. Gregg's wife longs to live higher on the hog and wants a fancy apartment and more...though they simply cannot afford it. So, she stupidly takes out a loan and defaults on it-- apparently not realizing that the folks giving her the loan were the same people who were behind the insurance fraud cases! Well, appearances are deceiving and it turns out Mrs. Gregg knows EXACTLY who these people are and she plans on making life easy on herself and the fraudsters! In essence, she goes into business with the crooks! When will Eric wake up and see who his wife really is?! And what's next?! Will Eric be able to have the last laugh?!

Although there were a lot of crappy B-movies made during this era, "Accidents Will Happen" is of a higher caliber--and much of it was because a big studio like Warner Brothers could make a much more polished B than tiny outfits like Monogram and PRC. The script is quite good as is the acting and the entire production has the nice polish that you'd expect from Warner. Overall, unusually good for a B--and better than many of the 'better', more expensive pictures!

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!