Accidents Will Happen

Ronald Reagan plays an insurance adjuster who stumbles onto a fraud ring that creates 'accidents' and bilks his company out of thousands of dollars. Gloria Blondell plays Ronnie's wife, a spiteful little minx who can't stand living with the straight shooting young go-getter when there are fur coats to be purchased and good living to be had. This is a low amp 'B' feature that nonetheless uses its 62 minutes wisely and is never less than entertaining. Blondell is particularly good in her bad girl role, and Reagan had yet to fall into the traps that would limit his career to insipid good guy roles. It won't change your life, but Accidents Will Happen is a solid little second feature.

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.

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.

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!

Accidents Will Happen (1938)

*** (out of 4)

Ronald Reagan plays a young insurance adjustor who is slowly working his way up the ladder but not fast enough for his high priced wife (Sheila Bromley). The wife joins a insurance fraud racket, which eventually gets her husband fired from his job but instead of lying down he decides to bring the racket down himself. This is yet another "B" film Reagan did at Warner and this one here actually kept me entertained from start to finish due to the rather interesting story and a nice performance by the young star. The movie is pretty much one note as we see the hot shot get torn down and then we see him built back up as he takes down the bad guys. What I enjoyed most was how we got to see the various scams play out. We see the characters brought into play, we see the wrecks and then we see how the claims are paid off. All of this was rather fascinating even though the movie never goes too deep into things. The film runs just 62-minutes so it's fast paced and right to the point. I really enjoyed Reagan here as he manages to be quite good in his cockiness early on and he is able to show the strength of the character in the second half. Gloria Blondell and Duck Purcell add good support as does Bromley who plays a great villain who you can't help but hate. If you're not a fan of "B" movies than this here will probably be a bit too shallow for your taste but those you do enjoy this type of thing will find themselves entertained throughout.