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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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

An interesting period picec showing us what was amazing in 1938. Gosh, Ma, a fake accident ring suing for $25,000!!! I guess projected into the 21st century it would amount to a lot of money. The acting would amount to pure 21st century ham. Nice to see the president as a hard-working newcomer.

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.

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 !

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!