Accidents Will Happen

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.

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 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.

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!