Accidents Will Happen

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.

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 !

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!

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.