Strong and Moving!

An action-packed slog

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I was getting a little nervous there when Ronald Reagan's character appeared to be availing himself of all the underhanded techniques his opponents were using to settle fraudulent insurance claims. Fortunately we learn he's working hand in hand with the State's Attorney's office and all the scams he perpetrated were going to be made right. It would not have looked good for the future President to be a criminal! This was a generally entertaining and briskly paced little flick, with that clever opening in which Eric Gregg (Reagan) conducted his little experiment on women's shoes. Those were some mighty tough heels to withstand the fireplace, but I got more of a kick out of a handful of office gals going gaga over their twelve dollar replacement shoes! Poor Mary (Janet Shaw), Gregg's secretary, she hadn't had a pair that expensive in years! Say, here's something that present day screenplay writers wouldn't have tripped up on. When Blair Thurston (Addison Richards) declares that he'd like to 'amalgamate' Gregg into his shady operation, it's not much later that Gregg himself says something similar - what were the odds of them each zeroing in on that same word?Seeing as how Gregg split with his shrew of a wife Nona (Sheila Bromley), I'm glad he was able to hook up with nice girl Patty (Gloria Blondell). But it was a bit weird to see her laying there on the stretcher in the middle of the courtroom. I wonder if that's ever been done before.Well it was just the thing to bring down the whole insurance scam and take down the bad guys. With Addison Richards in the cast, it was cool to see that he didn't have to be a Western outlaw for a change. Same with another perennial baddie, Earl Dwire, who showed up here as Doc Faris. Rewritten, I guess this could just as easily have been a Western as well, with Reagan wearing a white hat as he rides into town to save the day.

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.

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 !

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.