Secret Service of the Air

Warner Bros. used their B-films as a training ground for their new contract players and this time it's RONALD REAGAN's turn to take his place as leading man in an action-filled melodrama about the Secret Service and a plan to trap criminals who are responsible for bringing illegal aliens into the U.S. from Mexico via plane.

JOHN RIDGELY is an airline pilot at the controls when he has to dispose of the illegals when the feds are closing in on them. The shocking moment has him flipping a switch so the passenger compartment opens up, ridding him of all the illegals in flight.

But the rest of the story is routine stuff, with JAMES STEPHENSON as the man heading the ring who at first trusts that Reagan (who has joined the illegals under pretext of being a criminal) is okay to be one of his pilots. It's swiftly paced and the only drawback is the comedy relief supplied by EDDIE FOY, JR. in the kind of role Frank McHugh usually played in Warner flicks.

Reagan acquits himself well as the 20-year-old newcomer and has a couple of fight scenes that look as though the stunt men got quite a workout.

Summing up: Not bad for a B-film that played the lower half of double bills.

Secret Service of the Air (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Warner "B" flick about a pilot (Ronald Reagan) who joins the Secret Service so that he can take down some smugglers. I wasn't expecting too much out of this film but like Warner's gangster pictures, this film contains just about everything you could possibly fit into a 61-minute movie. You get a prison break, car chases, shootouts, bar fights, a silly love story, brawls, various plane chases and much more. I wouldn't exactly say Reagan gives a good performance but he is fun to watch. The film eventually runs out of steam and never gets too deep but overall this is a pretty entertaining movie.

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Criminals bring illegal aliens into the U.S. from Mexico. Many of these illegals are criminals. When the plane is nearly captured by a Secret Service agent, the agent and the passengers are all killed.

A young pilot (Ronald Reagan) is asked by the Secret Service to get in with the smuggling ring; to do so, they have to give him a criminal record. The government frames him and he spends some time in prison, and afterward, he connects with the criminals and gets into the gang.

Well-paced B movie from Warners and entertaining. Reagan as always is pleasant and likable, and not yet a star. That and politics would come later.

According to Secret Service Of The Air Ronald Reagan as Brass Bancroft was brought into the service because of his skills as a pilot flying the Trans-Pacific run. Later on in the four film series his pilot skills were not necessarily needed, but this was a B picture series and back then who cared.

An Treasury man on a counterfeiting case got wind of an illegal immigrant smuggling racket and pays with his life in a particularly nasty way being thrown out of an airplane along with the other illegals on that flight. After that the Treasury Department takes the lead on the case and you can see why Reagan is recruited into the Secret Service.

This film introduced Reagan in the role of Brass Bancroft and by the time he had finished his fourth film he was doing other and better things with films like Dark Victory and Santa Fe Trail under his belt and Knute Rockne and Kings Row to come. John Litel as his supervisor and Eddie Foy, Jr. as his sidekick were also introduced.

James Stephenson is the villain here, a really smooth and deadly piece of work. He did a really good job here, almost like he'd come down from another classier film to appear here.

Reagan is breezy, credible, and likable as a fast talking, fast thinking undercover hero. Some of the other Brass Bancroft films were infinitely worse, this one is all right.