Code of the Secret Service

Code of the Secret Service
Directed by	Noel M. Smith
Produced by	Bryan Foy Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner
Screenplay by	William H. Moran Lee Katz Dean Riesner
Starring	Ronald Reagan Rosella Towne Eddie Foy, Jr. Moroni Olsen Edgar Edwards Jack Mower
Music by	Bernhard Kaun Max Steiner
Cinematography	Ted D. McCord
Edited by	Frederick Richards
Production company	Warner Bros.
Release dates	May 27, 1939 (1939-05-27)
Running time	58 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

External video
Original Trailer for Code of the Secret Service

Code of the Secret Service is a 1939 film directed by Noel M. Smith and starring Ronald Reagan. It is the second of four films in the U.S. Secret Service Agent Brass Bancroft series, having been preceded by Secret Service of the Air (1939) and followed by Smashing the Money Ring (1939) and Murder in the Air (1940).

The series was part of a late 1930s effort by Warner Bros. to produce films depicting law enforcement in a positive light under pressure from Homer Stille Cummings (Franklin D. Roosevelt's Attorney General) and Will H. Hays (creator of the Motion Picture Production Code, the movie industry's censorship guidelines), due to the studio's part in producing early 1930s films glamorizing gangsters.

The series also enabled Warner Bros. to create Reagan's screen persona, with Reagan even showing up to the set of Code of the Secret Service and asking director Noel M. Smith, "When do I fight and whom?"

Plot

United States Secret Service Lieutenant Brass Bancroft (Ronald Reagan) and his partner, Gabby Watters (Eddie Foy, Jr., producer Bryan Foy's brother), seek engraving plates stolen from the U.S. Treasury Department, and the investigation leads Bancroft and Watters to pursue a counterfeiting ring in Mexico. Along the way, Bancroft is falsely blamed for the death of a fellow Secret Service agent, escapes from jail, captures the leader of the counterfeiting ring, and wins the heart of his love interest, Elaine (Rosella Towne).

Cast

The cast included:

• Ronald Reagan as Lieutenant Brass Bancroft
• Rosella Towne as Elaine
• Eddie Foy, Jr. as Gabby Watters
• Moroni Olsen as Parker
• Edgar Edwards as Ross
• Jack Mower as Decker
• John Gallaudet as Dan Crockett
• Joseph King as Tom "Jim" Saxby
• Steve Darrell as Butch, a henchman
• Sol Gorss as Dutch, a henchman
• George Regas as Mexican police officer

Reception

Reagan called Code of the Secret Service "the worst picture I ever made" and commented on it, "never has an egg of such dimensions been laid." Producer Bryan Foy attempted to shelve the film. Warner Bros. refused to do so, but did agree to not release it in Los Angeles. Commenting on the film, a ticket taker at a movie theater in another city reportedly told Reagan, "You should be ashamed."

In a 1939 review, the Calgary Herald called the movie "quite far-fetched in places and not very interesting as a whole."

Ronald Reagan assassination attempt

File:ReaganParr.jpg

Secret Service Agent Jerry Parr walks behind President Ronald Reagan just moments before the 1981 assassination attempt.

After seeing the movie repeatedly as a child, Jerry Parr was inspired to join the Secret Service. Parr would go on to save the life of the President of the United States in a 1981 assassination attempt. The President was Ronald Reagan, the star of Code of the Secret Service.

See also

• Ronald Reagan filmography

External links

• Code of the Secret Service at IMDb
• Code of the Secret Service at AllMovie
• Code of the Secret Service at the TCM Movie Database

• Code of the Secret Service at the TCM Movie Database
• Code of the Secret Service at IMDb