Reagan's Film Career

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

One of greatest presidents or a deeply mediocre chief executive? Glorified B-movie actor or a star who could have gone a lot further if it hadn't been for World War II?

In honor of Reagan's 100th birthday, a review of his generally underrated Hollywood career  was penned and points to a profusion of Reagan titles recently issued and reissued on DVD by Warner Bros., the studio where he was under contract from the beginning of his screen career in 1937 -- with time out for wartime service -- until 1952.

"The Ronald Reagan Centennial Collection,'' available through regular retail outlets, is comprised of seven of Reagan's best-known titles (many with special features) previously issued on DVD: "Dark Victory,'' "Knute Rockne: All American,'' "King's Row,'' "Desperate Journey,'' "This is the Army,'' "The Hasty Heart,'' "Storm Warning'' and "The Winning Team.''

Available exclusively from the manufacture-on-demand Warner Archive Collection are the lesser-known "Angels Wash Their Faces,'' "Love Is on the Air,'' "The Bad Man,'' "Juke Girl,'' "John Loves Mary'' and "She's Working Her Way Through College,'' as well as the four-title "Brass Bancroft Of The Secret Service Mysteries Collection.'' Today, WAC is marking the birthday with the DVD debuts of "Stallion Road" and "Night Unto Night.''

Taking the titles chronologically gives a pretty good feel for the trajectory of Reagan's career at Warner Bros., where he made 40 of his 53 films (plus one loan-out).

"Love is on The Air'' (1937) Reagan's big-screen debut is as available as a WAC double feature with "You Can't Escape Forever'' (1942). Both (the latter stars George Brent) are B-movie remakes of "Hi, Nellie,'' a 1934 Paul Muni comedy about a crime reporter who's busted down to a lovelorn columnist after he makes a mistakes. In Reagan's version he's a broadcaster (which the Gipper was previously in real life) reassigned to children's programming. Shot in three weeks by journeyman Nick Grinde and running 61 minutes, it's a pleasant piece of fluff. There isn't much in the way of romance between Reagan and Warner starlet June Travis; the title comes from a song that Dick Powell sang in the same year's "Varsity Show.''

"Secret Service of the Air,'' "Code of the Secret Service,'' "Smashing the Money Ring'' (1939) and "Murder in the Air'' (1940). Reagan had alternated between B-movies and supporting parts in more ambitious pictures when he was given his own series by the head of Warners' B-movie unit, Bryan Foy, who cast him as two-fisted secret service agent Brass Bancroft. Noel Smith's "Secret Service of The Air,'' Reagan's 10th movie, is the best in the series, with an unforgettable opening scene where smugglers dump a load of illegal aliens from a cargo chute when the bad guys discover their plane is being tailed. Reagan, who later described himself as the "Errol Flynn of the B-pictures,'' looks great in a leather jacket (or bare chested) and the films, all of which run around an hour, are action-packed fun. Smith's "Code of the Secret Service'' has an especially appealing leading lady in Rosella Towne, who starred in the terrific B-movie comic-book adaptation "The Adventures of Jane Arden'' that same year but soon retired from acting.
"Dark Victory'' (1939) Between the first and second Brass Bancroft adventures, Reagan donned a cravat and swilled martinis to play one of dying heiress Bette Davis' more improbable suitors -- he had competition from Humphrey Bogart as an Irish stablehand -- in Edmund Goulding's classic big-budget weepie co-starring George Brent. Reagan's role is not large, but it kept this movie, and all of his others, off TV during his 1980 and 1988 presidential campaigns due to equal-time requirements.
"Angels Wash This Faces'' (1939) Reagan's eight releases this year included a pair with the Dead End Kids: the B-movie "Hell's Kitchen'' and this more elaborately mounted psedo-sequel to "Angels With Dirty Faces.'' The latter's female lead, the up-and-coming Ann Sheridan, was the romantic interest of assistant district attorney Reagan in one of no fewer than three reworkings of another Cagney picture, "The Mayor Of Hell'' (1933) that Warner released in 1938 and 1939 (the other two starred Humphrey Bogart, who had appeared with the Kids in "Dead End''). Reagan has nice chemistry with Sheridan, playing the sister of trouble-prone Frankie Thomas -- who made this between his own B-movie duties in WB's Nancy Drew series starring Bonita Granville, Nancy Reagan's future real-life BFF, who also plays his girlfriend in "Angels Wash Their Faces.''

"Knute Rockne, All American'' (1940). Reagan, who played football in college, had to lobby hard to land his first important role, as doomed Notre Dame star George Gipp, and he makes the most of it. Pat O'Brien stars as coach Rockne, but everyone remembers Reagan in the supporting role. On his deathbed, Gipp delivers a speech in which he instructs Rockne to tell the team to "win one for the Gipper." This famous scene, which was cut from TV showings for many years for legal reasons, has been restored for DVD.
"The Bad Man'' (1941) His star on the rise, Reagan was fifth-billed as George Armstrong Custer in the Errol Flynn historical farrago "Santa Fe Trail'' (1940 -- available in multiple crummy-looking public-domain versions and long promised as a restored authorized DVD by Warner). He was loaned out by Warner to the more prestigious MGM for this more modest western, available as a WAC double feature with another film in which Wallace Beery plays a Mexican bandito, "Bad Man of Brimstone'' (1937). Playing in suppport as a beleagured rancher in love with Laraine Day (who is married to Tom Conway), Reagan had to contend not only with Beery's hamming but that of Lionel Barrymore, who Reagan reported in his autobiography kept running over the future president with his wheelchair. "The Bad Man'' is based on a much-filmed play that Warners had re-set in China for the Boris Karloff vehicle "West of Shanghai'' (1937). Clyde DeVinna's cinematography looks lovely in the DVD's sepia presentation.
"King's Row'' (1942) Reagan gives the best performance of his career in his 28th picture, a starry, big-budget adaptation of Henry Bellaman's notorious novel that was expected to be Warners' big hit of the year (but proved too dark for audiences after the Pearl Harbor). Reagan outshines the male lead, a miscast Robert Cummings as an aspiring psychiatrist in an early 20th century town brimming with the insanity. Working again with Sheridan, Reagan is powerful as Cummings' best friend who loses his fortune -- and then his legs, thanks to his girlriend's sadistic surgeon father (Charles Coburn). Famed is the scene (like "Knute Rockne,'' he's in bed) where Reagan's character discovers his legs have been amputated. "Where's the rest of me?" he asks Sheridan. Reagan appropriated the line for the title of his 1964 autobiography. "There was no retake," Reagan wrote. "Perhaps I never did quite as well again in a single shot." Powerfully directed by Sam Wood and stunningly photographed by James Wong Howe, "Kings Row" was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture.

"Juke Girl'' (1942) Warner Bros. was so impressed so impressed with Reagan and Sheridan's work in "King's Row'' that it quickly re-teamed them in this forgotten, unusual agricultural noir, filmed largely on location in Northern California by Curtis Bernhardt. Sheridan's dance-hall singer was the come-on for audiences in the poster and the trailer, but this gritty film actually centers on Reagan's left-leaning character, a drifter-turned-political activist (at one point he steals a truck) who organizes an uprising against a cannery owner (Gene Lockhart) exploiting migrant farmers in a Florida town. Lockhart's chief henchman is played by character actor Howard DaSilva -- identified by Reagan as a Communist sympathizer to FBI agents after the war (and subsequently blacklisted), according to FBI files released in 2002.
"Desperate Journey'' (1942) Reagan enlisted after Pearl Harbor, but the studio had his duty delayed so its new star could share co-star billing with its top attraction, Errol Flynn, who was deemed unfit for real-life service, in this morale booster. Aussie Flynn and Reagan (who says he's from Jersey City) are part of an international squadron of downed RAF flyers who fight their way across Germany in Raoul Walsh's rather fantastic but entertaining adventure tale.
"This is the Army'' (1943) Lt. Reagan, who was mostly stationed in Hollywood making training films, returned to the Warner lot on a special leave to appear in the story framing Michael Curtiz' lavish Technicolor version of Irving Berlin's famous fund-raising show, the studio's biggest grosser to that point in its history. When he's not romancing Joan Leslie, Reagan introduces a segment with GIs singing in drag. Top-billed George Murphy, who would later become a political mentor to Reagan (in his early days a liberal) plays his father. The DVD has an excellent documentary, "Warner at War,'' narrated by Steven Spielberg.
"Stallion Road'' (1947) Reagan's first film after wartime service was intended as a Technicolor vehicle for Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who went on suspension after they read William Faulkner's adaptation of Steven Longstreet's novel. The script was rewritten by other hands, and Reagan was especially fond of his role as a horse veterinarian who almost loses his gal (Alexis Smith) to a novelist (Zachary Scott) because he's preoccupied with an anthrax outbreak. Filmed on location in the Sierras by cinematographer Arthur Edeson ("Casablanca''), it showcases Reagan's charm, virility and skill as a horseman.

"Night Unto Night'' (1949) Filmed directly after "Stallion Road,'' this drama was held on the shelf for more than two years while Reagan made three other films and the studio tried to figure out what to do with this problematic project. Reagan was cast as an epileptic biochemist who is prevented from committing suicide during a hurricane by his tenant on Florida's Gulf Coast, a lonely widow (Viveca Lindfors). Reagan is not bad in a challenging part, but as he wrote, "If you are thinking this was a hard story to bring to life on the screen, you are right.'' By the time the movie was released, Lindfors had left the studio and was married to director Don Siegel -- who hired Reagan for his last acting job, playing a gangster in "The Killers'' (1964).
"John Loves Mary'' (1949) One of the later films released before "Night Unto Night,'' romantic comedy with Reagan as a discharged Army sergeant was designed to replicate the success of 1947's similar "The Voice of The Turtle'' (shown on TV for decades as "One For the Book''). Briskly directed by David Butler, it was the movie debut of Patricia Neal (but released after her incindiary turn in "The Fountainhead'') in an adaptation of Norman Krasna's romantic stage farce by screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron (Nora's parents). Reagan does lots of double takes as Neal's fiance, who's entered into an immigration marriage he entered into with English girlfriend of a pal (Jack Carson) who saved his life in the war. Reagan also contributed a cameo as himself in Butler's "It's a Great Feeling" (available on DVD only as part of the "TCM Spotlight: Doris Day Collection'') released the same year. Reagan's ex-wife and sometimes co-star, Oscar winner Jane Wyman, appears in a separate scene with their daughter Maureen.
"The Hasty Heart'' (1950) Reagan took a subsidiary role again in one of his best films, playing an American soldier in Vincent Sherman's adaptation of John Patrick's play about a dying Scottish soldier (Richard Todd) who rebuffs overtures of friendship from his fellow patients at a British military hospital in Burma. Neal appears as a nurse in the film, which was filmed in England with Warner funds that had been frozen under British tax laws.
"Storm Warning'' (1951) Reagan voluntarily took a 50 percent salary cut for the last two years of contract so he could accept assignments from other studios -- including the notorious (but not really that awful) "Bedtime For Bonzo,'' made at Universal that same year. Back at Warner Bros. he was very good as a D.A. who gets Doris Day to testify against a Klansman relative (Steve Cochran) in Stuart Heisler's hard-hitting variation on "A Streetcar Named Desire.'' The top-billed role, as Day's sister -- a visiting model who gets attacked by the Klan -- was refused by Lauren Bacall, whose Warner contract was cancelled. She was replaced by Ginger Rogers.

"She's Working Her Way Through College'' (1952) Virginia Mayo, Reagan's co-star in "The Girl From Jones Beach,'' is the focus of this musical remake of "The Male Animal'' with songs by Sammy Cahn and Vernon Duke. Reagan has Henry Fonda's old role as a liberal professor -- only this time he's crusading for burlesque queen Mayo's right to appear in a campus production of Shakespeare instead of a student's right to read a letter by anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. Reagan does have a drunk scene that's almost as good as Fonda's. With Don DeFore, who played a student in the original, in Jack Carson's old role as a blowhard alumnus.
"The Winning Team'' (1952) Reagan ended his 15 years at Warners on a high note. Though he's pushing 40, Reagan is terrific as real-life baseball legend Grover Cleveland Alexander, who triumphs over alcoholism (the film leaves out Alexander's epilepsy) with the support of his wife, played by Doris Day. Reagan worked mostly in television -- there were only seven more features elsewhere, plus an ill-advised stint as a Las Vegas headliner -- over the next 12 years. But the skills he developed in Hollywood came in very much in handy when Reagan enterered politics.