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Special Agent (1935)
By admin | November 7, 2011
Bette Davis stars with George Brent and Ricardo Cortez in this fun, fast-moving and well-paced Warner Brothers gangster picture. Local efforts to put gangsters in jail are ineffective, but the federal government has some success by charging criminals with evading taxes on their ill-gotten gains.
George Brent, a treasury agent posing as a newspaper reporter, is assigned to the case of slimy racketeer Ricardo Cortez. Brent uses his charm on Bette Davis, the gangster’s bookkeeper and the only one who knows the secret code that is used to keep the books. Although fearful for her safety, she agrees to help him–but there is an inside mole in the DA’s office… Lots of machine gun rat-a-tat-ing, witnesses disappear or are snatched from the courtroom and a bang-up ending! And the menacing Ricky Cortez nearly steals the picture.
The New York Times called it “… a wild and woolly gangland saga of crime and punishment, crisp, fast-moving and thoroughly entertaining melodrama.” This is one of three films George Brent and Bette Davis made in 1935; they were in 12 films together. Bette said, “Ham [Nelson, her husband at the time] gave me a great review, too, sort of. He said the way I looked at George Brent in Special Agent meant I just had to be in love with him. He didn’t believe me when I said that’s how an actress is supposed to look at her leading man. But he wasn’t far wrong.” The story was by a New York Times reporter and the film is populated with wonderful Warner Brothers character actors.