Special Agent (1935)

Newspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Nick Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters Carston's ... See full summary »

Director:

William Keighley

Writers:

Laird Doyle (screenplay), Abem Finkel (screenplay),

Stars:

Bette Davis, George Brent, Ricardo Cortez

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Bette Davis	...	Julie Gardner
George Brent	...	Bill Bradford
Ricardo Cortez	...	Alexander Carston
Jack La Rue	...	Jake Andrews (as Jack LaRue)
Henry O'Neill	...	District Attorney Roger Quinn
Robert Strange	...	Waxey Armitage
Joseph Crehan	...	Commissioner of Police
J. Carrol Naish	...	Joe Durell (as J. Carroll Naish)
Joe Sawyer	...	Rich - Chief Henchman (as Joseph Sauers)
William B. Davidson	...	Charlie Young - Carston's Lawyer (as William Davidson)
Robert Barrat	...	Chief of Internal Revenue Service
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Williams - Quinn's Secretary
Joe King	...	Agent Wilson (as Joseph King)
Irving Pichel	...	U.S. District Attorney

Storyline

Newspaperman Bill Bradford becomes a special agent for the tax service trying to end the career of racketeer Nick Carston. Julie Gardner is Carston's bookkeeper. Bradford enters Carston's organization and Julie cooperates with him to land Carston in jail. An informer squeals on them. Julie is kidnapped by Carston's henchmen as she is about to testify.

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Plot Keywords:

bookkeeper | gunfire | roulette | u.s. treasury | casino | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 1935 (USA)

Also Known As:

Agent spécial

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Hays office objected to a bit of dialogue by character Nick Carston so rather than reshoot the scene, the sound was eliminated.

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Goofs

When Richie takes Bill away to the castle, the feet of crew members and camera equipment are clearly reflected on the car.

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Connections

Referenced in Stardust: The Bette Davis Story (2006)

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Soundtracks

"About a Quarter to Nine"
(1934) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Played as background music at the casino

User Reviews

Warner Brothers doing what it did best

George Brent is a "Special Agent" in this 1935 crime drama also starring Bette Davis and Ricardo Cortez. The original story was written by a newspaperman and is most likely based on the Al Capone case. Brent plays a reporter, Bill Bradford, but his job is a cover -he's an undercover Federal agent after a crook, Alexander Carston (Cortez) for tax evasion. His entrée into the books of Carston's organization is the bookkeeper, Julie Gardner, with whom he's also in love. After the case is built, Carston is arrested and Julie is taken into protective custody. But can she really be protected against Carston?

This is a fairly routine drama with good acting and some solid action. Davis is very young and blonde here, and not as glamorized as she is in other early films - "The Man Who Played God," "Fashions of 1934" or "Ex-Lady" but nevertheless quite pretty. She's a little too classy to be a mob bookkeeper; as the character, however, she exhibits intelligence, which certainly Julie would have. Brent is his usual pleasant self as Bill, and Cortez is a sinister gangster.

The only part of the film that gave me a giggle was the riddling of men with machine guns as they continued to stand until their bodies must have had more holes than Swiss cheese before dramatically falling. Certainly they would have been dead long before the 100th bullet.

Interesting for early Davis and the always good Cortez.