Their Description:
In his third year as a Warner Bros. contract player, U.S. President Ronald Reagan did time as a federal employee 40 years before becoming U.S. President. In 4 fast-paced B-movies, he was Lt. "Brass" Bancroft, a stalwart Secret Service agent who risked life and limb to bring to justice illegal alien smugglers, counterfeiters and enemy spies. Apprehend the 2-disc Brass Bancroft of the Secret Service Mysteries Collection in the name of the law - and of vintage Hollywood fun.

My Description:
Lt. Brass Bancroft (played by Ronald Reagan) just wants to be a member of the secret service and has been trying for years to get the job. After a undercover agent was found dead while he was on a case of people smuggling people over the boarder from Mexico into Mexico, the Secret Service hires Brass to find out who did this murder.

Now that Brass is finally part of the Secret Service he continues his career by trying to find a counterfeit ring that’s being run in Mexico. It will take the help of some friends for Brass to be able to stay out of jail and to find the counterfeit ring. Not only does Brass have to fight smugglers and counterfeiters as a Secret Service officer, he must also put a stop to saboteurs who want to cause as much havoc as they can. Being a Secret Service agent is a harder job than being a pilot but Lt. Brass Bancroft loves his new job working for the Secret Service.

What Makes it Watchable:
First off what made this something that I wanted to watch was Ronald Reagan. I had never seen any of his acting career and only knew him from his Presidential career. Not only that but these are some real classic movies that where produced in 1939. All four movies are of course in black & white but it looks so great in this format. Some movies are meant to be in black & white and the Brass Bancroft films certainly show that they are much better this way.

At first I really didn’t even recognize Ronald Reagan. These are movies that were made some 40 years before he was President, which has him in his young age and looks. I was kind of expecting a more uptight sort of acting from him. Something on the lines of how an ex-president would be seen as but he’s nothing like the image I was thinking. Ronald Reagan plays this cocky pilot that has no problem getting in a fight, doing some scheming to get to the truth, and while he’s taking out the bad guys he gets the beautiful female co-star.

All 4 of the Brass Bancroft films are really fun to watch. Since these are classic and old films, they rely more on the acting of the cast rather then having all sorts of CGI, explosions, or even a music track playing at the same time to illicit emotions. None of those are needed, not even the music, because the acting is done well enough that it was creating the emotions and feelings that I was supposed to get from watching.
What’s good about these 4 movies is that they take the main character of Brass Bancroft from being a guy that’s a pilot that is just trying to get the girl into someone that was a tough guy that knew how to take down the bad guys. There’s a bare minimum use of props, sets, and locations that show just enough to express that the scene is a bar or maybe a cockpit of a plane but that’s all that’s needed. It’s because these are not overdone it makes it fun to watch.

Why I Wanted to Hit  ■  (that’s the square symbol for stop):
My main grip was the length of the films. Each are only an hour long or even a few minutes under an hour long. By the time it starts the films were ending. Though watching the 4 Brass Bancroft of the Secret Service films in a row allowed me to have a 4 hour long movie.

Which is the second thing that I didn’t like about the films. Watching all at once it didn’t hurt them so much because it was like watching a whole movie or maybe a continuing story line. But I also felt that there was just too much of a similarity between the films. I think even if I had watch separately I would feel like I had watched one even when I hadn’t yet.

Now I did like the acting for the most part from most of the cast but there were times from a few of the characters that just didn’t come across well. There is some of the characters that just was corny and made me laugh, though I’m thinking this was not the goal of that character. But, these corny acting is not there enough to make the films any less fun to watch and has no real affect on the outcome of the films.

In 1 Sentence:
Ronald Reagan when he was young in some really fun black & white classic films that would make for a great quick film to watch on a relaxing night at home.