Davis and Brent had just made Front Page Woman (1935) together and would be teamed up by Warner Bros a total of 12 times over the next several years. Special Agent was one of their more minor efforts, and neither star was especially pleased with the way it turned out. Davis felt exasperated by what she considered lackadaisical efforts by director William Keighley and cameraman Sid Hickox. As for Brent, he told writer Ruth Waterbury of Photoplay that the picture was "a poor, paltry thing, unbelievable and unconvincing." Waterbury was surprised by Brent's frankness, for he had built up a reputation as an actor who simply did what was required of him and seldom made waves. (Around the lot, he was known as "Good Old Mr. Dependable.")
Waterbury attributed this reputation to Brent's humility. "He had had early hardship in Ireland, and a decent paycheck went a long way with George," she said. "He never thought much of his acting abilities and told me once he was afraid people would find out how lousy he was and fire him." Waterbury never published Brent's sentiments about the film because she was talked out of it by the Warner Bros publicity department.
In any event, critics liked the picture, with The New York Times calling it "crisp, fast-moving and thoroughly entertaining. It has all been done before but somehow it never seems to lose its visual excitement."
Special Agent was made just after the Hays Office started to heavily enforce the Production Code. Bits and pieces of the movie were ordered cut, resulting in some choppy continuity. The toughest scene to fix involved a line of dialogue spoken by Cortez, which was deemed especially offensive. The scene couldn't be deleted because it contained essential story information, and it couldn't be re-shot because of budgetary concerns. The solution? Erase the line from the soundtrack altogether. Cortez's silently moving lips are still in the film.
Producer: Martin Mooney, Samuel Bischoff
Director: William Keighley
Screenplay: Laird Doyle, Abem Finkel, Martin Mooney (story)
Cinematography: Sidney Hickox
Film Editing: Clarence Kolster
Art Direction: Esdras Hartley
Music: Leo F. Forbstein
Cast: Bette Davis (Julie Gardner), George Brent (Bill Bradford), Ricardo Cortez (Nick Carston), Jack LaRue (Andrews), Henry O'Neill (District Attorney Roger Quinn), Robert Strange (Armitage).
BW-76m.
by Jeremy Arnold
