Code of the Secret Service 1939

On a perilous mission, United States Secret Service Lieutenant Brass Bancroft [Ronald Reagan] and his quick-witted partner, Gabby Watters [Eddie Foy Jr.], chase engraving plates stolen from the Treasury by a ruthless counterfeiting ring operating across the border in Mexico. Their informant, Dan Crockett [John Gallaudet], reveals that the ring’s peg-legged mastermind is Parker, but Parker is killed and Bancroft is blamed for the death, turning a routine arrest into a national drama.

The chase carries them onto a train bound for Santa Margarita, where Bancroft boards with two gang members who tip off the authorities and lure the police to the carriages. In a tense sequence, Bancroft makes a daring escape from the train, only to confront Parker again when the counterfeiters close in. Parker arrives in disguise as a friar, a plot twist that unfolds at an abandoned mission church with high-stakes pursuit. Bancroft manages to flee once more, but the police eventually tighten the net and take him into custody. Gabby, ever resourceful, steps in to tilt the odds in their favor, distracting the guards with a cheeky game of strip poker that buys them precious seconds and a path to safety.

The plot thickens as Bancroft abducts a woman named Elaine [Rosella Towne] and compels her to guide him to a telegraph station so he can reach the State Department. Their plan is threatened when the counterfeiters close in; the pair are briefly detained but manage a bold jailbreak and, crucially, destroy the engraving plates, crippling the ring’s operation. A larger catastrophe follows—the mission explodes—yet Parker escapes with the remaining plates, only to die in a dramatic car crash during a post-chase showdown.

In the aftermath, Bancroft returns to Washington, D.C., with the plates and a restored reputation, and, more importantly, with the affection of Elaine.