This is one of several B-movies that Ronald Reagan starred in early in his career as the character Brass Bancroft--an undercover Secret Service agent. While I loved the first one due to its excellent writing despite its low budget, the other Bancroft films have been mediocre at best--mostly because the writing was, at best, second rate.<br /><br />The basic plot idea behind SMASHING THE MONEY RING was amazingly silly. There is a big counterfeiting ring that's being run out of a prison! Think about it...of all the places they could locate the ring, they picked one of the more difficult ones where they had to work hard to smuggle out the money and in the paper and supplies. The only way this MIGHT have worked was if it turned out that a super-genius forger was in prison and that was the only way the ring could use him, but this isn't the case.<br /><br />In addition to the bizarre plot, there are many holes and poor writing abounds. One guy on a casino ship is shot from about five feet away but isn't badly hurt and later Reagan is shot at the same range twice AND the car he's in is pushed off a cliff AND it lands in a lake AND he's fine!! And don't get me started about the old man who deliberately gets himself arrested instead of simply going to the police!!! Wow, did THAT strain all credibility!<br /><br />Logical errors like these abound--showing that Warner Brothers really didn't care and that it just wanted to churn out these programmers in rapid succession. Compared to series films like Charlie Chan, The Falcon or Crime Doctor, this one just didn't seem as well written--though the prison setting was exciting and the dialog and action there was good enough to make this an agreeable time-passer. Just don't think too much when you watch it--it will give you a headache!! <br /><br />PS--For the first time in a Brass Bancroft film, sidekick Eddie Foy manages to do well!!! When a killer is running amok with a gun, Foy subdues the guy and for the first time in one of these films, he seems like a secret agent, not some dumb comic relief!! This is a plus.