POSTAL INSPECTOR

 

Is there anything more exciting than the life of a U.S. Postal Inspector? Apparently Universal Studios in 1936 thought the job was exciting enough to make a movie about the profession, called, naturally enough, POSTAL INSPECTOR. 

Ricardo Cortez plays Inspector Bill Davis, a man dedicated to the postal service. He's so dedicated that he doesn't even bother to romance this movie's leading lady, ultra-cute Patricia Ellis as nightclub singer Connie Larrimore. It's left to Bill's Jimmy Olsen-like younger brother Charlie (Michael Loring) to squire Connie. 

Cortez's Davis has a busy schedule, dealing with such things as protecting little old ladies from mail fraud. When the area he works in is hit by massive flooding, Bill does his darndest to make sure that the mail still gets through. That includes a $3 million shipment of worn currency that Charlie is in charge of. Connie inadvertently lets slip to Benez (Bela Lugosi), the owner of the club she works at, about the shipment...and he and his flunkies believe they can use the flood as a cover to steal the loot. It all leads to a speedboat chase down flooded streets, with Bill and Charlie in hot pursuit of Benez. 

Yes, this is a Universal movie with Bela Lugosi. This was the final film for Bela under his mid-1930s contract with Universal, and one gets the impression that he was stuck in this film so the studio could get him off the payroll. Benez is a very stale role for such a unique performer as Lugosi. The character isn't crafty, or clever, or sinister....he doesn't have any choice lines of dialogue, and he doesn't even try to put the moves on Patricia Ellis either. The real reason Benez wants to steal the huge amount of worn currency is because he's in debt to a dangerous gangster. Lugosi gets fourth billing here, and if you choose to watch POSTAL INSPECTOR simply because of Bela, you're bound to be disappointed. 

Ricardo Cortez and Patricia Ellis had starred in several earlier Warner Bros. films that were far more exciting and entertaining than POSTAL INSPECTOR. Cortez doesn't get to use his Pre-Code shadiness here--his Bill Davis is a totally upright fellow. The entire film plays out as a tribute to the U.S. Post Office--so much so that one wonders if Universal executives were awarded free postage stamps in appreciation. 

POSTAL INSPECTOR runs a little less than an hour, but it's still padded with plenty of actual flood footage (which doesn't match up to anything in the film). The speedboat chase isn't very thrilling, and there's more singing by Patricia Ellis than action. The director of this film was one Otto Brower (I guess James Whale must have been busy). There's not a lot of familiar faces in the supporting cast, but Hattie McDaniel does have a very small role as Patricia Ellis' maid. 

If POSTAL INSPECTOR had been made in the Pre-Code era, one would expect an edgier film....but then the Post Office probably wouldn't have been too happy about that. A Pre-Code POSTAL INSPECTOR would also probably have had Ricardo Cortez as Benez instead of the hero. After his boring part in this picture, Bela Lugosi would go through some hard times for a couple years until SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.