Postal Inspector (1936) User Reviews

The Mail Must Go Through

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 22 January 2005]

***SPOILERS*** Strange movie, even for one with Bela Lugosi in it,thats a combination of a crime/drama & musical/comedy with a bit of a disaster movie thrown in for good measures. Ricardo Cortez plays Gung-Ho Postal Inspector Bill Davis who's so off-the-wall that in one of the scenes that he's in he jumps from something like a 100 foot plank, minus his well-pressed suit, into the flooded streets below. In doing that Davis risks a broken neck in order to save a postal crook who was no more then a few yards away from a police speed-boat that was just about to rescue and arrest him anyway, without Inspector Davis foolishly risking his life.

There's a number of songs sung in the movie by nightclub singer Connie Larrimore, Patricia Ellis, and a duet at the end of the film with Connie and her fiancé and brother of Postal Inspector Davis Charlie, Michael Loring, who's also a Federal Treasury Agent. The "Golden Eagle" nightclub owner Greg Benez, Bela Lugosi, is in big trouble with the local mob loan shark when he gets a telegram that another nightclub owner, Fred Commings owner of the Jack-O'-Lantern, was gunned down for not paying back his load from the mob. Benez is out $50,000.00 to the mob and is two weeks behind in his payments.

"Golden Eagle" singer Connie Larrimore talking to both Postal Inspector and Federal Agent Bill & Charlie Davis get some inside information from big-mouth Charlie that he's going to send through the US mail $3,000,000.00 of used ten dollar bills to the Washington D.C Treasuary Dept. The bills are to be put out of circulation by having them incinerated.

Later Connie talking to her boss Mr.Benez unwittingly tells him about the cash transaction through the local mail and Benez sees an out in getting the money that he owes the mob as well as pocketing the rest, $2.950 Million, for himself. The Benez gang steals Charlies car and uses it to corrals and rob the mail truck with the 3 million dollars in cash going back to the Treasuary Department and also shoots and kills the driver. This all happens as the town of Yarborough, where the movie takes place, is being flooded by a heavy downpour with the local river overflowing its banks.

When the police and Postal Inspector Davis find the car belonging to Charlie at the crime scene they feel that he committed the crime but his brother Bill gives him two hours to come up with who really did it feeling that he's innocent. Later Benez and his gang kidnap both Charlie and his girlfriend Connie who went to Benez's place in order to find out who in the club took Charlie's car. This later leads to the exciting final speed-boat chase scene through the flooded streets of Yarborough with Charlie & Connie ramming a platform from where Benez and his hoods are trying to escape from the police knocking them all down and into the floodwater's below.

Bela Lugosi is very subdued and, uncharacteristically, dull as the nightclub owner and mobster Greg Benez and has a supporting, but not his usual leading, role in the film. Which didn't give him that much screen time to really do "His Thing".

Both Patricia Ellis and Michael Loring were adequate as the singer and Fed Agent, as well as lovers, in the movie but Ricardo Cortez was really over-the-top as Postal Inspector Bill Davis. Davis spouting platitudes about the wonderful US Post Office in almost every scene he's in that you for a moment thought you were watching a commercial for the USPS. Even though he tried to play his part as seriously as possible Inspector Davis did have a very strange sense of humor in the film. Postal Inspector Davis almost hanged and electrocuted, this was supposed to be his idea of comedy relief, a fellow postal worker in his office with gadgets that were illegally sent through the US Mail.

Inspector Davis also seemed to be more worried about the mail of the Yarborough Post Office getting soaked by the raging floodwater's engulfing the town then he was worried about the lives and safety of the postal workers working there.

Postal Inspector

[malcolm-68 · 6/10 · 31 May 2012]

This was long thought to be a lost film, but it has been resurrected using a number of different prints so quality varies, but entertainment is still consistent. This is an odd film being a mixture of genres namely thriller,disaster, musical and quasi-documentary about the post office. A number of crimes involving the post office are shown mainly tragic, but a couple are very funny. Eventually it centres on a train robbery of old banknotes en route to the federal mint. Ricardo Cortez is all suave self assurance as the leading detective assigned to the case, while Patricia Ellis is drop dead gorgeous as a chanteuse who may be involved with the robbery. Bela Lugosi as a club owner with links to a gambling syndicate only has a small role. Last part of the film takes place in a flood with stock footage lifted from the Johnstown flood interspersed with new studio shot scenes which blend quite well. Some may dislike the jingoistic tone of the film regarding the post office, but the movie fairly zips along and the denouement is exciting.

Comedy/musical/infomercial/mystery/disaster movie is unique viewing experience

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 5 June 2006]

I kept singing "You've never seen anything like it" from Doctor Dolittle as I watched this because I hadn't seen anything like it.

Ricardo Cortez plays a postal inspector who meets up with a nightclub singer on a plane having trouble landing. The singer sings a song to help calm everyone. The plane lands and we find that the singers manager is Bela Lugosi a Mexican business man in deep with the mob. After several scenes of Cortez showing what a postal inspector does the singer takes a shower and sings. A friend of Cortez is actually wooing the singer and everyone ends up at a night club where we get another song. Lugosi finds out that the younger inspector is going to be moving some old currency so he plots to steal it so he can get out of debt. A flood happens as the robbery goes down. There's another song before Cortez springs into action.

All that and more in an hour.

As odd mixes of genre's go I'd be hard pressed to come up with one as loopy as this.

I have no idea if I liked it, but I do know its a unique viewing experience. If you want to see how to put mutually exclusive genres together and make it kind of work this is the movie for you. See it and you too can sing that you've never seen anything like it...

One era ending, another one soon to begin.

[reptilicus · 14 June 2003]

The British Board of Film Certifiers banned Universal's THE RAVEN as "overly brutal and sadistic" and gave THE INVISIBLE RAY an A (for Adults Only) Certificate. This pretty much ended the genre that we now call Universal's "Golden Age". So where did this leave its top terror stars, Boris and Bela? For awhile, nowhere! Boris ended up playing a kindly old grandfather type in NIGHT KEY (1937) and Bela ended up in the musical comedy/drama playing a Mexican nightclub owner! Ricardo Cortez (whose real name was Jack Kranz) plays the title role and much of the movies 58 minute running time shows him dealing with people who have been the victims of mail fraud. This provides a lot of intentional humour. Cortez's brother is a Treasury officer in charge of getting worn out bills back to Washington. The girl he is in love with sings in Lugosi's nightclub and lets slip a casual comment that $3 million in old bills will soon go out of the local bank. Bela is in debt to a gagnster and decides to steal the shipment. As if that were not bad enough the town is threatened by a flood! Republic would take that plot and stretch it out for a 12 chapter serial so believe me this film will be long on action. Bela played a similar character in the 1930 film WILD COMPANY. He is not menacing at all until the last 10 minutes of the film when he becomes a crook. Ricardo Cortez had worked with D.W. Griffith (THE SORROWS OF SATAN, 1926) and had been the first actor to play Sam Spade (THE MALTESE FALCON, 1931). Watch the supporting cast for Guy Usher, who would face Lugosi on less equal terms in THE DEVIL BAT (1942) and Hattie McDaniel who had already costarred with Bela in MURDER BY TELEVISION (1935) and would go on to appear in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). The terror genre would start up again within 3 years but the old days were gone for good. This is still a fun film to watch even if it is just to see Bela in a relatively normal character role.

Tolerable Universal musical drama

[jaybee-3 · 5/10 · 19 March 2002]

This was Bela Lugosi's last film on his first contract with Universal. As such, it is not too bad. The Actman-Loesser songs are silly but certainly not hard to listen to. There is evidence of some post-production editing on this one - it barely clocks in at an hour. The familiar background score by Clifford Vaughan was reused many times by Universal as stock music for the next 7 years. Worth looking at once if only to see Bela !

Not great, but since it's so short it isn't that bad.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 20 February 2010]

I saw this movie for one reason--Bela Lugosi. He was not the star of the film, but Ricardo Cortez--a man, who like Lugosi, was in a very lean time in his career--being forced to appear in lesser and lesser films. Both of the men were a long way from their glory days but both dealt with it in a very, very different way. Cortez would soon quit Hollywood and establish a very successful career on Wall Street. Lugosi, conversely, left Universal after this film and began appearing in even crappier films for smaller studios--the so-called "Poverty Row" studios such as Monogram.

This film is an oddity because it's both a crime movie AND musical! Cortez investigates various scams that go through the mail. Eventually his path took him to Lugosi and a pretty young singer that works for him (Patricia Ellis). None of it was particularly great--and I found myself dozing off again and again.

If you are looking for a horror film or a movie that is going to offer some thrills, try another movie. The film isn't terrible...just not all that great, either.

Fast moving crime drama with good stock footage and amusing character performances.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 26 December 2012]

While this is more a lesson in what the postal inspectors actually do and a warning to those who use the mail to defraud, at less than an hour, this is a fun little "B" film with some familiar faces in different types of roles than normal. For one, it is interesting to see "Dracula" (Bela Lugosi) as a nightclub owner who is the head of a payroll robbery, while Hattie McDaniel rolls her eyes back and forth in delight as heroine Patricia Ellis sings the Frank Loesser song "There'll Be Bluebirds on Our Wall Paper" to divert passengers on a plane who fear a crash in a thunderstorm. While this will never be a "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" or "Brotherhood of Man", it shows where the future legend of Broadway was going at this point in his career. Ricardo Cortez has the best role, meeting with various people defrauded through the mail and the odd devices they bought which don't work, such as a gadget that is supposed to make you taller and another which makes socks. Michael Loring is Ellis's boring love interest, while poor McDaniel is unbilled in what is essentially a major supporting role. Her actions are stereotypical for what black actors were having to do in Hollywood at the time, but she is very funny with what she does. Lugosi draws out every line he says, indicating that if he had spoke any faster, the running time of the film would have been 5 minutes less. The film springs into action with a flood sequence (obviously stock footage that Universal used over and over) and reactions from victims of the flood that those who experienced recent events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy can really relate to.

Bela the mobster

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 14 September 2013]

Before seeing this the only other film I ever saw dealing with the Post Office police was a very good Alan Ladd noir film called Appointment With Danger where Ladd like Ricardo Cortez here plays a Post Office cop. Postal Inspector does not have the really good plot the Ladd film has but it's good enough and it has some nice action sequences involving a flood that spoils plans for the good guys and bad guys alike.

Bela Lugosi plays a nightclub owner who doubles as the boss of a gang and he's got a pretty good scheme involving the robbery of a shipment of old and soon to be retired currency being shipped by mail. He carries it off, but the flash flood interrupts his plans.

Patricia Ellis plays a nightclub singer and Michael Loring, Cortez's brother who get innocently into a jackpot in the robbery as he's suspected of being an inside man.

Postal Inspector has a nice action climax involving a chase with outboard motorboats through flooded. And in the role of the nightclub racketeer owner provided a nice change of pace for Bela Lugosi not playing a mad scientist or an inhuman fiend.

Bela Lugosi's most obscure Universal title survives as a pleasant diversion

[kevinolzak · 5/10 · 27 July 2021]

1936's "Postal Inspector" appeared to serve several purposes for cash strapped Universal following the March 1936 ouster of the extravagant Laemmles: a Warners-style glorification of a rarely spotlighted branch of government, a vehicle cheaply built around newly shot stock footage of heavy flooding in Pittsburgh PA, and a way to fulfill their three picture contract with Bela Lugosi, having failed to use him on "Dracula's Daughter" or a fourth pairing with Boris Karloff (they would finish Karloff's deal in Feb. 1937 with "Night Key"). Not only that, but this innocuous programmer also had the audacity to feature Patricia Ellis as Connie Larrimore belting out a whopping four songs by the film's midpoint, making for an awkward musical enabling her songbird to trill at the nightclub owned by Lugosi's Gregory Benez, his kindly nature hiding a dark secret of being heavily in debt to an impatient loan shark who has already murdered a previous client. The plot finally settles in at the 40 minute mark, as Benez and his confederates choose to rob a shipment of $3 million worth of retired currency (the driver a fatal casualty), a crime that could be pinned on Charlie Davis (Michael Loring), brother of Postal Inspector Bill Davis (Ricardo Cortez), because his car was used by the thieves. Severe flooding in Milltown finds cops and robbers engaging in a speedboat chase until the villains are apprehended and Charlie is free to wed childhood sweetheart Connie. More romantic trifle than serious drama, the daily activities in the inspector's office offering some novelty as many people are defrauded through the mail, basically those who can least afford it. Offbeat enough to still provide light entertainment as an hour long programmer, but little material for Lugosiphiles, 4th billed Bela on screen for barely 7 minutes in a bland role that still shows he was capable of playing a character without any sinister shadings, the main reason for film buffs to seek out after missing in action for decades.

Interesting in several ways

[djpass-1 · 6/10 · 24 August 2010]

At heart, this is a 1930's B movie with a fair story and some interesting aspects. There are the usual characters: the straight-laced older brother, the reckless younger brother, the beautiful nightclub singer, and the criminal nightclub owner--plus an array or unnecessary comic relief characters.

What sets it apart is that it is part propaganda for the U.S. Post Office Department (as there were similar films promoting the FBI, Coast Guard, etc.) Cortez (the postal inspector) and Lugosi (the nightclub owner), not the most subtle of actors, are pretty restrained here.

Also interesting is that about half the movie takes place during a disastrous flood (which doesn't affect the electrical system, it seems) and includes some interesting stock footage of floods from the period. So instead of ending with a car chase, there is boat chase through flooded city streets. I was left wondering how those scenes were filmed--did Universal really flood streetscapes for a B movie? However it was done, it looks realistic.

All in all, worth watching if you are a fan of 1930's movies.

Entertaining quickie from Universal

[scsu1975 · 5/10 · 21 November 2022]

This film stars Ricardo Cortez as the title character investigating various mail fraud schemes, and, ultimately, the theft of 3 million bucks earmarked for destruction. Patricia Ellis plays a nightclub singer who falls for Cortez' brother. Bela Lugosi plays the nightclub owner who pulls the heist.

The second half of the film takes place during a flood, with Cortez promising everyone the mail will still get through, by train, plane, or boat if necessary. Right. I can't even get my store circulars delivered on time during a sunny day.

Cortez is better than usual, and Ellis is very attractive. She sings a few songs which are not memorable, including this ditty aboard a plane flying through dense fog while her maid (Hattie McDaniel) bugs her eyes out a la Mantan Moreland: "Here we are together flying high, We're up in heaven, you and I, We'll be coming down to earth someday, But in the meantime, let's be gay."

Well, I guess if you think you're about to crash, it's a good time to experiment with your orientation.

The rains came...

[MikeMagi · 7/10 · 22 June 2014]

I doubt that any movie ever made better use of stock footage of floods than "Postal Inspector." Every time the tale sags -- or more accurately sogs -- it's back to some unfortunate town where the river is rising, the dam done burst, homes are being washed away and people are trudging through muck and mire (not to be confused with the vaudeville act of the same name,) trying to escape the deluge. The big chase scene even replaces cars and horses with speedboats. The plot centers on Bela Lugosi as a night club owner, drowning in debt, who tries to steal $3 million in old bills being transported by the US Post Office. Fortunately, Ricardo Cortez is there to sink him, aided by Patricia Ellis as a night club singer who manages to warble a few Frank Loesser tunes before the water rises. It's actually not a bad little thriller and manages to float along in a fast-moving 58 minutes.

Neither rain nor flood nor Bela Lugosi stays these couriers .

[csteidler · 4/10 · 27 March 2012]

Ricardo Cortez plays it totally straight as Inspector Bill Davis, the leader of a team of postal inspectors. He and his team investigate mail order rip-offs: machines that grow hair on bald people, stretching devices that increase height, any scam that involves the mail.

Cortez meets singer Patricia Ellis on an airplane; the flight is bumpy and Ellis sooths a crying child by singing a happy song. This is not Ellis's only musical number: later on, in her hotel room, she sings an unpacking song, assisted by maid Hattie McDaniel, who also sings and dances a rumba and looks no more nor less silly than anyone else in the picture.

Ellis's agent is Bela Lugosi, a vaguely sinister nightclub manager. We quickly learn that Lugosi is behind on a loan…and that another nightclub owner in similar circumstances was recently found dead. Lugosi needs cash.

And so, when Cortez's brother (Michael Loring), who works at the treasury, mentions to Ellis that he collects worn out bills for withdrawal from circulation and that he is about to mail in three million dollars…Lugosi catches wind of the plan and makes plans of his own—thus putting to the test Cortez's boast that "A postage stamp is the best insurance in the world."

Meanwhile, flood waters are rising and the entire postal service faces a major test: the mail must go through! An extended sequence (apparently featuring genuine flood footage) showcases the bravery and ingenuity of those grand postal employees who find ways to get the mail delivered against all odds.

Kind of a lot of plot, and it all eventually builds up to a chase through flooded streets in motorboats….and another song or two, as well.

It's all pretty ridiculous…the brother is obnoxious, Ellis is silly enough to listen to his line, and postal inspector Cortez is devoted to the noble work of the postal service to the point of fanaticism. (If Cheers mailman Cliff Klaven ever had a favorite movie, this could have been it.)

Harmless enough, but that's about it….Not even Lugosi could do much with his mostly thankless role.

Good Fun

[Michael_Elliott · 8 March 2008]

Postal Inspector (1936)

*** (out of 4)

A city is being ravished by a flood when a group of criminals (including Bela Lugosi) decide to steal three million from the post office, which gets the postal inspector (Richard Cortez) involved. I was really shocked to see how much I liked this little film that has some wonderful comic moments dealing with various ways people get ripped off and the ending was full of great action. The special effects of the city being ripped apart by water were all very well done, although some stock footage was used. An interesting note was that this was Lugosi's final film for Universal under his Dracula contract.

Nothing Can Stop The Mail in This Routine Postal Inspector Procedural

[zardoz-13 · 6/10 · 20 May 2013]

Bela Lugosi made many unusual movies during his career. Otto Brower's "Postal Inspector" was the last film that Lugosi made on contract with Universal Pictures. Clocking in at a mere 58 minutes, this contrived but entertaining cinematic tribute to the U.S. Postal Service looks rather nondescript. Indeed, "Postal Inspector" could serve as a prototype for everything that "Dragnet" creator Jack Webb ever created. For the record, Lugosi doesn't take top billing. Suave Ricardo Cortez has that distinction. He played the original Samuel Spade in the 1931 version of "The Maltese Falcon" before Humphrey Bogart recreated Spade in his own image. Lugosi took fourth billing after Patricia Ellis and Michael Loring. Brower and "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" scenarist Horace McCoy have forged themselves a genuine hybrid with an array of characters. "Postal Inspector" consists of one third crime thriller, one third musical, and one third disaster epic. At every opportunity, our hero reminds us that the best insurance in the world is a postage stamp. Moreover, the message that citizens must be protected from fraudulent practices drives the Postal Service. The comic relief consists of episodes about fraudulent gadgets sold via the mail to naïve citizens. "There's one born every minute, " laments our hero. Cortez looks like he would be the wrong man with which to tangle. Sadly, Lugosi languished in a lackluster role as a shifty nightclub owner in trouble with the mob. During the first scene, our hero and his fellow postal inspectors receive praise from none other than President Franklin D. Roosevelt over a speaker phone for their "fine work" moving the gold reserves of the United States to the inland cities. Clearly, the producers must have approved of FDR's policies. You should have no trouble spotting African-American actress Hattie McDaniel in a supporting role as the heroine's maid.

Richard Cortez is Inspector Bill Davis. Not only does Davis take everything seriously but he is also the epitome of efficiency. Davis is pretty unflappable, and he always has a reassuring line for anybody who has a problem with the postal service. Davis manages to sort out all the problems that citizens have without losing his cool. Patrick Ellis plays vocalist Connie Larrimore. She meets Davis aboard a flight from Washington, D.C. to Milltown, during stormy weather. The pilots are trying to land, but they cannot see anything because they are surrounded by the equivalent of pea soup. Ground Control struggles to talk the pilots safely down. Our heroine uses her vocal chords to soothe some frightened passengers, with a youngster providing accompaniment on his harmonica. The press plasters Connie's commendable singing exploits across the front page story. She warbled to calm the nerves of the passengers. Bela Lugosi makes his first appearance as Gregory Benez, a natty nightclub owner who has Connie under contract to sing in his nightclub The Golden Eagle, at the airport. Later, we learn Benez has shady dealings with the mob. He owes Alfred Carter, 'known to have financed many nightclubs, $50-thousand and he is two weeks tardy on his payment. At the airport, Connie gets reacquainted with an old friend from her past in Milltown. The friend turns out to be Bill's younger brother Charlie (Michael Loring) and Charlie wants to rekindle the flame. Seven years have elapsed since they went their separate ways. Our hero's introduction to Connie has a memorable moment. Charlie points out his brother works for the post office. Slyly, Connie reminds Charlie that it has been a long time since they played post office. Brower and McCoy exploit this moment again later in the action for dramatic emphasis. Connie learns that Charlie works for the Federal Reserve Bank. He is in charge of all the money that the Federal Reserve wants to take out of circulation. He tells Connie about a shipment of used bills, approximately $3-million worth of bills . Later, Benez and his accomplices knock over the armored car, kill a postal employee, and steal the millions. Of course, Davis is not happy.

Initially, Charlie assures his brother Bill that he had nothing to do with the robbery. It looks like Charlie and Connie are to be implicated until Connie agrees to flush out Benez. Lugosi plays Benez with considerable restraint. About 31 minutes into the action, our handsome hero catches a plane to Yarborough where heavy rains have washed out a bridge and cut off the town. The stock footage of the flood scenes is impressive. One desperate African-American scrambles to seize a chicken. Meantime, Davis relocates the post office to higher ground.

Altogether, "Postal Inspector" is a routine potboiler about the Postal Inspectors and their jobs. The joke about the elderly woman who solicits proposals of marriage through the mail with a photography of a young, beautiful woman is hilarious. The villains use a boat to elude the authorities, but they don't lose them entirely. Newspaper headline state that the mail robbers are scheduled to serve 10 years to life.

"A postage stamp is the best insurance in the world."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 7 June 2017]

B movie from Universal starring Ricardo Cortez as a US Postal Inspector fighting to keep the mail safe and on time for all of us. But none of you are going to watch this for Cortez. I would bet my stamp collection everyone who sees this today does so because it features horror legend Bela Lugosi as the villain. Bela plays a nightclub owner who resorts to robbing a mail truck to pay off his debts. Ricardo will have none of that. Too bad Bela didn't know the USPS motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor Hungarian thespians will stay these couriers from their appointed rounds."

An enjoyable little programmer with some interesting "window into the times" elements. I liked seeing how the postal inspector's office worked, taking complaints about various cons, including showing a couple of gadgets that were used to fleece people. Also seeing planes, radios, etc. in older films always pleases me. I like the simple things. Sue me. Cortez is good. Lugosi is fun playing a different kind of character than I'm used to seeing him as. He's a criminal but a nervous, frightened one. Patricia Ellis has a rather risqué scene where we can see her body thru a shower door. Surprised that made it past the censors. Hattie McDaniel has a couple of funny lines. Some songs are shoved in because why not. Written by the author of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Not kidding.

Cortez after the code

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 7 February 2023]

This is a corny yet oddly entertaining crime thriller from Universal Pictures and director Otto Brower in which Ricardo Cortez stars as Bill Davis, the man with the title job. He's returned to his home in Milltown to head up the postal investigations in the area, including fraud via mail claims, lonely hearts scams, and other criminal activity somehow connected to the US Postal Service. Bill's younger brother Charlie (Michael Loring) also works for the government, and is also seeing nightclub singer Connie (Patricia Ellis). Patricia's boss Benez (Bela Lugosi) may be scheming something, and when a flood hits the region, it may present the opportunity Benez is looking for. Also featuring Hattie McDaniel.

The film meanders a bit at first, as if it's not sure how to explain or exploit the position of Postal Inspector. I'm not sure if it really ever does, but things liven up immensely when the flood strikes, and we're treated to lots of stock footage of real flood damage. Cortez seems to turn into a one man FEMA, only concerned with the mail rather than people. There's an interesting boat chase through the flooded town streets near the end, and a phone call from FDR.