BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

zardoz-13 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.

mark.waltz 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.

Michael_Elliott 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.

jaybee-3 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 !