Bill Davis (Ricardo Cortez) is on a plane from Washington D.C. headed toward Milltown. Bill is an Inspector with the United States Post Office. Also on the plan is Connie Larrimore (Patricia Ellis). Connie is a singer who has a gig working at a night club owned by Gregory Benez (Bella Lugosi) called The Golden Eagle. The trip is a little rough due to heavy fog but the plane lands with no trouble. On the ground waiting for the plane’s arrival is Bill’s younger brother Charlie (Michael Loring). Charlie and Connie had been childhood friends years ago. Charlie is interested in re-acquainting himself with Connie. Also at the airport is Benez waiting to pick up Connie to bring her to the club.
Charlie and Connie strike up a romance. One night Charlie and Bill are at the club watching Connie sing. After her number she joins them at their table. The two men are discussing a shipment of three million dollars in old bills that have been taken out of circulation and are to be sent to be destroyed. Charlie works for the Federal Reserve Bank. He is in charge of making sure the old money gets where it is supposed to. Charlie escorts the money to the post office then Bill makes sure it gets to Washington.
Connie mentions the plan to Benez in jest. Benez is heavily into debt and needs $50,000 immediately. Along with two other men and a get-away driver he organizes a heist on the truck carrying the old money. They steal a car to do the job. The car happens to be the car that Connie borrowed from Charlie. In the process one postal guard is killed. Benez and his co-horts head out of town but a raging flood in the area hampers their plans.
Bill finds the car and realizes that it belongs to his brother. Charlie and Connie are now in serious trouble. Unless they can prove they had nothing to do with the heist they may end up accused of not only robbery but murder as well.
“Postal Inspector” was released in 1936 and was directed by Otto Brower. The film is labeled a crime film but it’s more like a musical. It’s a silly piece of nonsense with a bunch of songs, a big flood, romance, and rip roaring speeches about the postal service. Plus there’s stock flood footage. It’s very much the propaganda movie disguised as a crime drama. The musical parts are strange. There are three songs in the movie but one of them is sung several times. The film is only about 57 minutes long so the songs are short. So is everything else. It may not be a great movie but it is fast paced. No long chase scenes and no long romance scenes. The longest part of the movie is the flood montage.
The film is in rough shape. There are lots of skips and jumps. It’s basically a forgotten film except for the archive and alpha video. There is also a version put out by The Film Detective which is a little better. They’ve done some cleaning up of the film and there aren’t the skips and jumps like in the other versions. The sound is still a little muffled.
The movie itself is kind of wacky but it’s the type of movie that was popular in the mid 30’s. The best part of the movie is Hattie McDaniel although she hasn’t got much screen time. Bella Lugosi is also short on screen time. Believe it or not this is not Lugosi’s only musical.