PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Whitech It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

utgard14 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.

djpass-1 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.

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.

dbborroughs 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...