Nice effects though.

Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Copyright 1 May 1951 by Paramount Pictures Corp. Released May 1951 (U.S.A.), May 1950 (U.K.), 30 November 1951 (Australia). 8,042 feet. 89 minutes. New York opening at the Paramount: 9 May 1951.SYNOPSIS: Don't let anyone tell you that a postal inspector's job is a walk-over. In fact, according to this film, it's dangerous, adrenaline-charged work. Ladd is a tough post-office-detective investigating the murder of a fellow inspector in Gary, Indiana. The only witness is a frightened nun. NOTES: Hollywood debut of top money-making British star, Phyllis Calvert. FIRST VIEW COMMENT: This semi-documentary gains from filming on actual locations. The villains are attractive — they have the best lines and the best players to deliver them — but the scriptwriters have made some attempt to extend this out-of-the-rut characterization to the people on the right side of the law. The hero is a cynic who admits he doesn't like anyone, Paul Kelly gives the film's strongest performance in the well-rounded role of the gang leader. Lewis Allen is a master of action and location directing, but he is less at home in some of the dialogue encounters, particularly those with Ladd and the two girls. Jan Sterling gives an effective portrayal of the lazy, somewhat emotionless sub-heroine. The photography is masterful, perfectly capturing both mood and milieu, and production values are first-class.SECOND VIEW COMMENT: Ladd is in fine form. The movie builds to a really suspenseful, tingling climax, thanks to a twisting script, driving direction, solid use of natural locales in Gary, Indiana of all places, and efforts of an excellent support cast. The relationship between the characters is much deeper than Hollywood's usual superficial approach. When I first saw the film I thought the introduction of the nun was a tiresome device, but it enables hero Ladd to have an affair with gangster's moll Jan Sterling which I previously didn't notice in my juvenile innocence. Fortunately Calvert's role isn't all that large as the religious scenes are the weakest in the film. Ladd grows on you. I liked his laconic performance better this time around and I was really pulling for him in the action spots. Stewart and Webb are also excellent.

Alan Ladd is a hard-boiled Postal Inspector sent to Gary, Indiana, voted the world's most beautiful vacation spot, to solve the mystery surrounding the murder of another postal inspector. The body's disposal by Friday and Gannon, I mean Jack Webb and Henry (Harry) Morgan, was observed by a nun, Phyllis Calvert. She's the only person who can identify one of the disposers and her life is in danger. Ladd fakes corruption and manages to join the gang responsible for the murder as they plan yet another million-dollar heist of the US Post Office.It's one of those edgy stories in which Ladd's real identity and motives might be discovered at any time by the gang. And it DOES have its tense moments when some fast and covert move by Ladd saves his skin.The endoskeleton is familiar enough from war-time spy movies, and as far as post-war gangster films are concerned it was probably done better in "Street With No Name." There's no nuance here. The bad guys are all bad. The good guys are good. Only Jan Sterling, as the moll of gang leader Paul Stewart, segues from bad to good and back without trouble. Not that she's on either side. She just doesn't care which.The opening credits imitate the post-war docudramas. A shot of the Post Office Building in Washington, majestic music, a stentorian narrator gives us some statistics and then tells us this is "the biggest business in the world." Somebody must have told the writers that FBI stories were exhausted so let's do a post office one. It's not a bad flick in any way, not an insult to the taste buds, but it's rather routine, with a couple of exceptions.One exception is the provision of panoramic shots of Gary's beautiful steel mills at a time when they were actually producing steel -- those I beams, those pillars, those cat walks, those smoke stacks, those coal cars loaded with ore, a glimpse of a fiery river of molten steel in the back projection.Another exception is the writing. While hustling out this pot boiler, the writers have managed to come up with a couple of memorable lines and one or two recherché scenes. Ladd is a pretty cold fish, rude, abrasive. A pal tells him he doesn't know what a "love affair" is. Ladd snaps back, "Sure I do. A love affair is what goes on between a man and a .45 that doesn't jam." (Okay, it's not, "What is money? Just a piece of paper crawling with germs," but it's clever.) And it has resonance too. It's not just thrown in for effect. Because in a later scene, Ladd is trying to give the nun a .45 pistol and it jams during the demonstration. She turns the present down. "Don't forget, I have a guardian angel," she says. "So do I," and Ladd pats his pistol. "Only mine doesn't jam," she observes.One more example. Ladd is stuck, bored to death, in Jan Sterling's apartment while trying to get some dish out of her. She insists on playing a record of what passes for a sultry blues number. "So that's 'Slow Bus to Memphis'", says Ladd as she weaves sinuously in front of him and he get up to dance. "Yes, can I give you a lift?" Ladd replies, "You already have," and waltzes her slowly toward the bed that's figured so prominently in the background. Fade.Ladd was always closer to delivering a performance when he had few lines, as in "Shane." Here, he tries to act but his voice acquires a sing song quality as he throws the stress here and there, almost at random, throughout the sentence. At least he looks the part. Henry (Harry) Morgan -- or Harry (Henry) Morgan or whatever it is -- stutters and is a little slow on the uptake. Jack Webb is thin and alert, a kind of human ferret, and his thoughts seem to dart ahead of the situation he finds himself. Paul Stewart is always amiable, cynical, resigned. The climax had me lost, what with the speeding cars, the kidnapped nun, the final shoot out, but it's full of action.

As a Postal Inspector, Alan Ladd investigates the murder of a fellow agent in Gary Indiana. His first job is to find the nun who witnessed the thugs moving the dead agent's body. The nun, played by Phyllis Calvert, provides the clue that leads to the identity of one of the thugs. As most reviewers have noted, it was intriguing to see Harry Morgan and Jack Webb teamed together in pre-Draget roles. Much to my surprise Webb did a good job as the psychotic killer since I've never cared much for his acting although his Dragnet parody skit on the Johnny Carson show is one of the funniest routines on television that I have ever seen. Ladd as the hard and rather cold Inspector does his usual convincing job and the supporting cast is strong (Jan Sterling does an excellent job in a relatively small but integral role) but it is Calvert who stands out. She is the counterpoint to the Ladd character's cynicism. She has one of the most interesting lines in the movie when she tells the cynical Ladd: "People don't pray to avoid death, they pray so they won't be disappointed." This movie is a keeper.

Probably a lesser known Film Noir classic. A hardboiled special investigator Al Goddard(Alan Ladd)is assigned to Gary, Indiana to take control of the investigation of a U.S. Postal Inspector's death...murder. The cold hearted Goddard seeks out the only witness to the crime: a young nun Sister Augustine(Phylis Calvert). Goddard tracks down identity of the bad guys and uncovers a plot to rob a U.S. Mail truck of over a million bucks. The two key culprits are played by none other than Jack Webb and Harry Morgan(known for their detective duo roles on Dragnet). Paul Stewart plays the leader and brains of the gang and seems always to have his moll Dodie(Jan Sterling)in close company. The stoic Ladd fills the bill as Goddard. Also in the cast: Stacy Harris, David Wolfe, Geraldine Wall and James Cornell.