For a couple of months, I once worked at a post office distribution facility as auxiliary seasonal help. It was deeply horrible experience. I was routinely called a “scab”. One time, I had a manager tell me to move a cart, but I was immediately advised by a co-worker, “You’ll get hurt if you move that.” That fellow postal employee wasn’t interested in my health—it was a threat.
One thing I vividly remember was what looked like a series of large air ducts all over the ceiling, with intermittent pieces of one-way glass in them. These are where postal inspectors could be covertly monitoring operations in any part of the facility and at any time. Every post office location has this system, and I notice these whenever I’m at the counter of one.
I found myself thinking about those while watching 1950’s Appointment with Danger, a noir centered around postal inspectors trying to disrupt a heist. This film not only acknowledges these informally dubbed “lookout galleries”, but has a brief scene set in one.
That’s because this film noir follows a different type of detective than most such films, and that is postal inspectors. In the obligatory opening narration, we hear more facts and stats about the service than in the concluding speech in the court case scene in Miracle on 34th Street.
Alan Ladd plays one their top agents, a largely humorous man who foretells Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet. Curiously, this film also has Jack Webb, who go onto to play that iconic detective, but younger than I have ever seen him before and playing a thug. The best moment in this film has both actors in it, when Ladd gets some ice for Webb, whom he has just knocked out cold. Ladd: “I just hate to see him in such pain”, as he drops a bag full of ice on Webb’s face from a few feet above.
The plot largely has Ladd alone infiltrating a gang that is planning to rob a post office. It is weird how Ladd, as a high-ranking official, does this on his own. Then again, his character strikes me as a man who would be unwilling to delegate.
Another, albeit lesser, plot thread has him trying to protect a nun (Phyllis Calvert) who can ID a member of the gang who is planning the heist (Harry Morgan). I last saw Calvert in a thankless role in Time Out of Mind, and I enjoyed her playing a character this time who gets to have some fun. She’s little more than comic relief, but the amount of fun she seems to be having is infectious. When the Mother Superior at her convent asks what to say about Calvert’s absence, she enthusiastically replies, “Tell them I’m at a pool hall!” Looking over books of mug shots, she marvels, “My, that’s an ugly one…”
It was interesting to see a younger Morgan than I usually think of him, as this was nearly three decades before him starring as Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H. In a moment I couldn’t believe was occurring in a picture of this vintage, Webb will beat him to death with one of his kid’s own bronzed baby shoes. His death brings about one scene I found quite strange, where his body is dumped just outside what appears to be a foundry, instead of taking advantage of the molten metal inside to dispose of it without a trace.
Another actor I enjoyed seeing here, though it is a small part, is Jan Sterling. This actress is a dependable noir staple. As the main gangster’s moll, her role here would normally not have any depth. Instead, she gets some interesting nuances, such as how much she loves music. She makes Ladd stop talking while rapturously listening to a jazz record. When we first see her, she describes her job as a “hotel stenographer”, and I’m still wondering if that was ever a real profession, or if that was something that went the way of hotel detectives and elevator operators.
There are some other oddities in Appointment with Danger which make it more interesting than most of its ilk. As part of the heist, the getaway car nearly hits a school bus, and a bunch of kids swarm out of it, all of them spoiling for a fight. It’s both boys and girls in this tiny mob, and one of the boys is even wielding a baseball bat. While I enjoyed this movie, I really want to see a film about these hooligans.
Dir: Lewis Allen
Starring Alan Ladd, Phyllis Calvert
Watched on Kino Lorber blu-ray