The Barefoot Mailman (1951)

Simply Perfect

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

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Truly, the alligators in this unbelievable drama with comic moments are the most interesting characters. Robert Cummings is a Harold Hill like traveling con-artist who stirs up swamp folks in the styx of what is now Miami to turn it into a city. Along the way, he meets hunky Jerome Courtland, rich man's daughter Terry Moore and a host of eccentrics, attempting a con against them and nearly getting Moore killed when she discovers the truth. Filmed in color on palm tree laden sets, this looks pretty, but the story isn't necessarily interesting or believable. Will Geer is sly as a combination postmaster and mayor, and future "Waltons" wife Ellen Corby is seen, along with "Jiggs and Maggie" star Renee Riano as the town gossip. Other familiar faces round out the case of character actors, but the story and some outlandish plot elements (a miniature gun the size of a nail clipper!) just makes this as insipid a B movie as you can get. After the third time Cummings attempts to talk the town out of stringing him up, I was seriously ready to start screaming, "Would you shoot him already so this can just end?" I simply just found this to be absolutely absurd in every way.

This is a pleasant enough comedy set in turn-of-the-century Miami as Bob Cummings plays a swindler who's been swindled: he's been given a deed to a large plot of mangrove swamp in the out-of-the-way community. So he decides to con the locals, some of whom are not as honest as he....There are a few good points to this movie, including some nice scenery, both around the mangrove swamps and Terry Moore. Will Geer has a nice role as mayor-postmaster-sheriff, and probably Lord High Poobah and Arthur Shields slides easily through his role as Terry Moore's father. But Bob Cummings is a little too one note in his performance to make this more than average good.

Theodore Pratt's book becomes somewhat uncertain comedy-drama-adventure taking place in 1890 Miami, with land owner/confidence man Robert Cummings spreading word amongst the residents that a railroad will soon be running through South Florida. Jerome Courtland is the mail courier for the U.S. government who doesn't buy Cummings' story, especially after both men begin vying for the affections of runaway teen Terry Moore. Initially fluff-headed nonsense turns serious by the second half, with murderous scavengers trying to halt the progress, and swampland alligators giving everyone the bite. Cummings, talking as fast as Robert Preston in "The Music Man", looks every inch the dapper scoundrel, yet the writing doesn't give him a whole lot to work with (the script is plot-heavy without ironing out the characters). The overlit, occasionally gloppy color photography isn't helped by sequences that change from location shoots to studio replicas in the blink of an eye, and the wavering tone is disconcerting, yet director Earl McEvoy manages to keep everyone's spirits up and the picture is seldom dull. **1/2 from ****