Appointment with Danger started out as a script titled Postal Inspector. It was soon changed to Dead Letter, and then to United States Mail. It is fortunate the studio finally settled on the title Appointment with Danger as this title is more audience-friendly. Any of those previous titles would seem more suited for an educational reel on the inner workings of the postal service. The final title, however, upsells the violence and the action that make up a good deal of this picture. Without that, it would be a hard sell to audiences in 1950.
Alan Ladd stars in this feature, handpicked specifically for the film years before it finally went into production. He is playing Al Goddard, a postal inspector assigned to look into the murder of a fellow postal inspector whose body was dumped in La Porte during a rainstorm. The sole witness to the crime is Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert), a nun who was walking past and reported the incident to a nearby policeman. This leads to attempts on her life when she is able to pick out the face of the killer from a mugbook and lead them to the guilty man. It also opens up the investigation to a further crime, a plot to steal a shipment from the mail service valued at a million dollars.
Alan Ladd is the highlight of this film, bringing with him some cache from other, better pictures. His stoicism anchors down this film during moments that would otherwise be too far-fetched, especially later on when he is infiltrating the gang and piecing together their plan. It is also worth noting that Jack Webb and Harry Morgan make appearances here as bad guys. Both would go on to appear as straight-laced cops in the series Dragnet. Neither gets enough screen time here, but what little they do get is fun to watch with that bit of meta knowledge.
Everything culminates in a finale that combines some well-staged action and a bit of humor. Sister Augustine is captured at one point, and the argument against killing her includes how she doesn’t know anything that could identify any of them, despite seeing all of their faces and hearing several of their names repeatedly during that conversation. It’s absurd, and you get the impression that what is really being argued is whether they are willing to be damned for killing a nun. Ultimately, though, all of them are caught in a shoot-out that ends exactly how you would expect it. Nothing about this shootout is all that original, but that doesn’t really matter. The lead-up to it is fun enough and has enough twists along the way to more than make up for it. 1950 - 90 minutes
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