Federal Offense

In "Wanted! Jane Turner", Lee Tracy plays a rather typical sort of character. He's brash, fast-talking and full of himself. Often this means he is playing a reporter but here he's a postal inspector. He's assisted with a female postal inspector (Gloria Stuart) and they and their fellow inspectors deal with several cases. The most important one is tracking down a crook who committed a deadly robbery of a mail truck (Paul Guilfoyle). This is a very well made and enjoyable B-movie...the type Tracy made often in the 1930s...but still well worth seeing. The writing is very good for a B and the story is told economically and well.

Lee Tracy and Gloria Stuart are a couple of Postal Inspectors. They're following the trail of a major postal robbery, which has been remailed to "Jane Turner" at a city's general post office. When some really named Jane Turner (actress Ann Shepherd) picks it up, the situation goes all pear-shaped, with Paul Guilfoyle willing to kill anyone who stands in the way of his pay-off, even Frank Yaconelli, who keeps showing up with a different bunch of dogs. It's a nice adventure-romance-thriller with a pleasant screwball edge, thanks to some fresh performances by Lee Tracy -- who must have been relieved not to be playing a news reporter -- and Gloria Stuart. Director Edward Killy may have been more accustomed to to being an assistant director on some distinguished projects, but with a fine cast, he just had to make sure they stood in the right place and then turn them loose. With Barbara Pepper, Dick Elliott, and the ubiquitous Queen of the Dress Extras, Bess Flowers.