Special Inspector

Being groomed by Harry Cohn for bigger and better things Rita Hayworth stars with Charles Quigley in Special Inspector. The title role is Quigley's and he's a custom's inspector.

Quigley is going undercover to find who's been smuggling furs into the USA from Canada without paying Uncle Sam his customs fees. Rita Hayworth is a woman on her own mission as this smuggling racket got one of her family killed.

It's a weak story with a less than climatic ending. It will never be listed among the 10 best for Rita Hayworth.

United States Customs Inspector Charles Quigley is sent to Canada to investigate how furs stolen in Canada wind up in San Francisco. He gets a job as a trucker as a front for his activities.

It's an excessively dull and predictable movie with director Leon Barsha having everyone speak so quickly I couldn't be sure of what they were saying. One of the films shot in Vancouver by producer Kenneth Bishop to satisfy Britain's Quota Quickie law, it was considered so poor that Columbia sold its interest to Gower Gulch distributor Syndicate Pictures.

That said, it's worth seeing for two things: it's an early appearance by Rita Hayworth in de-latinized mode, and even though she's blah in performance, she's still beautiful. The other thing making it worth seeing is the excellence of the print; you can even see the circular scratches in the automobiles from polishing them. It's rare to see a movie from this time in such pristine condition, even from the majors.

A gang of criminals are hijacking lorries belonging to a Canadian fur company, stealing their cargoes and then selling the stolen furs on the black market after smuggling them across the border into the USA (hence the film's alternative title of "Across the Border". An American Special Inspector is sent north to assist the Canadian police.

"Special Inspector" was a Canadian/American co-production, produced mainly for the British market. Because Canada was part of the British Commonwealth, films made there (even by American studios, in this case Columbia Pictures) counted as "British" for the purposes of the "Quota System"; at this period British cinemas were obliged to screen a certain percentage of British films. Like many "quota quickies" it was officially a B-movie, but in terms of its length (only just over an hour) and quality (lousy) it seems more like a C-movie.

It would doubtless have long since been forgotten were it not for the fact that its female lead was a then little-known actress called Rita Hayworth. (This was the second of two films she made in Canada for Columbia). Unfortunately, it has little to recommend it to anyone except obsessive Hayworth completists. 65 minutes is just too short a time in which to deal with the plot adequately. There is no character development and, for what is ostensibly a crime thriller, remarkably little tension or suspense. What in longer films would have been important strands in the plot are dealt with only in passing. For example, we learn that Hayworth's character, Patricia, is helping the police track down the villains because they were responsible for the death of her brother, but this theme, to which some films would have devoted a couple of entire scenes, is mentioned only in passing in a couple of lines. Similarly, the growing romance between Patricia and Charles Quigley's Inspector is dealt with very perfunctorily, only becoming clear at the very end of the film.

"Special Inspector" still occasionally turns up on British television, generally as part of a Hayward season, but I would not recommend it to anyone unless they were already an obsessive fan of the lovely Rita. 3/10

Rita Hayworth had made more than 20 films before1938, and it would still be a few years before her star would rise. This is one of the many B films she was in, in supporting roles during the 1930s. This is a good look at a bad film - well, a poor quality one that was more often than not what the poverty row studies turned out in the early years of Hollywood. But for Hayworth, the bulk of movie fans probably couldn't recognize another single cast member in this film.

"Special Inspector" has just enough intrigue about how expensive furs are being stolen in Canada and then taken into the U. S., to keep one watching. But that's about all there is to keep one interested. The lead is played by Charles Quigley, and I don't recall ever having seen him on film before or having heard his name. While he has a good appearance, he can't act his way out of a paper bag. He's very amateurish. But the same goes for just about everyone else in the cast. The actors who play the bad guys in this film are so poor - either hammy, wooden, or unsure of their lines, that I chuckled instead of turning off my screen.

The screenplay has to be partly at fault. But, as I said, it's an okay film to compare for understanding what it took to make good films in the early years of the silver screen. The sets show the tight budgets and little or weak ability of Ken Bishop Productions to even film scenes outdoors and indoors that look real and not something built on a stage or small outdoor lot. According to IMDb, this short-lived film company made just 12 films in four years, 1936-1939. I doubt if there's a single movie fan who ever heard of a single one of them. It's a stretch to even give this film four stars. But it's just about Easter, so I have a pull on my heartstrings to be overly generous.

Charles Quigley plays Tom Evans, the Special Inspector on an assignment to capture a gang smuggling furs from Canada into the United States.

A decent enough plot with a couple of neat twists, but the film falls a bit short as it's not gritty enough to be a good crime flick, the script isn't witty enough to make for a good comedy-thriller, and the lack of chemistry between Charles Quigley & Rita Hayworth doesn't help the romantic sub-plot.

Worth viewing for film buffs interested in the UK "quota-quickie" B-movies, but in particular for fans of Rita Hayworth to see her in an early un-glamorous role (but still very easy on the eye!).

1938 was the year of Angels With Dirty Faces and The Lady Vanishes, and I'm afraid Special Inspector is not in the same league, let alone the same ball park as those movies.

A generous 7/10 for an hour's decent entertainment, but not a movie that will live long in my memory, or warrant a repeat viewing.