| Bombay Mail | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card | |
| Directed by | Edwin L. Marin |
| Screenplay by | Tom Reed |
| Produced by | Carl Laemmle, Jr. |
| Starring | Edmund Lowe Ralph Forbes Shirley Grey Hedda Hopper Onslow Stevens Jameson Thomas |
| Cinematography | Charles J. Stumar |
| Edited by | Doris Drought |
| Music by | Heinz Roemheld[note 1][1] |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Bombay Mail is a 1934 Americanpre-Codedrama film directed byEdwin L. Marin and written by Tom Reed. The film starsEdmund Lowe,Ralph Forbes,Shirley Grey,Hedda Hopper,Onslow Stevens, andJameson Thomas. The film was released on January 6, 1934, byUniversal Pictures.[2][3][4] The film is based on theLawrence Blochman novel of the same name which was originally published in 1933 in the pulp magazineComplete Stories.[5]
According toLal Chand Mehra, an Indian who acted in and advised numerous Hollywood films in the first half of the 20th century, the entire movie was filmed in elaborate sets. "it was necessary to build an entire Indian train —the ‘Imperial Indian Mail'—to construct several stations and to see that each and every character, from brahmins to untouchables, were correctly costumed and correctly dressed", he said in an interview in theMadera Tribune.[6]
The governor of Bengal is assassinated on theBombay Mail somewhere between Calcutta and Bombay and it is up to Inspector Dyke to solve that murder as well as a couple of later murders. The cast of characters include the governor's wife, his two secretaries, a gambler, an entertainer who is not quite what she seems, a mineralogist on his way to claim a ruby field, a pickpocket, an anti-British agitator, and a cobra.[1][7]
The New York Times called it "an agreeably effective little shiver item" that would keep its "audience in a state of confusion" with its plot twists and deaths.[3]The Michigan Daily compared it unfavorably toShanghai Express but without the presence ofMarlene Dietrich and commented on the "unnatural settings" and "decidedly unlike a train interior", ending with an "it could be worse".[8] Later reviewers are more favorable. Michael Pitt called it "unjustly overlooked today" and found it to be a "fast-paced" and entertaining. In particular, Pitt points to the performance of Lowe, calling it superb, and "one of his best starring efforts".[1] Bernard Dick called it an early version of the "railway thriller" and that, even though Laemmle had made a B movie, it had class.[9]
The film was banned by the British authorities in India and in Singapore. In India, because it showed the murder of a maharaja and in Singapore because it showed the killing of a government official.[1] Two of Roemheld's scores from the film, "Shirley Theme #3" and "Bombay Station," were reused in the late 1930s by Universal Pictures in itsFlash Gordon series.[10]