The Barefoot Mailman is a comedy-adventure film starring Robert Cummings

Robert Cummings

Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....

 and distributed by Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 in 1951. The film was based on the 1943 novel The Barefoot Mailman by Theodore Pratt

Theodore Pratt

Theodore Pratt was an American writer who is best known for his novels set in Florida. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1901 to Thomas A. and Emma Pratt. The family later moved to New Rochelle, New York, where Theodore attended high school...

. Filmed in Super Cinecolor on location in Florida where the events take place it features many elements of the Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

.

Set it 1895, Robert Cummings plays a con man, Sylvanus Hurley, who is trying to raise the selling price of land he owns by convincing the residents of Miami that a railroad is coming to town. Jerome Courtland

Jerome Courtland

Jerome Courtland is an American actor, director and producer. He acted in films in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and in television in the 1950s and 1960s...

 plays the barefoot mailman

Barefoot mailman

The term barefoot mailman refers to the carriers on the first U.S. Mail route between Palm Beach , and the settlements around the body of water known as Lake Worth on the north, and Miami, Cocoanut Grove, and Lemon City to the south...

, Steven Pierton, who leads Sylvanus along the beach from Palm Beach

Palm Beach, Florida

The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

 to Miami, and who is skeptical of Sylvanus's scheme. Terry Moore

Terry Moore (actress)

Helen Luella Koford , better known as Terry Moore, is an American actress. Terry Moore made her film debut at age 11 and grew up with all the icons of the Hollywood era that made Hollywood what it is today, also known as "The Golden Age of Hollywood". Moore is an Academy Award nominated actress...

 is a run-away teenager, Adie Titus, who joins Sylvanus and Steven on their walk by impersonating a child. John Russell

John Russell (actor)

John Lawrence Russell was an American actor, and World War II veteran, most noted for playing Marshal Dan Troop in the successful ABC western television series Lawman from 1958 to 1962....

 plays Theron, a swamp gang leader who tries to carry Adie away. Will Geer

Will Geer

Will Geer was an American actor and social activist. His original name was William Aughe Ghere. He is remembered for his portrayal of Grandpa Zebulon Tyler Walton in the 1970s TV series, The Waltons....

plays Dan Paget, a newspaper editor and the mayor of Miami.

The wit of Sylvanus Hurley

You're an idealist

No, just a bachelor

Same thing


A man never knows how happy he is until he gets married...and then it's too late


Women are like meals; absolutely necessary but extremely uncomfortable when they stay with you