> Can you use the debugger to determine precisely what options
> Emacs passes to movemail?  You could do debug-on-entry
> for call-process.

<buffer name="*Backtrace*">
Debugger entered--entering a function:
* call-process("/usr/bin/movemail" nil #<buffer  *temp*<2>> nil "--version")
  rmail-probe("/usr/bin/movemail")
  byte-code("�Æ	\nC#�ljƒF
!„>
!ƒ>
!‰ƒ=
�Î�Ï\"ˆ))\fA‰„

  rmail-autodetect()
  rmail-movemail-variant-p(mailutils)
  rmail-insert-inbox-text(("/var/mail/eddy") t)
  rmail-get-new-mail()
  rmail()
  call-interactively(rmail)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command)
</buffer>

When I invoke movemail --version manually, I get 
movemail (GNU Mailutils 1.1)

After a while I guessed to type c to make the debugger continue, which
seems to be what it did, and it hit the break-point again:

<buffer name="*Backtrace*">
Debugger entered--returning value: 0
  call-process("/usr/bin/movemail" nil #<buffer  *temp*<2>> nil "--version")
  rmail-probe("/usr/bin/movemail")
  byte-code("�Æ	\nC#�ljƒF
!„>
!ƒ>
!‰ƒ=
�Î�Ï\"ˆ))\fA‰„

  rmail-autodetect()
  rmail-movemail-variant-p(mailutils)
  rmail-insert-inbox-text(("/var/mail/eddy") t)
  rmail-get-new-mail()
  rmail()
  call-interactively(rmail)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command)
</buffer>

and then c again:

<buffer name="*Backtrace*">
Debugger entered--entering a function:
* call-process("/usr/lib/emacs/22.1/i486-linux-gnu/movemail" nil #<buffer  *temp*> nil "--emacs" "/var/mail/eddy" "/disk/home/eddy/.newmail-eddy")
  apply(call-process ("/usr/lib/emacs/22.1/i486-linux-gnu/movemail" nil #<buffer  *temp*> nil "--emacs" "/var/mail/eddy" "/disk/home/eddy/.newmail-eddy"))
  rmail-insert-inbox-text(("/var/mail/eddy") t)
  rmail-get-new-mail()
  rmail()
  call-interactively(rmail)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command)
</buffer>

and again:

<buffer name="*Backtrace*">
Debugger entered--returning value: 1
  call-process("/usr/lib/emacs/22.1/i486-linux-gnu/movemail" nil #<buffer  *temp*> nil "--emacs" "/var/mail/eddy" "/disk/home/eddy/.newmail-eddy")
  apply(call-process ("/usr/lib/emacs/22.1/i486-linux-gnu/movemail" nil #<buffer  *temp*> nil "--emacs" "/var/mail/eddy" "/disk/home/eddy/.newmail-eddy"))
  rmail-insert-inbox-text(("/var/mail/eddy") t)
  rmail-get-new-mail()
  rmail()
  call-interactively(rmail)
  execute-extended-command(nil)
  call-interactively(execute-extended-command)
</buffer>

after which I got the error,

<buffer name="*Messages*">
("emacs" "-q" "--no-site-file")
For information about the GNU Project and its goals, type C-h C-p.
Loading debug...done
Loading rmail...done
(New file)
Counting messages...done
Entering debugger...
Loading help-mode...done
Mark set [3 times]
Continuing.
Entering debugger...
Mark set
Continuing.
Entering debugger...
Mark set [2 times]
Continuing.
Entering debugger...
Mark set
Continuing.
movemail: /usr/lib/emacs/22.1/i486-linux-gnu/movemail: invalid option -- -
(No new mail has arrived)
</buffer>

	Eddy.