Main Cast: Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Meade, Charles McGraw, Alfred Ryder, Wallace Ford, June Lockhart
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
The moodily evocative docudrama T-Men stars Dennis O'Keefe as Dennis O'Brien, a treasury agent determined to bring a counterfeiting ring to justice. O'Brien and his partner Tony Genaro (Alfred Ryder) go undercover to gain the confidence of the ruthless Detroit mob responsible for the phony money. The plot, compelling though it is, takes second place to the film's stylish set pieces, superbly directed by Anthony Mann and brilliantly photographed by John Alton. Among the film's most famous moments is the scene in which two-bit hood Wallace Ford is bumped off in a steam bath by sadistic hood Charles McGraw, not to mention the harrowing vignette wherein O'Keefe, posing as a crook, must stand by silently as his partner Ryder is murdered. One of the finest examples of the film noir form, T-Men proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a film didn't need to have a lush budget, brilliant Technicolor and Clark Gable to score a hit with postwar moviegoers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Anthony Mann's first big success is a tightly written pseudocumentary on undercover Treasury agents, which owes much to John Alton's stunning chiaroscuro camera work. Like Dragnet, which it resembles in the use of the voice-over narration typical of the period, the film was based on an actual Treasury Department case. In his Notes on Film Noir, director Paul Schrader wrote to the effect that noir is not a genre per se, with specific attributes of character and setting, but a style, based on tone and atmosphere. The film is nothing if not a triumph of style over substance, and while the byzantine plot is kept in sharp focus, it's the visual inventiveness of Mann and Alton that's makes it work. Film historian Todd McCarthy included scenes from the film in his acclaimed documentary on the history of cinematography, Visions of Light (1993). ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Edward C. Jewell - Art Director, Frances Ehren - Costume Designer, Howard W. Koch - First Assistant Director, Anthony Mann - Director, Fred Allen - Editor, Alfred de Gaetano - Editor, Paul Sawtell - Composer (Music Score), Irving Friedman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ern Westmore - Makeup, Joe Stinton - Makeup, John Alton - Cinematographer, Aubrey Schenk - Producer, Armor E. Marlowe - Set Designer, Jack R. Rabin - Special Effects, George J. Teague - Special Effects, Frank McWhorter - Sound/Sound Designer, John C. Higgins - Screenwriter, Virginia Kellogg - Short Story Author
