T-Men

Iconic Film-Noir from Director Anthony Mann with Incredible Impressionistic Cinematography from John Alton. At the Beginning of the Post-War entries in the Genre it set a Stylized Template that would be Imitated for Years. Not Enough can be said about the Alton Look of the Film. Silhouetted Darkness in front of Glaring Light gives the Impression of Another World Separated from but Linked to Reality in a Disturbing Dimension of a World Out of Sync. A Place of an Underworld that Preys Upon the Innocent. Included in this Ground-Breaker of a Movie are Dennis O'Keefe Dragging on a Cigarette throughout as a Tough as Nails Treasury Agent, Charles MaGraw as a Sweaty, Immoral Thug, and Wallace Ford as the "Schemer" a Pulp Name if there ever was one. Also, Not to be Denied and making an Impression as an Italian American is Alfred Ryder, very Convincing as an Every-Man doing His Bit for His Country. This is one of those that all Film-Noir are Compared. It is Definitive and Dramatic with some Hard Bitten Violence and Hard-Boiled Dialog. The Setting of the City is Unmistakably Noir and the Atmosphere is Chilling and Disturbing. The Opening where, in the Post-War World is another of those Contemporary Boasting that the Government, along with Dedicated Agents and the Latest Technology is a Force that is Leading the World Toward Democracy and Decency is a Flawed Pretension that is the Movie's Greatest Weakness. A Dated Technique that is a Bit Much for Modern Audiences. That this Jingoism can be Ignored and listed as Inconsequential in the end is a Testament to the Raw Power of the Film, which is so Substantial as to make the Lesser Parts Rendered Remote and can be Forgiven. This is Simply One of the Best of the Genre and Images from the Great John Alton Frame are Used Frequently to Illustrate the Look of Film-Noir.

I enjoyed the two other Anthony Mann films noirs I've seen, He Walked By Night and Raw Deal, but this one just didn't do it for me. Where He Walked by Night is tense, this is flat, and where Raw Deal is full of sexual tension, this is indifferent. The third person narration, included to give this pseudo=documentary some credibility, grows tiresome after the first scene. It is also not needed in most of the places it is. I'm not an enemy of voice-over narration in films, but overuse of third person narration has ruined a couple films for me, including Kubrick's The Killing and, to a small degree, Jules Dassin's The Naked City. The film also lacks the haunting quality of film noir. Sure, it has the same visual style, but it fails to create the same ambiance as the atmospheric Raw Deal. It's not totally unenjoyable, but both as a film noir and as a police documentary it falls short of being a classic.

This is a fun movie, in a campy sort of way. Two undercover "T-men" (United States Treasury Agents) attempt to uncover a counterfeiting ring as a narrator describes the technical details of the laborious process they use to do it... at great detail, in other words, repetitively, like thus: "He trailed him, shadowing, hiding, keeping hidden, shadowing, trailing..." and so on. This movie would be little better than an Ed Wood movie except for the cinematography and the directing. Almost all of the acting is completely covered up by the continuing narration until later in the movie, when the actors finally have time to present their characters without someone telling us what to think of them. Even after they are given room to act, however, they have to deal with such cheesy and dated lines as, "Are you out of your whim-whams?" and "Have you ever spent 8 nights in a steam bath looking for a man?" However, it's all in the fun of film noir, even if it is removed from the existential angst and is more like a crime periodical sort of story. A viewer still gets that rich sense of chiaroscuro and guns flashing out of the dark still pack a punch. --PolarisDiB

Two treasury agents infiltrate a dangerous gang of counterfeiters in this exciting 1947 film. The two are able to be accepted by the gangsters due to excellent detective and preparation on their parts. The heartbreaking scene where one of them was killed was skillfully done. The camera image of Dennis O'Keefe, after his cohort is killed, was memorable. Also memorable was the one scene that June Lockhart appeared in. Realizing that her husband is on assignment and unable to reveal himself, Lockhart plays along. Later, her husband is killed. Wallace Ford is excellent as a mob stooge. Another great film noir by director Anthony Mann. It is only at the very end that the head of these people is revealed. We never saw this person throughout the film.

Shot and structured in a quasi-documentary style, this low budget noir from Eagle Lion pictures succeeds more than it fails, but still manages to fall just short. It takes awhile for it to heat up but when it does it shouldn't disappoint fans of hard-boiled and tough talking crime pictures. Much credit must go to Charles McGraw, who elevates the film to a higher level the minute he appears. Everything about this man bespeaks of film noir, and here as the head torpedo he's as nasty as they come. What shoots this picture in the foot is the jumpy plot structure which is constantly filled in with unneeded voice over. The psychological inner workings and tension fail to ebb and flow every time the narrator fills in the blanks. With a bigger studio throwing more money at it this film might have been one of the A list classics, but made on the cheap as it was it remains just a better than average B movie.

An average noir film is made horrible through the use of narration that assumes the audience is stupid as a rock. Every single action the agents make, for the first half of the film, is narrated, explained, praised, and explained again for good measure. I mean they really, really hit you over the head with it. The agents don't just gather facts, the gather "facts to be used." They don't only take notes, they "memorize those notes." And on and on. This isn't radio: we can _see_ the agents going over the material! The jingoistic, condescending tone of the narration ruins what would otherwise be a fairly thrilling crime picture, with superb black and white filming and some graphic, spine-tingling scenes of violence.

source: T-Men

Trailer—T-Men

T-Men

This undercover-secret-service-agents-infiltrate-counterfeiting-ring film is heavily dependent on exceptionally fine noir lighting and camera work under the direction of Albert Mann which help to maintain a high degree of tension, notwithstanding its pseudo-documentary format (complete with voice-over narrator) and somewhat stilted acting. Wallace Ford is positively slimy in the supporting role of Schemer, a hood-fallen-in-influence.