T-Men

In 2019, the Film Noir Foundation restored a 1949 film "Trapped" which involved the Secret Service tracking down a gang of west coast counterfeiters. "Trapped" was an attempt to follow-up on the success of this film "T-Men" made two years earlier which also involved the Treasury Department seeking to break up an even more insidious counterfeit gang working from Detroit and Los Angeles. Both films were the product of a small independent studio, Eagle-Lion Films, and both are made in a semi-documentary style and include a voice-over extolling, the work of the Treasury Department in combatting crime and helping to keep our country safe. In "T-Men" the case that is broken open is called the "Shanghai Paper Caper" because the paper the criminal gang uses to make the phony money comes from China.Of the two films, "T-Men" was more successful upon release and approaches the stature of a film noir classic, It is valuable to have "Trapped" restored, but the film on which it is based is the stronger, more important, and enjoyable work. Dennis O'Keefe and Alfred Ryder star as the two Treasury agents, the T-Men, who at great risk infiltrate a gang in Detroit and a related gang in Los Angeles to stop the bad guys from passing counterfeit money and other illegal activities. Wallace Ford, Jane Randolph, and John Weingraf head up the insidious criminal gang.The action moves quickly and the story is easy to follow even with the changes of scene and the many double crossings. However, the real attraction of this movie is the noir cinematography of John Alton with its heavily dark, shadowy scenes which capture the hard nature of the story and the characters. The on-site locations are also well-chosen beginning with brief 1940 scenes of Washington, D.C. The Detroit settings feature an old street car running through the city and a shady old building and hotel that front underworld activity. The more extensive Los Angeles setting features parts of the city that are no more, including an amusement park, old nightclub, and a dark alley in old Chinatown, once replete with brothels and opium dens. The locations of the gang, ranging from shabby to opulent, are also captured well in the film.In terms of its story, "T-Men" is more a police procedural than a film noir, but the settings, cinematography, and the focus on the gangs give the film a distinct noir character. It is an excellent film for those new to the noir genre. Eddie Muller, the "Czar of Noir" offers enthusiastic and informed commentary in his introductory and concluding remarks on this film in his "Noir Alley" series. I was glad to have the opportunity to see this movie and to enhance my appreciation of film noir.Robin Friedman

Anthony Mann's 1947 film noir "T-Men" was released on DVD fifteen years ago by both Sony and VCI.I have the VCI: Decent picture and sound + a 6 minute video essay by Max Anthony Collins.No subtitles(I've never seen the Sony DVD so I can't comment.)The new Blu-Ray from Classic Flix is a significant improvement over my old DVDClearer picture and sound + these extras:-- Audio commentary by Anthony Mann biographer Alan K. Rode-- Video essay on cinematographer John Alton (10 minutes)-- Interview with Anthony Mann's daughter Nina (10 minutes)-- English SDH subtitles-- 24 page booklet with full color lobby cards - hand-colored in 1947 (it's a black & white film of course).See photos.More expensive than the DVD, but this really is a "special edition" as advertised.Between 1944 and 1950 Anthony Mann directed seven (maybe eleven) films noir.Four with cinematgrapher John Alton.All are on DVD.Three are on deluxe Blu-Rays from Classic Flix (T-Men, He Walked by Night, and Raw Deal)1944  Strangers in the Night DVD [Blu-ray ] (sort of noir)1945  The Great Flamarion  DVD or Amazon Video (sort of noir)1945  Two O'Clock Courage  DVD (sort of noir)1946  Strange Impersonation  DVD (sort of noir)1947  T-Men (Special Edition) - Blu-ray  * (first real noir)1947  Railroaded  DVD or Amazon Video1947 Desperate - in a four DVD box:  Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume Five 1948  He Walked by Night (Special Edition) - Blu-ray  * (Alfred Werker is listed as director, but Mann finished the film for an indisposed Werker)1948  Raw Deal (Blu-ray) - Special Edition  *1949 Border Incident * - in a six DVD box:  Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3 (Border Incident / His Kind of Woman / Lady in the Lake / On Dangerous Ground / The Racket) 1950 Side Street - in a five DVD box:  Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4 (Act of Violence / Mystery Street / Crime Wave / Decoy / Illegal / The Big Steal / They Live By Night / Side Street / Where Danger Lives / Tension) * Cinematography by John AltonWikipedia also credits Mann as co-directing ‘Follow Me Quietly’ (1949), but that is an error.He wrote the first draft of the screenplay, but left RKO before filming began.

A classic noir. The collaboration between Anthony Mann and John Alton is amazing. For most of the film the picture is lite with a single light bulb, deliberately making the film more moody and atmospheric. The use of light in this film is phenomenal. It helps tell the story. That is the brilliance of John Alton the cinematographer. He has only done about 4 films I'm aware of... But in every one he works this magic with the camera. The story is superb. I won't tell the story as enough people have done that already. But anyone with a love of noir film (1945 - 1958 strictly speaking), I highly recommend this. (T - Men 1947)

T-Men is directed by Anthony Mann and adapted by John C. Higgins from a suggested story written by Virginia Kellogg. It stars Dennis O'Keefe, Alfred Ryder, Mary Meade, Wallace Ford, June Lockhart, Charles McGraw and Art Smith. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by John Alton. Plot finds O'Keefe and Ryder as dedicated Treasury agents assigned to go undercover to break up the counterfeiting ring at the center of The Shanghai Paper Case. Posing as low ranked hoodlums left over from a long thought of disbanded gang, the two men find themselves immersed in a dark underworld of violence and deceit. Getting in was easy, coming out alive is a different matter.The first pairing of director Anthony Mann and master cinematographer John Alton, T-Men is tough semi documentary type film noir that manages to break free of its plot simplicity confines to become a fine movie. Beginning with a foreword delivered by a stoic Treasury official, the film initially feels it's going to be standard gangster/cops fare. But once our two intrepid agents go undercover and we hit the underworld, Mann and Alton shift the tone and the film becomes a different beast. The psychological aspects start to dominate the narrative, as both O'Keefe and Ryder cast aside their humanity to be at one with the grubby world. Under examination is the thin line between the law and the lawless, our two good guys are battling inner conflicts, their natural good instincts, but being bad has come easy. The edges of the frame have become blurred.The psychological tints would mean nothing without Alton's photography, it's the key element and therefore becomes essential viewing for film noir aficionados. His deep focus chiaroscuro compositions are very striking, and tell us more visually than anything being said vocally. How he frames the heroic agents in the same shadowy light as the bad guys helps keep us the audience in deep with the shift from good world to bad world. This mise-en-scène style has taken over, it's a life force all of its own, and as good as O'Keefe, Ryder and McGraw (always great to see him playing the muscle) are, it's the photography that is the main character here. Mann does his bit, also, sweaty close ups and up-tilt camera work adding to the general disquiet hanging heavy in every room. While his construction of the films most shocking scene, involving a steam bath, is so good its been copied numerous times since.Not as gritty as Raw Deal, which Mann, Alton and O'Keefe made the following year, but still as tough as old boots and cloaked deliciously with a shadowy beauty. 8/10

"T-Men" is presented as a docu-drama, complete with a stentorian narrative voice-over of the type associated with US TV dramas like "The Untouchables", "Dragnet" etc. A pair of undercover Treasury Department agents (Dennis O`Keefe and Alfred Ryder) go undercover to infiltrate and bring to justice a violent counterfeiting ring. Although this is pretty much a gangster/ crime thriller, the photographic style, camera work and lighting lift it firmly into the world of film noir. The cinematographer on this production was John Alton who also worked on "The Big Combo"(1955) and "Raw Deal"(1948); it is full of text-book noir lighting effects. The drama is taut and absorbing, masterfully directed by Anthony Mann.The picture quality is of a good standard throughought with only a few lines and blemishes here and there; sound is generally good and the original aspect ratio is retained.This is an excellent little thriller which will be of interest to lovers of all crime genres and particularly lovers of film noir.Warmly recommended!

This review os for the Sony/ClassicMedia issue. I would have given this 5 stars for Alton's cinematography alone, which is stunning. The movie is clunky in places - little more than Treasury Dept propaganda - and there are some very odd directorial decisions. For example, in one scene two characters are talking, but you don't hear them - instead you have to put up with the rather arch voiceover telling you what they're saying.At other times the action is taut and extremely well-paced. As a noir, it's definitely a second-string film lifted by the spectacular photography.All of which is badly let down by this truly abysmal transfer. It looks like a bad 16mm print transferred to video on a dirty telecine. Contrast is lousy and image stability is terrible, with the picture wobbling all over the place. There's barely a second of the movie that is stable. How Sony has the nerve to charge people for this is beyond me.

i am a particular fan of anthony mann's pre-western hardboiled period... although some of the westerns stand up to interesting reading also... but definitely all his lower budget noir crime dramas pack a punch and this is one of them