'C'-Man

Dean Jagger, a US customs agent, hunts he murderer of a childhood friend who was killed while on the trail of a stolen necklace.

Where did this movie hide for so long? Set and shot primarily in New York City this is a gritty crime drama that seems to predate many other better known films. Its raw and in your face with a documentary edge of real street s and real places. The style reminded me of the films of Orson Welles, especially a film like Mr Arkadin. It also feels like the Lemmy Caution films of Eddie Constantine and other low budget European films. There is an edge to the film making, a do what it takes attitude that produces some surprising and some violent scenes. This is not the type of film you'd expect from an American studio, certainly not in 1949.

This is one of those movies that seems a bit hokey at first but by the time ten minutes have passed you're hooked and are willing to follow the story where ever it goes just because its a good story being told in an interesting manner.

I don't know why this movie isn't better known. Certainly its not a great movie, but its a damn good one. It reminded me of the sort of movie you'd catch at 2am on the Late Late Show when you're half awake, trying to fall asleep only to fall in its clutches and stay up all night... I think I would have thought this was even better if I saw this at 2am.

This is one to see and search out (Even though at this writing IMDb lists it as unavailable Alpha Video does have it on DVD) 7 out of 10.

I did not know this movie at all and I must admit that it is not bad at all but forgettable. Just as the other films directed by this Joseph Lerner, for instance GIRL ON THE RUN. But it is worth watching, after all John Carradine and Dean Jagger contribute a lot to the story, but they don't steal the show either. It is not a gritty.actionner, and anyway not an actionner at all. This is just an acceptable time waster, only destined to movie buffs in search of a rare item to watch. Even directed by a Joseph H Lewis or a Budd Boetticher, the result would have been the same - a bit better though - because there was nothing exceptional to take from such a story.

Dean Jagger is a customs agent with a trench coat. He's told a good friend has been killed tracking down a jewelry theft ring in Marseilles, and he's been assigned to fly to Europe so he can be seated on a flight next to the suspected head of the operation. Through mischance, he's seated next to Lottie Elwen, who's coming to America to marry a guy whose apartment has been invaded and he's been killed. She's also carrying the latest batch of stolen ice.

It's what I call a paycheck movie, made of bits and pieces of other movies, filled with talent in front of and behind the camera who haven't made it and who may never do so. Jagger, who had been struggling in the Bs for 20 years, goes undercover as a dumb PI who gets his head beat in for information; his next movie would win him the Oscar for Best Supporting Oscar, but here he's doing his best with a ridiculous script. Director Joseph Lerner would struggle for ten years, making a few documentaries and independent Bs like this and disappear from the movies. Second-billed John Carradine .... well, here was an actor whom everyone respected and who never really clicked. Cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld, DP on his second movie, shot the streets of New York like he hated them, and did well enough eventually. His black-and-white camerawork topped out with FAIL-SAFE and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Composer Gail Kubik would turn his score from this movie into a Pulitzer-Prize winning symphony, but here it just sounds.... cheap. . And that's this whole movie: cheap,with everyone trying to do a decent job and earn their paychecks and do well enough that some one would notice and say "Well, this guy has potential. Let's give him a shot. Most of the people here never really got that shot, or had long minor careers. Well, sometimes that's what people want.

Here's one of those B-movie nuggets that makes sifting through the dregs worthwhile (quite appropriate for a tale of jewel smugglers). I'm sure it's exactly the kind of edgy, low-budget genre-piece that inspired Godard and Truffaut to create "Breathless" and "Shoot the Piano Player".

Like its near namesake "T-Men", the heroic semi-documentary frame limns a brutal, cynical noir with striking location shooting. The narrative keeps throwing us curveballs, and the tight, off-kilter framing, low-key lighting and nervy editing emphasize the randomness of the violence and the desperation of the denizens of this demimonde. Most arresting is the frantic free-jazz score, presaging Miles Davis's improvised work for "Lift to the Gallows".

The characters are idiosyncratic and played with verve. Like several other late noirs, there is an undercurrent of homosexuality among the henchmen, and John Carradine's quack doctor is addicted to Benedictine, of all things. A great, offbeat, late-night view.

The reviews for "C-Man" are mostly very positive. However, I just saw it as a cheap little film with a ton of plot holes.

When the film begins, Treasury Agent Cliff Holden (Dean Jagger) learns that his good friend and fellow agent had been murdered. He vows to find out who's responsible and bring them to justice. Cliff blindly blunders from one situation after another where he SHOULD be killed but again and again he inexplicably survives...and there is no logical reason he isn't killed. Any film that relies this much on dumb luck and dumb criminals is second rate...and this one sure is. Additionally, some of the acting and cinematography is very second rate. In fact, nothing in particular stand out in this one, though Dean Jagger's toupee is very nice. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother with this limp little thriller that offers few thrills.