La brigade du suicide

When the American Treasure Department finds that a gang in Los Angeles is making false currency, agents Dennis O'Brien (Dennis O'Keefe) and Tony Genaro (Alfred Ryder) are assigned to investigate the counterfeit gang using the identities of Vannie Harrigan and Tony Galvani in Detroit. Along their investigation they join the gang of mobsters trying to discover who the boss behind the scheme is.

"T-Men" is a great thriller labelled of film-noir. The documentary style is interesting and there are surprising twists along the story. The performances are great and the direction of Anthony Mann is top notch. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Moeda Falsa" ("False Coin")

The oldest federal law enforcement outfit going are the Treasury Men, those intrepid folks who see that no one avoids paying the federal duties on various items or counterfeits our money. That was the subject that Director Anthony Mann decided to tackle in the documentary style made famous over at 20th Century Fox in such films as Boomerang, The Street With No Name, and The House on 92nd Street.

Over at Fox it was done for effect. But as good as T-Men is and it is a crackling good film, let's not forget the reason for John Alton's camera work with lights and shadows is because he and Mann were working on a B picture. These guys got creative because they had to. Later on Anthony Mann in the Fifties got some real good size budgets to work with in those technicolor westerns he did with James Stewart. You'd hardly know it was the same director.

T-Men involves treasury agents Dennis O'Keefe and Alfred Ryder going undercover to get a very slick group of counterfeiters. The murder of an informer brings the Treasury Department to the decision to use undercover men. They meet all kinds of criminal types of both sexes and in good noir style the tension mounts before they too become informed on.

Our good guys blend well into the criminal world in their performances. But the outstanding acting in T-Men is done by hit man Charles McGraw and Wallace Ford who is aptly nicknamed Schemer in this film.

This is definitely a film for fans of the noir genre.

This film is rather reminiscent of the excellent Alan Ladd Noir film, APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER (about a postal inspector infiltrating a murderous gang). In this case, the undercover work is done by two Treasury agents--Dennis O'Keefe and Alfred Ryder. I really liked these two as leads because despite being far from household names, the acting was excellent and believable. Also, true to Noir, they weren't exactly handsome guys--more like a tough average man instead of the usual non-Noir heroes.

O'Keefe and Ryder play undercover agents who are trying to infiltrate a gang of counterfeiters. It's dangerous work and they can't just arrest people because they have no idea who is in charge. Throughout the film, tough bad guys (such as Charles McGraw) and unflinching but realistic violence is present--as well as an excellent level of suspense. Unlike some Noir films, this one pulls no punches nor does it give way to sentimentality. This is a seldom-seen but exceptional film for lovers of the genre.

By the way, I had one minor complain and that was the terrible narration. My score for the film, because of this, is knocked from an 8 to 7. When the film began, a Treasury official gave an introduction that was VERY stilted and he simply couldn't read his lines well. Then, throughout the film, a different narrator spoke on occasion and just wasn't necessary to the film--it was a minor distraction.

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

This is one of the better examples of film noir cinematography. Once the introductions are over and the dramatization of the case begins, the film overflows with startling black-and-white contrasts and interesting camera angles. Director Anthony Mann and photographer John Alton were at the top of their game and the DVD transfer enhances their work.

The great camera-work more than makes up for the fact that the story is just so-so, the weakest of the three noirs the two did together on this 3-pack DVD (the others being, He Walked By Night and Raw Deal.) However, it does sport the typically-tough film noir characters and some great suspense over the last 10-15 minutes. What you have to wade through is the boring beginning but staying with it will be rewarding.

I thought the grim story could have used a little warmth, at least some wisecracking with some floozy "dame." But, no molls in this story this is man's gangster film all the way.