Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

T-Men Blu-ray Movie Review

Not a prequel to X-Men.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 9, 2017

Director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton worked together six times over the relatively short expanse of only three or so years, resulting in chiaroscuro drenched noirs like He Walked by Night (due in just a few more weeks from ClassicFlix), Raw Deal (on ClassicFlix’s release list, but not yet officially scheduled), Reign of Terror, Border Incident and Devil's Doorway, the one kind of outlier in this grouping due to it being a historical piece that rather presciently if somewhat tangentially examined issues of Native American rights long before they became fodder for westerns later in the fifties. Mann and Alton began their collaboration in 1947 with T-Men, a film which has a first rate presentational style bolstering a somewhat lumbering storyline, one that perhaps isn’t helped especially by a curious quasi-documentary approach that includes former Treasury Department official Elmer Lincoln Irey, the man who spearheaded the investigation which finally brought down Al Capone, in what is referred to as a “stultifying” prologue that Irey has trouble getting through, even though he appears to be reading from a sheaf of papers on the desk in front of him.

As Irey and narrator Reed Hadley indicate, while this is supposedly a “ripped from the headlines” affair, it’s actually a “composite” case, by which is meant (I assume) that perhaps a little of that good old fashioned “fictionalizing” comes into play. The basic setup of T-Men isn’t overly elaborate. An early scene documents the villainous behavior of Moxie (Charles McGraw), who turns out to unsurprisingly be one of the major bad guys of the piece. The good guys are Treasury Agents Dennis O’Brien (Dennis O’Keefe) and Tony Genaro (Alfred Ryder), who go undercover with appropriate aliases as supposed survivors of a gang massacre, with the intent of infiltrating a counterfeiting group.

With the possible exception of one rather shocking death, there is a somewhat predictable pathway toward justice that T-Men provides, replete with two focal characters who, while inarguably noble, are a little on the bland side, essentially ciphers that the audience can “color in” as they see fit. Even Genaro’s recent marriage to Mary (June Lockhart) is used less for traditional character development than for some brief but visceral emotional content. The film wallows in a kind of seedy atmosphere, positing the T-Men in a decrepit hotel at one point, and offering up a series of vignettes featuring a coterie of kind of gritty underworld personalities.

Where T-Men excels is in its presentational aspect. From the first shadow drenched scene to any number of subsequent framings that are recurrently askew or which feature almost bizarre aggregations of foreground objects and deep focus, Mann and Alton offer deliberately asymmetrical framings which in and of themselves suggest a world out of order, but which also uniformly offer visual interest even when the screenplay isn’t overly compelling. While the writing is at least competent, this is a film that attains its visceral impact from how the content is being presented, rather than the content itself.

While the two heroes are a bit on the nondescript side, and the actors portraying them therefore struggle to really deliver anything overly memorable, the film’s coterie of nefarious types offers a good deal more color. Even bit parts like the seedy hotel operator who initially hooks the guys up with the underworld is given a good deal of smarmy deference by Tito Vuolo. Wallace Ford and William Malten have decent showcases for brief bursts of brutish energy, but it’s Charles McGraw who handily steals every scene he’s in as one of the most lethal of the bad guys.

T-Men Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

T-Men is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is another great looking restoration and transfer from ClassicFlix, which is becoming a rather enjoyable label for some lesser known but still highly enjoyable fare. The element was culled from the British Film Institute archive, and then ClassicFlix spent several months on its own restoration, with the results offering a generally excellent viewing experience. Alton's high contrast cinematography is presented rather lustrously, with deep, solid blacks and extremely well modulated gray scale. By design there are a number of scenes with relatively little shadow detail, something that makes the sudden emergence of an element like McGraw's face as seen in screenshot 4 more forceful. Clarity and sharpness are just slightly variable, but grain is very organic looking and resolves throughout the presentation without any problems. There really aren't any major issues with age related wear and tear in any discernable form.

T-Men Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

T-Men features a fine sounding LPCM 2.0 mono track that supports Reed Hadley's rich narration extremely well, and which also delivers the film's actual dialogue without any issues. There's a slightly anemic quality to a few sound effects like gunshots, and some of Paul Sawtell's more bombastic cues can sound slightly boxy, but overall this is an enjoyable and problem free track.

T-Men Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by biographer and producer Alan K. Rode offers some excellent production and biographical information, though I have to say his pronunciations of a few words occasionally threw me for a momentary loop (e.g., I briefly thought he was referring to the Sonora Desert when he said "sonorous" with the emphasis on the second syllable).


• Into the Darkness: Mann, Alton and T-Men (1080p; 10:38) is a nice overview highlighting the pair's collaboration and this film's often fascinating cinematography.


• A Director's Daughter: Nina Mann Remembers (1080p; 9:18) offers some really interesting biographical data about Mann, including a perhaps unexpected connection to the Theosophical Society.

ClassicFlix also provides a nicely appointed insert booklet with an excellent essay by Max Alvarez and a lot of great production stills and promotional material.

T-Men Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

T-Men's actual narrative has a kind of pedestrian, maybe even plodding, quality, but its presentational style is dynamic beyond belief. Even supposedly mundane moments like Irey's opening monologue are framed a little unevenly (see screenshot 5), and once the actual story kicks in, Alton and Mann repeatedly choose framings that keep the viewer inspecting every inch of what's going on. Performances are generally strong, if a little bland on the hero side. ClassicFlix has upped its game with this release, offering not just a stellar looking transfer but some enjoyable supplements and a really beautiful insert booklet. Recommended.