- A movie helped considerably by the involvement of director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton, T-Men represents yet another entry in the the documentary-style film noir canon. Whereas this approach to storytelling worked very well for The Naked City, it more often than not results in films whose pacing is disrupted by a narrator who, also more often than not, is Reed Hadley. This particular film also features a remarkably awkward introduction by real-life Treasury official Elmer Lincoln Irey, who was presumably a much better Treasury employee than he was an actor. The good news: if you can get past these narrative obstacles, you will probably enjoy T-Men well enough.
- The plot is a standard undercover story in which two Treasury agents posing as Vannie Harrigan (Dennis O'Keefe) and Tony Galvani (Alfred Ryder) infiltrate a counterfeiting ring. They first work their way into a Detroit gang run by Carlo Vantucci (Anton Kosta), mostly to build up their reputations before going after bigger targets in Los Angeles. The key connection between the two cities is a shady player nicknamed "The Schemer" (Wallace Ford), whose bad reputation hasn't prevented him from working with multiple crews. Eventually, the two agents make their way to the top, but not without exposing themselves to considerable risk in the process.
- In fact, their situation is so risky that, to spoil a 70-year-old story, one of the agents ends up dead and the other seriously injured by the film's end. In that respect, this seems like an odd situation for the Treasury Department to brag about. I appreciate wanting to honor the sacrifices their agents have made, but it also seems like they could have chosen a slightly more successful assignment to serve as their theatrical advertisement. Regardless, the dramatized portions of the film feature some pretty impressive settings and cinematography, both of which help push the rest of the film through. I even found myself feeling oddly nostalgic for the days when counterfeit ten-dollar bills would have merited investigation by undercover agents.
- Also featuring June Lockhart, Mary Meade, Jack Overman, and Charles McGraw.
