cult film freak: DIRECTOR ANTHONY MANN'S CONTERFEIT MONEY FILM NOIR 'T-MEN'

Title: T-MEN Director: Anthony Mann Year: 1947 Rating: ****1/2

Backed by offbeat, surreal music from a dream sequence... only here used for otherwise normal dialogue in a film noir governmental expose that begins as a documentary before escalating into the story of undercover agents Dennis O'Keefe and Alfred Ryder, thrust into a formidably dark underworld of pitiful motel rooms, seedy steam-baths and smoky taverns where a criminal gang deal in counterfeit money...

And they're so paranoid about the duo possibly being T-MEN, the agents are put through the ringer that includes getting beaten up within tense-filled moments where — on the edge of almost being revealed (especially by muggy hit-men Charles McGraw and Jack Overman) — the suspense level reaches a cascade of revolving peaks...

Dennis O'Keefe in T-MEN

Directed by Anthony Mann before epic westerns and dramas, T-MEN is a genuine b-movie filled with so many creative camera angles, there's not a single setup involving two or three actors (while dames are sparse) that's not inventively, strategically shot... while always being perfectly darkly lit..

Visually epitomizing the film noir aesthetic: including exterior shadow-filled alleyways and dilapidated city streets where the characters, whether good or bad, are caught desperately (and hopelessly) in-between.