Director Anthony Mann’s punchy, complex and intelligent 1947 B-movie crime thriller stars little-remembered Dennis O’Keefe, who brings a zesty star turn as a T-man to a story about a couple of American Treasury agents (O’Keefe and Alfred Ryder) going undercover to track down a Detroit forgery ring run by a clever criminal (Anton Kosta).

It is excitingly written and well plotted by John C Higgins (based on a story by Virginia Kellogg, inspired by real-life Treasury cases), strikingly photographed in black and white by John Alton, and tautly directed in realist documentary style by Mann (later to become a Western and epics specialist).

The rock-solid B-movie cast includes Charles McGraw (as Moxie), who was soon to enjoy his finest hour in Narrow Margin (1952).

Also in the cast are Wallace Ford as The Schemer, June Lockhart, Jane Randolph, Art Smith, Herbert Heyes, Jack Overman, John Wengraf, Jim Bannon, William Malten, Reed Hadley, Vivian Ausin, James Seay, Lyle Latell, John Newland and Tito Vuolo.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5257

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