The Undercover Man **** (1949, Glenn Ford, Nina Foch, Barry Kelley, James Whitmore, Howard St John) – Classic Movie Review 11,879

Cult director Joseph H Lewis’s deservedly admired 1949 American Columbia Pictures black and white film noir gangster drama The Undercover Man tells the story of undercover men trying to end the US organised crime activities of a powerful mob leader.

Glenn Ford energises this rousing crime thriller as Frank Warren, a US Treasury agent hot on the heels of an Al Capone-style crime boss wanted for murder, bootlegging and tax evasion.

The Undercover Man is stylish and suspenseful, well acted by Glenn Ford, Nina Foch as Ford’s threatened wife Judith and James Whitmore (in his début) as George Pappas, Barry Kelley as Edward O’Rourke and Howard St John as Joseph S Horan, and buffed up with a typical 1940s gritty look (cinematography by Burnett Guffey). The reliable acting, convincing script, authentic settings, noir shooting, and swift-moving pace add up to a first-rate package.

Many details are fictionalised in the screenplay by Jack Rubin and Sydney Boehm, based on the article He Trapped Capone, the first part of Federal Agent Frank J Wilson’s autobiography Undercover Man, serialised in Collier’s in 1947. The period is changed from Prohibition to postwar. Chicago is an unnamed big city. Al Capone is referred to as the Big Fellow and photographed from behind. He is a general mobster rather than bootlegger. IRS Criminal Investigator Frank Wilson is IRS Criminal Investigator Frank Warren. However, despite all these changes, the film is authentic in showing how Wilson and his team compile a tax evasion case against Capone.

Also in the cast are David Bauer [David Wolfe], Frank Tweddell, John F Hamilton, Leo Penn, Joan Lazer, Esther Minciotti, Angela Clarke, Anthony Caruso, Robert Osterloh, Kay Medford, Patricia Barry [Patricia White], Franklyn Farnum, Wheaton Chambers, Peter Brocco, Everett Glass, Virginia Farmer, Frank Mayo, Joe Mantell, Helen Wallace, and Harlan Warde.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,879

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