T-Men

The best of early Mann. A cracking little thriller about a pair of Treasury agents (O'Keefe and Ryder) required to infiltrate a Detroit counterfeiting gang, it effortlessly transcends its semi-documentary brief (with blandly 'official' commentary) to land deep in noir territory, concerned less with the heroic exploits of its T-Men than with personality perversities involved in undercover work (the wrenching imperative to deny friends, wives, feelings, even to the point of standing by while a partner is cold-bloodedly executed). John Alton's superlative camerawork counterpoints tensions and perspectives with almost geometrical precision.