Great B&W Movies

T-Men: An appreciation of film-noir style

By Brian Zabawski

Anthony Mann’s ambitious 1947 low-budget thriller T-Men undeservedly remains an obscure film among the general public.

However, it is an essential example of the film-noir style, thanks in great part to the perfection of its black-and-white cinematography, by noted Director of Photography (D.P.) John Alton, A.S.C.

(A.S.C. indicates Alton’s membership in the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers.)

Alton’s inventive photography helps set T-Men apart from the B-movie pack.

Certainly, the film’s clunky introductory framing sequence does not mesh with the more stylized, stark black and white imagery that propels this tale of a federal Secret Service Treasury man O’Brien (Dennis O’Keefe) pursuing a ring of counterfeiters from Detroit to Los Angeles.

T-Men’s story begins with a taut night-for-night sequence in which a secret service agent observes an informant being stalked in a industrial landscape of tank towers. This powerful sequence is shot in uncompromising, high-contrast black and white with dramatic, sharply angled compositions.

It is a melding of two disparate visual approaches: Stylized German Expressionism and neo-realist location photography. Great portions of the screen disappear into pure, rich blacks, contrasted with harsh illumination of bright areas (seemingly lit from practical light sources like streetlamps or security lights).

Rich blacks are a signature attribute of cinematographer Alton. The richness of the blacks and Alton’s mastery of extreme shadow effects makes T-Men a film noir that can almost literally be defined as a film of blackness. Adding to the film’s visual punch, the extreme low-angle camera positions often favored by director Mann and his D.P. help create the air of palpable menace permeating the film.

The Hungarian Alton (born Johann Altmann) literally wrote the book on late-1940’s cinematography. His “Painting With Light” remains a useful tome for cinematographers despite its focus on now-obsolete equipment. (Alton’s book had long been out of print, but resurfaced with a 1995 University of California Press edition, featuring an introduction by respected film critic Todd McCarthy.)

Alton delivers tips on how to achieve rich blacks, along with uses for fog, steam and smoke effects, shooting with reflective surfaces and other cinematic mood enhancers. All of these approaches can be seen and appreciated by all but the most casual viewer of T-Men.

Alton would go on to win an Academy Award for his color work on 1951’s “An American in Paris”. His last film was 1960’s “Elmer Gantry;” he died in 1996 at the age of 94.

Alton’s wonderful cinematography can also be seen in other collaborations with Anthony Mann, such as Raw Deal, He Walked By Night, and the new-to-DVD The Black Book. Another magnificently shot black-and-white Alton noir is The Big Combo, directed by Joseph H. Lewis.

Regarding an October 2010 L.A. screening of The Big Combo, Los Angeles Times’ film critic Kenneth Turan noted “the real star of the film is John Alton’s dazzling cinematography… The Big Combo shows in no uncertain terms why he is revered as the king of noir lighting.”

Some of T-Men’s most memorable images occur in sequences set in steam baths; the steam offers plenty of opportunities for highly atmospheric lighting, and Alton makes the most of it. (The story line of T-Men moves from Detroit to Los Angeles, as Dennis O’Keefe’s agent O’Brien closes in on a character called “The Schemer,” a key figure in the counterfeiting case.) O’Brien learns “The Schemer” loves steam baths and so the agent embarks on a two-week trek through some of Los Angeles’ more creepily photogenic bathhouses.

Dimly lit with low-key lighting favored by Alton and utilizing obliquely angled, somewhat distorted and disorienting compositions, the characters are all seen partially obscured by great clouds of steam.

It is in a steam bath that the Schemer (memorably played by Wallace Ford) meets his fate – death at the hands of a psychotic mob-killer, Moxie (a chilling Charles McGraw) in one of the film’s most strikingly photographed scenes.

Before The Schemer gets killed there is a moodily photographed sequence detailing how a female club photographer provides O’Brien’s agent with key clues. Alton and Mann treat the audience to action framed through the Club Trinidad’s decorative ceiling netting and reflected in the glass of the club’s phone booth. Mann and Alton use reflective surfaces frequently and in unexpected ways: at one point two agents in a marketplace observe suspects in reflective plate glass that nearly obscures the view of the principal actors.

In the marketplace scene audiences familiar with the TV show Lassie will spot that series’ actress June Lockhart in a key supporting role as the wife of O’Brien’s undercover partner, Genarro, whose friend inadvertently gives away the cover of the treasury agent’s partner in a moment of innocent recognition.

This moment of recognition leads to the betrayal of O’Keefe’s undercover partner, Tony Genarro (Alfred Ryder) – and his death at the hands of the counterfeiters, with O’Keefe’s Agent O’Brien watching, in agony. This provides Mann and Alton with a chance to set up perhaps the movie’s most memorable and darkly beautiful shot. As O’Keefe’s character watches helplessly as his undercover partner is shot to death by the psychotic Moxie, we see O’Keefe’s face in a full close-up, shocked and saddened.

The shadow of his wide-brimmed hat begins to cover his face as he sinks into despair and helpless resignation, a powerless observer of his partner’s death. As the realization of the killing registers, O’Keefe’s head sinks slowly down, the shadow of his hat brim gradually hiding his facial features in an ever-blackening shadow of grief.

Moments of dark-horror such as this inspire Mann and Alton to create some of T-Men’s most indelible images of classic film-noir.

T-Men was a turning point for Mann; the success of this low budget feature enabled the director to graduate to A-list productions. He died while shooting the spy thriller A Dandy in Aspic in 1969.

Mann’s best-remembered works are the strikingly modern westerns (mostly starring James Stewart) made in the 1950’s.

This series of visionary westerns rivals the work of John Ford in cinematic import, many experts agree. They include The Naked Spur, Winchester ’73, Bend of the River, and The Man From Laramie, as well as the Gary Cooper vehicle Man of the West.

Black-and-white photography aficionados should also seek out a noir-ish western called The Furies that Mann directed, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston. (But that film, as well as the subject of black-and-white cinematography in westerns, will have to wait for another entry in this series for bwphotopro.com).

Meanwhile, discover or re-examine the genre of the film-noir by sampling the glorious black-and-white world of shadowy menace created by John Alton and Anthony Mann in T-Men.

T-Men 1947 theatrical release, Eagle-Lion Films

Current DVD release: Classic Media/Genius Products 2005

Also on DVD thru: VCI Entertainment (2002)

Roan Group Entertainment, on 2-disc set: The Film Noir of Anthony Mann (1999). Also includes: Raw Deal, & They Walked by Night, all shot by John Alton.

Kino International (1999). (Last two listings out of print, but still may be available.)

Some of the greatest B&W photography has been made not with Leicas or Hasselblads, but with Arriflex and Mitchell motion-picture cameras. John Alton, A.S.C., was probably the greatest film noir black-and-white cinematographer. Film expert Brian Zabawski examines Alton’s work in Anthony Mann’s T-Men, in this first installment of Zabawski’s series on great B&W movies, written exclusively for bwphotopro.com

“The richness of the blacks and Alton’s mastery of extreme shadow effects makes T-Men a film noir that can almost literally be defined as a film of blackness.”

`(Below, stills from T-Men)