Before Anthony Mann solidified his reputation with his edgy Westerns starring Jimmy Stewart such as
The Naked Spur, he toiled in Hollywood's "Poverty Row," transforming a handful of low-budget crime thrillers into stylish, violent film noir classics with a mix of grace and grit. Three of his best, all photographed by the brilliant John Alton, have been collected in The Roan's Group's
The Film Noir of Anthony Mann triple feature.
T-Men stars square-jawed Dennis O'Keefe, a former leading man turned beefy B-movie tough guy, and Alfred Ryder as pair of undercover Treasury agents who enter the shadow world of America's mob underworld when their predecessor is killed. Posing as street thugs, they infiltrate their way into a gang of counterfeiters, living the dangerous life of the gangster to the hilt while living in constant danger of death if their covers are blown. Mann and Alton mix documentary-style realism with stark sets lit in jagged, claustrophobic shadows and abstract haziness, creating an eerie emptiness.
Raw Deal reunites Mann, Alton, and O'Keefe in a haunting revenge noir about an escaped criminal, his loyal girlfriend (Claire Trevor), and a lovely legal aide (Marsha Hunt) he drags along as a hostage. Trevor's cold, deliberate narration and the moody, fog-bound visuals stand in counterpoint to the brutal explosions of violence (the most memorable belonging to sadistic gangster Raymond Burr, who tosses a tureen of flaming cherries jubilee on a clumsy party girl in a scene that anticipates The Big Heat), adding a tough edge to the doomed romanticism.
Mann never took screen credit for He Walked by Night, though he directed a good portion of the documentary-influenced thriller. Richard Basehart stars as an electronics genius who turns to theft and murder, while tough-guy cop Scott Brady tracks him down with the resources of the police department, notably a wisecracking forensics expert played by Jack Webb. The stiff, stentorian narration and procedural detail of this film were big influences on Webb when he developed Dragnet.
These films are all firmly in the B tradition: stilted, often hackneyed dialogue, abstract sets, and more than a few lesser performances can be found throughout, but Mann's spare style and hard edge and Alton's stunning visuals lift the films out of the poverty-row ghetto and into film noir history. --Sean Axmaker
