T-Men (1947) on Netflix
Approved19471h 32mCrimeFilm-NoirThriller
Two Treasury agents, Dennis O'Brien and Tony Genaro, go undercover to break a Detroit counterfeiting ring. They pose as Vannie Harrigan and Tony Galvani, the last members of the River Gang.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb6.9/104,442 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Two agents of the United States Treasury, Dennis O'Brien and Tony Genaro, are assigned to get inside the Vantucci gang of counterfeiters in Detroit. They study the city's criminal history so their false identities will hold up, then present themselves as Vannie Harrigan and Tony Galvani, the surviving pair of the River Gang, said to be on the run. Pasquale, a hotel proprietor, sends them to Vantucci, who passes counterfeit revenue stamps off as genuine for his hijacked liquor. Vantucci quizzes them on local crime, feeding them details he has wrong, and they correct him and are hired. Through the gang the two learn of a West Coast contact nicknamed the Schemer, and O'Brien follows that lead to Los Angeles.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- William Maltenas Paul Miller
- John Ardellas Dice Player (uncredited)
- Louis Bacigalupias Boxcar (uncredited)
- Salvadore Barrogaas Housekeeper (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about T-Men (1947)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- T-Men was partly financed by organized crime: John Roselli, the Chicago mob's Hollywood labor racketeer, formed a silent partnership with Joseph Breen, head of the Production Code Office, to invest in the film. The two had met when Roselli worked in that office ten years earlier.
- Dennis O'Keefe, known mainly as a light comedic actor, was cast against type as the tough Treasury agent, a decision that made his career. Producer Small was also O'Keefe's agent and hoped the role would boost him, and the pair reunited for 1948's Raw Deal.
- The U.S. Treasury Department endorsed T-Men: the opening credits run over the department's seal, and Elmer Lincoln Irey, former chief coordinator of its six agencies, appears on screen to describe the agencies' objectives and call the film a composite of files from a case titled "The Shanghai Paper Case".
- Anthony Mann called T-Men "the first big one" of his career and the first film he scripted from scratch, working with Treasury Department official William Eirie, whose files he used with John Higgins to devise the story.
- The Los Angeles location work used the old Plaza area: the undercover agent walks up Ferguson Alley, once full of brothels and opium dens in L.A.'s old Chinatown, past the Lugo Adobe, all later torn down for "The Slot", the city's first downtown freeway, and into a Chinese apothecary that had once been the city's first fire station.
