'C'-Man

Here's one of those B-movie nuggets that makes sifting through the dregs worthwhile (quite appropriate for a tale of jewel smugglers). I'm sure it's exactly the kind of edgy, low-budget genre-piece that inspired Godard and Truffaut to create "Breathless" and "Shoot the Piano Player".

Like its near namesake "T-Men", the heroic semi-documentary frame limns a brutal, cynical noir with striking location shooting. The narrative keeps throwing us curveballs, and the tight, off-kilter framing, low-key lighting and nervy editing emphasize the randomness of the violence and the desperation of the denizens of this demimonde. Most arresting is the frantic free-jazz score, presaging Miles Davis's improvised work for "Lift to the Gallows".

The characters are idiosyncratic and played with verve. Like several other late noirs, there is an undercurrent of homosexuality among the henchmen, and John Carradine's quack doctor is addicted to Benedictine, of all things. A great, offbeat, late-night view.

Customs agent Dean Jagger (Cliff Holden) goes on the trail of a necklace and a killer. He is the C-Man.

The film moves along at a quick pace and if you just go with it, it carries you along. Unfortunately, it is a little confusing at times and because the picture quality has deteriorated, some dramatically filmed sequences are confusing instead of effective. John Carradine (Doc Spencer) plays a drunkard - it's his look that carries it off for him, not particularly his acting, although he probably wasn't acting! The soundtrack alternates between the over-dramatic and the jazzy art-house cool that suggests experimental film.

There are some very fake punch-ups that run alongside disturbing violent incidents. Make sure that your bed-knobs don't unscrew! The night club scene is also slightly embarrassing - terrible song, unrealistic audience and some poor acting.

Overall, the film is watchable - it should be better, though. Maybe a re-make?

Dean Jagger who the following year would get the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Twelve O'Clock High was still sporting a toupee when he did this small independent noir film playing a US Customs Agent. Jagger is put on a case to find the killer of a fellow agent and friend. And as we know from The Maltese Falcon when a partner gets killed you're supposed to do something about it.

There's a gang that's smuggling expensive jewelry into the USA and using innocent women not in on the scam. In this case it's Lottie Elwen from the Netherlands. It's an interesting gimmick which I'll let you find out for yourself.

The film was shot entirely in New York on location and it has the same look and feel as The Naked City does. Harry Landers who later was on Ben Casey as a doctor is great as the gang's muscle. I wish we saw more of John Carradine as a disgraced doctor who is part of the smuggling scheme.

Best of all is Edith Atwater who later would play matronly and mother figures. Here she's one evil dame.

This one's a sleeper check it out.

You will read that this is hidden treasure. I guess it's pretty hidden, but that's possibly because it's no treasure.

C-Man's chief claim to fame is that the score won a Pulitzer Prize. Be glad it wasn't played during the film, just the credits. What little bit that was played during the film was intrusive.

This B movie had some talented people: Dean Jagger, who won an Oscar the next year, John Carradine, Harry Landers, and stage actress Edith Atwater.

The story concerns a customs agent on the trail of a $325,000 necklace - that's $4 million today, and several people have been killed because of it.

The fight scenes in this were atrocious.

The plot was somewhat convoluted.

I did not know this movie at all and I must admit that it is not bad at all but forgettable. Just as the other films directed by this Joseph Lerner, for instance GIRL ON THE RUN. But it is worth watching, after all John Carradine and Dean Jagger contribute a lot to the story, but they don't steal the show either. It is not a gritty.actionner, and anyway not an actionner at all. This is just an acceptable time waster, only destined to movie buffs in search of a rare item to watch. Even directed by a Joseph H Lewis or a Budd Boetticher, the result would have been the same - a bit better though - because there was nothing exceptional to take from such a story.