Treasury Men in Action

I've always been a fan of crime dramas from the 50's, 60's, and 70's, particularly those that live up to the term "tense". "Treasury Men In Action" is one of these shows that lives up to that term, as well as its title.

The premise is basically interchangeable with other early series of its type ("Dragnet", "Racket Squad", etc.) In this case, the stories are from the files of the United States Treasury Department, complete with an officious-looking authority man (Walter Greaza as the no-name "Chief"). The stories themselves are not low-rent predictable pulp variety... okay, they are, but the producers were careful not to show it. Each episode was taut, gripping, and suspenseful. And the casting ain't bad, either... particularly some fast-rising newcomers like Charles Bronson, Carolyn Jones, Claude Akins, Strother Martin, and so on.

"Treasury Men In Action" ran for five good years, unfortunately, only its final season, 1954-55, is preserved on film. The first four years were live, and as no kinescope from these seasons exist to my knowledge, a pretty decent series is lost to the ages. At least we have a few of the 39 episodes on DVD under its syndicated title, "Federal Men". Granted, it's not as gripping a moniker as "Treasury Men In Action", but you gotta take what you can get. Check it out.

"Treasury Men In Action" is a Prockter Television Enterprises Production in association with Pyramid Productions and MCA TV, filmed by Conne-Stephens, Inc. 39 episodes were filmed for its final 1954 season.

I remember the closing line of each episode was. "Another job well done by your Treasury Men in action."

I recently bought a DVD with 3 full length episodes of television detective series on it and this program was one of the three programs. The other two were "Dick Tracy" and "Mark Saber".

This is a very enjoyable program, and very action packed for a 30 minute one. From what I understand about this program is that it is based on actual cases from the files of the US Treasury Department. The episode I saw was called "Case of the Shot in the Dark" with a very young Charles Bronson. This episode dealt with heroin smuggling and was a good one.

I had never heard of this series before and to think that I only got this for $1.00 at a store that sells everything for $1.00.

Too bad that they don't put the complete series out on DVD, as I would love to purchase more of these old 1950's shows.