I've always believed that black and white films could be more inherently colorful than color films. There is something about stark, chiaroscuro lighting, bottomless shadows, and opaque fog that colors the imagination more than any Technicolor process. Film noir have always been among the greatest proponents of such cinematography. And among the great film noir to color their screens black and white, Anthony Mann's T-Men is one of the best, most striking, and most beautiful. John Alton's cinematography engulfs Mann's characters like portals to another dimension, transforming office rooms into dungeons and streets into hellscapes. T-Men is the story of two agents for the Treasury Department infiltrating a counterfeiting operation. The cinematography highlights the stakes of the operation and increases the tension as they plummet farther and farther into the criminal circle. The acting is decent, but contains no real standout performances. It is Alton, with his camera, that brings them to life and helps the film transcend its mortal bounds into immortality.
7/10
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