'C'-Man (1949)

A Treasury Department agent is murdered. His best friend, a fellow agent, investigates and stumbles into a scheme involving smuggling and murder.

Director:

Joseph Lerner

Writer:

Berne Giler (screenplay)

Stars:

Dean Jagger, John Carradine, Harry Landers

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dean Jagger	...	Cliff Holden - alias William Harrah
John Carradine	...	Doc Spencer
Harry Landers	...	Owney Shor
Lottie Elwen	...	Kathe van Bourne
Rene Paul	...	Matty Royal
Walter Vaughn	...	Customs Inspector Brandon (as Walter Vaughan)
Adelaide Klein	...	Minnie Hoffman
Edith Atwater	...	Lydia Brundage

Storyline

When U.S. Customs Department Agent Cliff Holden's boss is murdered by jewel thieves he's assigned to the case.Holden vows to apprehend the killers and to destroy the jewel smuggling ring.For this purpose he boards a flight to Europe in order to shadow the main suspect,Matty Royal.On the return flight to America, Holden meets war-bride Kathe van Bourne who's traveling to the US to meet her American fiancé.Coincidentally,she is wearing a priceless necklace.But Miss van Bourne falls ill on the plane and she is greeted by a mysterious ambulance at the airport.The ambulance whisks her away giving Agent Cliff Holden reason to suspect that his case somehow is connected to Miss van Bourne's necklace and sudden airplane illness.Holden decides to follow this trail.

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Plot Keywords:

murder | taxi | stewardess | stabbed to death | shooting | 

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Taglines:

Homicidal smugglers in the big city !

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 May 1949 (USA)

Also Known As:

Agentul-'C'

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Laurel Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Based on his 'C'-Man film score, composer Gail Kubik's Symphony Concertante was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1952.

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Soundtracks

Do It Now
Written by Gail Kubik and Larry Orenstein (as Larry Neill)

User Reviews

offbeat but interesting indie crime-noir film

The few who know this film are probably either hardcore film-noir completists or hardcore John Carradine fans who must have every film "the master" appeared in. I'm glad I recently had an opportunity to view the film, because it is a fascinating independently-made crime-noir film with a number of unique touches. Most of the film is shot either on location on the streets of New York or in VERY small low-budget sets. The location shooting is quite interesting, using unexpected camera angles and giving the film a kind of documentary feel--one suspects that director Joseph Lerner and cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld were familiar with the Italian neo-realists. I could watch hours of this kind of footage, capturing 1949 New York, as it was experienced by people on foot, through great low-angle shots. And the musical score, by Gail Kubik, is quite avant-garde--sections of it sounding like early John Cage or Stan Kenton at his most atonal. Ms. Kubik was obviously a fine composer who adapted her avant-garde music well to a crime film--I'm anxious to hear some of her other work. Dean Jagger is not the most convincing tough guy, but he is a good enough actor to handle the expository dialogue and unnecessary voice-overs and make them sound SOMEWHAT natural! Lottie Elwen, playing a woman from Holland whom Jagger meets and who gets the mystery, such as it is, in motion, is quite seductive and was an excellent choice for the role. John Carradine can create a distinctive supporting character in his sleep, and once again he does that here as a fallen, now-crooked doctor who has had his medical license revoked (he's only in a few scenes). We should, with hindsight, give credit to the filmmakers who were obviously working on a VERY low budget, yet created a distinctive looking film and a film with lots of atmosphere. Fans of obscure noir-crime films should seek it out; although it's certainly not a flawless classic, there's something real and raw and spontaneous about it, and that quality transcends any other limitations the film has.