Special Agent (1935)

Overrated

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Director: WILLIAM KEIGHLEY. Screenplay: Laird Doyle, Abem Finkel. Story idea: Martin Mooney. Photography: Sid Hickox. Film editor: Clarence Kolster. Art director: Esdras Hartley. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Producers: Sam Bischoff in association with Martin Mooney. A Claridge Picture.Copyright 20 September 1935 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. Presented by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc and The Vitaphone Corp. New York opening at the Strand: 18 September 1935. Australian release: 25 December 1935. 9 reels. 76 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Agent goes undercover as a friendly reporter to get the goods on an elusive gangster. He romances the crime czar's book- keeper, but falls in love with the girl. NOTES: Re-made by Warner Bros in 1940 as "Gambling on the High Seas" with Jane Wyman, Wayne Morris and Gilbert Roland.COMMENT: Here's a script that would undoubtedly have made an engrossing "B" picture, now dressed up with such appealing production values, it offers superlative entertainment as an "A".In addition to its pacy yet meticulous direction, and moodily atmospheric photography, the picture presents real class in its cast. For once the goodies almost keep level with the heavies. Brent is ideal as the crusading hero, whilst Miss Davis offers just the right touch of dowdy appeal to her in-too-deep book-keeper. In a much smaller role, Pichel delivers some effective lines as a the D.A.On the heavies' side of the ledger, the opposition can scarce go wrong with actors of the caliber of Ricardo Cortez (a truly frightening performance), J. Carroll Naish (one of his most sinister roles), Joe Sawyer (hideously convincing) and treacherous Paul Guilfoyle. Even William B. Davidson has a half-decent role for once as a crooked lawyer. Keen cameo watchers will also spot Wheeler Oakman as the out-of-town kidnapper. And back with the good guys, you'll notice Charles Middleton and Thomas Jackson have small roles as office cops who relay information to Emmett Vogan's radio announcer. Frankly, though, I thought the two really stand-out players were Jack LaRue and Robert Strange. The former is wonderfully bent, whilst the latter, playing a crooked crook, gives such a nervily charismatic performance as to steal a scene from even the fiendishly impassive Cortez. The sequence in which LaRue inveigles Strange into parting with $50,000 is a gem.OTHER VIEWS: Justly described by Frank S. Nugent in The New York Times as "a crisp, fast-moving and thoroughly entertaining melodrama", it's a shame that Special Agent has such a poor reputation today.The reason for this peculiar and totally undeserved downgrade is simply due to Bette Davis, who spent more than fifty unrelenting years attacking this film (and others she claims she was "forced into" by Jack L. Warner around this time) on the grounds that both the movie and the role were unworthy of her vastly superior talents.Her part admittedly is third in importance to Cortez and Brent. Also it offers few opportunities for scene-chewing or look-at-me- I'm-a-great-actress hysterics. But the part is by no means the "stinker" Miss Davis so often described, and her performance is actually quite apt and very suitably subdued.

A newspaper reporter who is really a treasury agent brings a mobster to justice with the help of his girlfriend who does the accounts for said mobster. It is a routine Warner Brothers gangster film. It's main strength is the splendid dialogue such as the line above, a mixture of poetry and realism.An underused Bette Davis and a bland George Brent as the accountant and the agent respectively are OK. Their scenes together are not as interesting as the gangster scenes. Ricardo Cortez (who did a good hero or a good villain) stands out as the chief mobster with the icy eyes. He is supported in his gang by a fine gallery of character actors like Jack La Rue, Joe Sawyer, J. Carrol Naish and Paul Guilfoyle. The unique Charles Middleton pops up for a brief scene as a policeman.It was directed by William Keighley who made some better films but this one moves along nicely and doesn't outstay its welcome.

Bette Davis was already an established actress when she did this film with 27 movies under her belt, and an Oscar nomination for Of Human Bondage. She would win an Oscar for Dangerous the same year this film was released. This is a different Bette Davis than most of us are used to seeing. She was a cute blonde in this film and here acting ability was very evident even in this average gangster flick.This flick had a good story about trying to bring down a mobster (Ricardo Cortez) with a T-Man (George Brent) posing as a newspaper reporter. You have to suspend belief at some of the story, but it's not 2007! Brent and Davis would join forces later with Bogey and Ronald Reagan in the Oscar-nominated Dark Victory.

This crime melodrama is never dull and has some very exciting moments, although the action is improbable. It's well-paced with fine acting: young and beautiful Bette Davis is enjoyable to watch, but her sophistication seems a bit out of place while working for a hood; George Brent is as suave as ever; and Ricardo Cortez makes a good heavy, with lighting effects making him look more sinister. I also liked the acting of many of the supporting characters such as Robert Strange (who is a standout), J. Carroll Naish and Joseph Sawyer, as three of Cortez's murdering henchmen. Anyone who likes the genre should like this film.Martin Mooney, who provided the story on which this film is based, was a newspaper man and well aware that the government was sending noted racketeers up the river for income tax evasion. Al 'Scarface' Capone was indicted by a federal grand jury for that offense and spent eight years behind bars starting in 1931.