The Crime Films of Anthony Mann by Max Alvarez

Reviewed by Barry Forshaw

The American director Anthony Mann has long been celebrated for his command of a variety of film genres, but for aficionados of the crime film he is in the upper echelons. For many years, the reputation of John Ford as the greatest director of the Western film was assured, but current thinking is that the palm should be extended to the brilliant Mann, whose films have a psychological complexity and intensity that are particularly modern (while elements of Ford have dated). Mann’s command of the epic is now much lauded, although in their day such films as The Fall of the Roman Empire had more commercial than critical success. But it is such examples of Films Noir as T-Men and Raw Deal that many cinéastes regard as among the finest flowerings of his talent, and Max Alvarez adds to the growing list of books about the director with something very cherishable, concentrating on (and examining) the legacy of his diamond-hard crime movies. The author’s access to rare and newly available sources pays dividends, and this study is an essential purchase for admirers of American genre cinema.

The Crime Films of Anthony Mann by Max Alvarez is published by University Press of Mississippi