Special Agent (1935)

Posing as a newspaper reporter, a U.S. Treasury agent (George Brent) woos the pretty bookkeeper (Bette Davis) of a notorious racketeer (Ricardo Cortez). He gets her to give him access to the gangster's ledgers so the government can prosecute him for tax evasion. But with informants in the police department and his own personal goon squad, the mobster won't be so easy to take down. Directed by William Keighley (THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER), the movie is loosely based on the Treasury department's take down of Al Capone. G-MEN with James Cagney had been released earlier in the year and was a big hit so Warners hoped this one could ride on its coattails. As a B programmer, it's okay. Its plot line is pretty unbelievable and the Feds come across as incompetent most of the time but it's fast moving and its leads are likable although Brent's character loses points for deliberately putting the woman he loves in harm's way. Davis had earned rave reviews the year before in OF HUMAN BONDAGE (an RKO film) signaling the coming of a major actress. But this fell on Warners' deaf ears and they continued putting her in programmers like this! With Jack La Rue, J. Carrol Naish and Irving Pichel, who would soon become a director with films like DESTINATION MOON.