Max Alvarez is an independent film scholar based in New York and author of the new book The Crime Films of Anthony Mann, a limited number of which will be available for purchase at the screening.

The only thing fake in this documentary-styled noir is the dough, 100% counterfeit. To shut down a funny-money ring, two U.S. Treasury Agents, Dennis O'Brien and Tony Genaro (Dennis O'Keefe and Alfred Ryder), go underground, where cop and counterfeiter are opposite sides of the same bogus bill. A dryly droll voice-over propels this policier forward while cinematographer Alton adds swathes of lurking light to construct a dangerous, dreamlike underworld-most notable is Wallace Ford's demise in a Turkish bath where menace lingers in the steam. Ironically, Mann's fast-paced film about forgery was often copied.