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.

Special Agent (1935) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A Fed (George Brent) goes undercover to bring down a gangster (Ricardo Cortez) but he's going to need help from the gangster's book keeper (Bette Davis). This is pretty typical stuff from Warner and their gangster pictures but it's brought up a few levels by the impressive cast. I'm not a big fan of Brent but he makes for a good lead here and delivers a fine performance. Cortez steals the show as the gangster and Davis is decent in her role. The supporting cast includes Henry O'Neill, J. Carrol Naish and Joe Sawyer. The story really doesn't contain anything new or fresh but if you're a fan of these Warner pictures then this one should keep you entertained through its short running time.

George Brent is a "Special Agent" in this 1935 crime drama also starring Bette Davis and Ricardo Cortez. The original story was written by a newspaperman and is most likely based on the Al Capone case. Brent plays a reporter, Bill Bradford, but his job is a cover -he's an undercover Federal agent after a crook, Alexander Carston (Cortez) for tax evasion. His entrée into the books of Carston's organization is the bookkeeper, Julie Gardner, with whom he's also in love. After the case is built, Carston is arrested and Julie is taken into protective custody. But can she really be protected against Carston? This is a fairly routine drama with good acting and some solid action. Davis is very young and blonde here, and not as glamorized as she is in other early films - "The Man Who Played God," "Fashions of 1934" or "Ex-Lady" but nevertheless quite pretty. She's a little too classy to be a mob bookkeeper; as the character, however, she exhibits intelligence, which certainly Julie would have. Brent is his usual pleasant self as Bill, and Cortez is a sinister gangster.The only part of the film that gave me a giggle was the riddling of men with machine guns as they continued to stand until their bodies must have had more holes than Swiss cheese before dramatically falling. Certainly they would have been dead long before the 100th bullet.Interesting for early Davis and the always good Cortez.

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.