This film is part of Free
T-Men in Action
See a gang of back country bootleggers, a tax-evading meat dealer and a small-time jewellery smuggler brought to justice by the enforcement agencies of the US Treasury Department
Overview
The discovery of a pair of dead fish sets the the undercover agents of the Alcohol Tax Unit on the trail of a desperate gang of bootleggers in the compelling centrepiece of this 1947 March of Time report. The film mixes dramatic re-enactments with a factual survey of the US Treasury Department’s six enforcement agencies, from the Bureau of Narcotics agents busting a dope peddling operation to the Secret Service officers responsible for ensuring the safety of President Truman.
Beginning with an editor’s note of thanks to the US Treasury Department Enforcement Agencies for their co-operation during the making of the film, it is hardly surprising that this issue unambiguously champions the work done by the department’s six agencies. From the fur-clad elderly lady being led away for not declaring an item of jewellery to US customs, to the unfortunate Mr Schroeder - a tax-evading meat dealer brought to book by the Bureau of Internal Revenue - the film stresses both the efficiency of the department and the importance of its work at a time in American history when public debt was at its highest ever level.
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