Often paired with Julio Salvador’s P.O. Box 1001 (1950) as the two films that sparked a new mold of realistic crime film (or noir) in Spanish cinema, Ignacio F. Iquino’s Brigada Criminal (US: Criminal Squad) may not be quite as heralded as its sibling, but its higher degree of visual innovation stands out from the first moments. Some have opined that Iquino, who also produced, essentially copied Anthony Mann’s T-Men (1947) in terms of both style and, to a lesser degree, story; indeed, the extensive use of low-key lighting, framing, high angles, Dutch angles, and vertical pans must have been surprising to filmgoers used to standard Franco cultural fare, and the scene of gangsters in trench coats and fedoras sitting around a smoky table beneath a single ceiling lamp looks indistinguishable from 1940’s American noir. After a semi-documentary opening with footage of the hustle and bustle of Madrid’s streets and an admittedly intrusive third-party voice-over, the story begins with the academy graduation of young, ambitious Fernando Olmos Sánchez (José Suárez) who, eager for his first big case, is disappointed to be assigned to go undercover as a car mechanic to investigate a series of garage robberies, but this assignment will connect him to a violent gang whom the police have been hunting for having just robbed a bank. Without permission, Sánchez infiltrates this gang undercover, earning the trust of gang leader Óscar Román (Alfonso Estela) and, to a lesser degree, ugly henchman Mario (Barta Barri); suspense ramps up as the gang’s suspicions of Sánchez’s identity escalate. (Just to let us know how callous the gang is, one of them kicks a cat.) The final twenty minutes or so involve an extended chase and confrontations through abandoned construction sites and warehouses, spiral staircases and rooftops, machinery occasionally buzzing in the background. Look for the brilliant flamenco performance in a hip nightclub called Casablanca.