Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

lugonian THE INFORMER (RKO Radio, 1935), produced and directed by John Ford, is an atmospheric and symbolic drama of betrayal that takes place in one solid night. Dark and moody in the "film noir" style made famous in the 1940s, it stars the big and rugged Victor McLaglen in his most famous movie role. In spite of all the earmarks of being a real sleeper, THE INFORMER won Academy Awards for Best Director (John Ford); Best Screenplay (Dudley Nichols); Best Original Score (Max Steiner) and most of all, Best Actor (Victor McLaglen). Liam O'Flaherty's 1925 novel had already been produced as a 1929 British film starring Lars Hanson as Gypo Nolan, the version that should be a real curio for anyone who have seen the McLaglen version many times. Regardless of its novel and early film origins, this 1935 edition, reminiscent to a Bible story about a man "not knowing what he's doing," is obviously the best retelling of all.The story, set on a certain night in strife-torn Dublin (Ireland) in 1922, begins with this opening statement: "Then Judas repented himself - and cast down the thirty pieces of silver - and departed." Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaglen) is a slow-witted man with no money in his pocket, struggling to survive his day by day existence. (Six months prior, he was dismissed from the Irish Republican Party). He saves his girlfriend, Katie Madden (Margot Grahame), also stricken from hunger, from selling herself on the dark streets to a total stranger blowing cigarette smoke in her face, for money. After seeing posters for the reward capture of his friend, Frankie McPhillip, wanted for murder, Gypo is suddenly approached by Frankie (Wallace Ford) while eating at the Dunboy House. He learns from his hounded friend that he's in town briefly to visit with his mother mother (Una O'Connor) and sister, Mary (Heather Angel). Desperate for money and his love for Katie wanting to go to America and start life anew, Gypo goes to the authorities, informing on Frankie and where he could be found. During Frankie's visit with his mother and sister, police barge in, followed by a shootout, killing Frankie. News reaches the station where Gypo is given his twenty pound reward. Though he is not suspected for being the informer, those who know Gypo notice him acting strange and jumpy, all wondering why a penniless man should now have enough money to treat bar patrons to drinks. Dan Gallagher (Preston Foster), who loves Mary, working as a commissioner of the IRA , hires Gypo to search for and gun down Frankie's informer. Following a series of lies, naming Peter Mulligan (Donald Meek) as the informer, Gypo lives to regret his becoming guilty of suspicion. Other members of the cast include: J.M. Kerrigan (Terry); Neil Fitzgerald (Tommy Cooper); Gaylord Pendleton (Dennis); and May Boley ("Aunt" Betty). D'Arcy Corrigan is especially notable as the blind man witness, along with Una O'Connor (Mrs. McPhillip), Margot Grahame and Joseph Sawyer (billed Joseph Sauers in the credits) giving small but standout performances. That's Dennis O'Dea playing a the street singer in the similar manner as he did in John Ford's other RKO Radio 1936 releases of MARY OF SCOTLAND and the forgotten THE PLOUGH AND THE STARS (1936). While this dark and gloomy tale starts off well, it slows down at the midway point before picking up again prior to its most famous climatic finish that honored McLaglen his well-deserved Academy Award win. With the story set during the Irish Rebellion with a principal cast of Irish actors, during the days of broadcast television dating back to the 1960s, THE INFORMER was an annual event usually televised on or around St. Patrick's Day (March 17th). Distributed on video cassette in the 1990s, and later on the DVD format, THE INFORMER did have cable television broadcasts, notably on American Movie Classics (prior to 2001) and Turner Classic Movies. THE INFORMER may be slow pacing, too talkie and heavily underscored for first time viewers, but it's definitely worth seeing. (****)

evanston_dad "The Informer" is like a film noir before film noir even existed.John Ford directed this arty film about an Irishman who rats out a friend for 20 pounds during the Irish troubles in the 1920s. It's a character study of a dumb lunkhead who wants to be a big man in the eyes of his compatriots but isn't a real man in any of the ways that actually matter. The film looks fantastic, full of fog and atmospheric shadows, and visually Ford keeps it endlessly fascinating.One wishes his skill as a director had extended to his actors as well. Victor McLaglen, who plays the informer, gives an obnoxious, one-note performance, one prolonged drunken shout. And Margot Grahame, as his girl and the one who he steals the money for, is overwrought. The film is still more than worth a watch, but its effectiveness is hampered by the performances in it. Only one performance, that of the ubiquitous Una O'Connor's as the mother of McLaglen's dead friend, stands out."The Informer" won four Academy Awards in 1935, the most wins for any film that year, including Best Director for Ford, Best Actor for McLaglen, Best Screenplay for Dudley Nichols and Best Scoring for Max Steiner. But it somehow managed to lose the Best Picture Oscar to "Mutiny on the Bounty," which, though the most nominated film of the year, was the third and final film to date to win Best Picture without winning any other awards. One of the stranger Oscar years.Grade: A-

Prismark10 Watching this for the first time its surprising the plaudits and Oscar nominations this film received at the time.John Ford directs this maudlin character study with Victor McLaglen paying an ex IRA man, down on his luck looking to find passage to a new life in the USA for himself and his girlfriend. The the only way he can do this is to rat out his friend, an IRA man on the run.The reward money spirals his descend. He arouses suspicion because he now spends money here and there when he had been unemployed for months. He should had got the first boat out and now the rest of his ex comrades are suspicious and are after him.McLaglen's Gypo is a brute of a man, more brawn than brains. Money does not sit well with him and ultimately causes his downfall. Gypo is such as pathetic figure you hardly feel any sympathy for him especially as he betrayed a good friend of his.The production value's is a Hollywood studio lot passing for 1920s Dublin. Its a spirited, overwrought tale with a lot of scenery chewing and of course looks very dated.

barbb1953 Maybe it's because I looked up the history of the Irish troubles in the 1920s and then the sad Civil War that engulfed the Free State after the signing of the treaty before watching this movie. Anyway, the sudden turn at the end brought tears to my eyes.Victor McLaglen isn't as famous today as he was back then, and he should be better remembered. In this film, I think he's playing himself as he would have been without his innate talent and brains. For example, the scenes where his buddy in the crowd is challenging men to fight with him is probably quite reminiscent of what McLaglen actually did in earlier years, when he was a world-class bare-knuckles boxer. John Ford is partly responsible for that; the IMDb trivia section shows how he tricked McLaglen into getting a really bad hangover for the trial scene. This director also could bring out a lot in his actors, even without such tricks. Mostly, though, McLaglen is firmly in control, especially when his character is almost totally blotto (which is difficult for an actor to do believably), and he also plays Gypo Nolan with a depth and emotional power that is surprising for someone who has only seen McLaglen later in his career, in "The Quiet Man." I especially like the contrast between this role as an IRA man and the much more obviously controlled performance he gave as the IRA man Denis Hogan in "Hangman's House." In "The Quiet Man," of course, McLaglen is a country squire at odds with the local IRA. Victor McLaglen was big and bully, in the old-fashioned sense of the word, but he was a good actor, too, and capable of wide range and fine nuances of performance that we just wouldn't expect of a such a man today. It's a rather sad comment on our own set of expectations and prejudices.Ford, as usual, packs a lot into a little bit of film. All the characters are excellent (though the Commandant's mostly American accent is distracting) -- NOTE: There be spoilers ahead! -- Knowing that Gypo once drew the short straw and was ordered to kill a man but let him talk his way out of it instead, we really empathize with the man who draws the short straw for executing Gypo, and the humanity he shows, most notably when they go to take Gypo in Mary's room. John Ford really shows his genius here, taking what could have been a gruesome and yet expected outcome to the whole story and instead using it to set up a totally unexpected and yet very satisfying ending that makes us think not just of Gypo and the other characters, but of poor Ireland during that tortured time.