Customer Reviews

The Informer

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Years before "Citizen Kane" John Ford revolutionized the language of American cinema with "The Informer". Atmosphere plays as much a character here as the actors themselves. Shadows, darkness, and fog forbode the doom of Gyppo Nolan(Victor McLaglen) as much as his guilty conscience for informing to the Black and Tans on his former brother in arms. This is a literate film that explores the psyche of a barely literate man. Gyppo ostensibly informs on Frankie McPhillip (Wallace Ford) to gain passage to America for himself and his streetwalker girlfriend(Heather Angel). The bloodmoney proves too much of a cross to bear so he literally gives it away to ease his burning guilt. This proves his undoing as the scent of his illgotten gains attracts the Republican Army to his trail of deceit. McLaglen won an Oscar for one of great performances in American screen history. McLaglen assays all the complexities of a seeming simpleton who commits the unthinkable and makes him sympathetic and ultimately worthy of redemption. "The Informer" is ultimately a film that will transcend the ages because it's themes are as universal today as they were in 1935.

If ever there was a film that defines a "timeless classic", this is it.

Victor McLaglen, your favorite comedic and gruff cavalry sergeant in westerns, gives a stunning dramatic performance which won him an academy award in this 1935 John Ford masterpiece. McLaglen is Gyppo Nolan, a somewhat dim witted, hulking, and shunned IRA Soldier in war torn Dublin of the early 1900's. Gyppo fell out of favor with the IRA, is penniless, without friends, and in love with a streetwalker named Katy. Gyppo informs on a fellow IRA soldier wanted for murder by the British, and for this, he receives twenty pounds, the price of steerage passage to America for Katy and himself. His friend, Frankie Phillips, is killed by the British. Driven by remorse, Gyppo goes on a drunken spree, spends the twenty pounds, is taken and interrogated by the IRA, and . . . is eventually killed by them for being the "The Informer". The entire film was shot on a sound stage using darkness and shadows for effect. And - the effect, although now seventy two years old, is dramatic.
This is a keeper.

my estimate is that in my life ive seen in excess of 3000 movies, yet im bewildered at the number of acknowledged classics ive missed. so cross another off the list. john ford helmed this claustrophobic character study of one day in the life of a brute (no negatives attached to the word here) who betrays his best friend for money and learns to live (& die) with the results of his actions. victor mclaglen gives a perfect performance in the title role, and anyone who is accustomed to the expanses of fords monument valley films will be amazed at what he accomplishes with minimal, nearly expressionistic sets. great movie.

While I concur wholeheartedly with the superlatives applied to this film by the other reviewers, I feel that I must point out that this release appears to have been mastered from a release print rather than one from the vaults. The film has not been restored. There are long, deep scratches running throughout the film that could have been remedied by careful restoration. Warners is usually much better about this. Please don't let this deter you from purchasing this film. It is truly a classic, but could have been better handled.

This blistering adaptation of Liam O'Flaherty's novel by John Ford features a searing, Oscar-winning performance by McLaglen, who plays the barrel-chested Irish boozer and Troubles-era traitor with gut-wrenching pathos, especially when he delivers his last line. A labor of love for Ford, outfitted with Joseph August's atmospheric evocation of foggy Dublin and a superb score by Oscar winner Max Steiner, "Informer" is the kind of full-blooded political drama we rarely get to enjoy today. And McLaglen's turn as the desperate, deeply remorseful brute makes the tragic story of betrayal and redemption even more worthy of struggle.

Liam O'Flaherty's 1925 novel is a masterful psychological study of Gypo Nolan, a dull-witted, impovershed Dubliner who, in the middle of the 1922 Sinn Fein Rebellion, turns stool pigeon during one event-filled night, revealing to police the whereabouts of Frankie McPhillip, a trusting friend and revolutionary who's wanted for murder. Gypo receives a reward of twenty pounds, while Franke is is tracked down by the authorities...........THE INFORMER had already been filmed by the British in 1929 and RKO reluctantly agreed to let Ford remake it with his assurance that it would be a low-budget movie. It was made for slightly over $200,000. This is impassioned Irish melodrama, performed with all the stops out. Beautifully photographed in the mists and dark streets of the studio-built Dublin sets, Joseph H. August's photography coats the film with a striking overlay of distorted realism. The most celebrated image of the film is that of its hulking, blustering central figure, as broadly played by oafish Victor McLaglen in his Oscar winning role of Gypo Nolan. McLaglen's Nolan emerges as a cowardly, despicable brute and boozing liar, capable of any deceit to satisfy a whim or save his neck. McLaglen's interpretation of Gypo is astounding; he seemingly sunk in the sodden body and mind and soul of Gypo Nolan, a creature of the slums pushed on his fumbling way by only the most primitive instincts. Yet, without ever noticeably playing for sympathy, he manages to present a figure that is somehow pitiable. J.M. Kerrigan is terrific, not only because he has the only richly authentic brogue in the whole picture, but because of his portrait of a grasping Irish toady that, for sheer brilliance, surpasses even McLaglen's performance. Ford won his first of four AA for his expert direction. As a footnote, both Ford and McLaglen were said to drink before some of the more emotional scenes. Ford spent some 5 years trying to get this film made (studio heads found the subject matter too dark). The screenplay was written in six days. It wasn't a successful film until the end of the year, when critics named it one of 1935's ten best films; thereafter, audiences flocked to see it, making it a box-office smash.

This movie tears your heart out. Only Victor McLaglen could play a brute with such child-like vulnerability. Your heart goes out to him even though his actions are those of a traitor. There isn't one weak scene in this whole movie and several scenes rank with the cinema's finest.

Victor McLaglen, one-time Heavyweight Champion of Great Britain, won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gypo Nolan, a drunken lug of an Irishman during the Dublin uprisings in 1922, who rats out his best friend for a 20-pound reward. McLaglen is perfect in this role; director John Ford, who also won an Oscar, was not looking for subtlety from McLaglen and didn't get an ounce of it: he takes the camera on as if it was one of his old boxing opponents. Perhaps there was no more powerful a dumb-brute screen performance until Brando's Stanley Kowalski. Legend has it that Ford kept McLaglen soused for most of the picture (it was made in only 17 days), and it looks like it might be true. The photography is stunning and captures perfectly the "as wet as drip" look of Dublin. Max Steiner's musical score is also very moving. Definitely worth a watch.

This movie is an excellent story of somebody that can't decide between right and wrong. The performance of a confused and lost soul of an IRA agent and the conditions of Ireland at that time are simply without words. I had found this movie to be moving. It is a perfect movie classic that is so good that words alone could not give it proper justice. It is a must see by any person who sincerely enjoys a fantastic classic.

It is hard to reconcile that the same director who created this dark image of Ireland, also created that famed green-tinted valentine to the same country in "The Quiet Man." There is no winsome sentimentality here; just the hopelessness of poverty and alcoholism in a Dublin ghetto. A story of betrayal, a haunted conscious, and the search for redemption against the backdrop of the Irish War for Independence. Victor McLaglen demonstrates why he won the Best Actor Oscar with his fantastic performance as the "The Informer."