The Informer [DVD]

This famous film really needs a deluxe edition, given its status. The print sourced for this DVD is in reasonable shape but some reels are maybe from different prints, as the image deteriorates badly. We need a full search to assemble as many possible prints and then a full digital restoration, and some decent extras, particularly about Steiner's oscar winning score and the censorship battles Ford went through.
Until then, this disc will have to do.

Any film by the great John Ford, is well worth a look and this one is no exception. Ford liked a bit of 'Oirishness', and what is more Irish than Liam O'Flaherty's superb novel "The Informer", a novel that is incidentally as is often the case, even better than the film! My Folio edition sits proudly on my bookcase. I have not yet succumbed to kindle, God forbid! The film comes with a fine pedigree. Ford won the oscar for best director and Victor McLaglen won for best actor. More about that later! Dudley Nichols who Ford most famously collaborated with on "Stagecoach", also won for the best screenplay although he turned it down due to a union dispute, the first time this had ever happened. Time has certainly dulled the films cutting edge, but it still packs a weighty punch.

The story set during the 1922 Irish revolution, follows the fortunes of the brutish Gypo Nolan one time member of the IRA. Nolan has fallen on hard times, and doesn't have a penny to his name. He had been drummed out of the IRA for disobeying a direct order. The fact that he is a dim witted oaf had also no doubt made him a liability to the organisation. When the opportunity presents itself to collect a £20 reward for informing on a wanted IRA man, who also happens to be his best friend, he seizes the opportunity little realising the consequences of his actions. We head to a powerful conclusion.

As always with films of this age, one has to give due consideration to when it was made, which in this case was not long after the end of the silent era. The acting can therefore seem over theatrical at times, which just went with the ground in those days. The American cast also struggle with their Irish accents, which can grate at times, although McLaglen to his great credit manages well. Ford who was known to be a bit of a bully with actors at times, apparently got McLaglen drunk during shooting in an effort to coax a more natural performance from him. As his character was drunk for much of the films running time this was not such a bad idea. McLaglen duly obliged with a decent performance, although quite how he managed to beat actors of the quality of Charles Laughton, Franchot Tone and Clark Gable to the oscar was a bit like Foinaven winning the Grand National at a 100-1. The film is wreathed in a thick pea souper Hollywood mist, resembling the Sherlock Holmes films of the period. It seems Hollywoods picture of the UK and Ireland at that time was a very misty one! Many an actor must have suffered passive smoking problems during that era!

There is no Monument Valley in this film which is permanently studio bound, suiting the sombre tone of the film. As the film progresses you begin to sympathise with the plight of Gypo, even though he is a man of dubious morals. You can clearly see the dangers that poor stupid Gypo cannot. His blundering hulk is a cinematic character that lives long in the memory. The film reminds me much of the all pervasive atmospheres found in Ford's other films "The Long Voyage Home" and "The Fugitive". Time has been kinder to this film than many from that era, which is testament to Ford's creativity and storytelling powers. The picture clarity was not bad for a film of its venerable age, although it is deserving of a restored edition with extras. Powerful movie making and well worth watching.

John Ford directed this deeply dark vision of poverty and revenge in 1920s Ireland in 1935 and got an Oscar for his efforts. And rightly so. It tells the story of Gypo Nolan, (not the sharpest knife in the drawer and brilliantly played by Victor McLaglen), who after being ousted from the equivalent of the IRA during the Irish Rebellion becomes destitute and hungry. In order to put food on the table and save his sweetheart from prostitution he decides to turn-coat and inform on one of his former comrades for the reward money. Then things really start to slide... This grim fog-laden tale is so thick with atmosphere and tension that it had me on the edge of my seat all the way through.

Ford made 'The Informer' the same year he made the equally brilliant, though entirely different, 'The Whole Town's Talking' with Edward G. Robinson in a rare comedy performance. They came long before the westerns for which Ford's name has become so well-known and these two earlier films show what a versatile and talented director he really was.