Overrated

Boring

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

John Ford was a lifetime supporter of Irish Republicanism. THE INFORMER is one of his major works on the subject, where he analyses the nature of the movement: are its supporters loyal to themselves, their mates, or to the cause?Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaglen) is a loyal supporter of Republicanism, working with IRA man Frankie McPhilip (Wallace Ford): Frankie is the brains, Gypo the brawn. Things take a turn for the worse with the increased involvement of the Black-and-Tans, the British police force, and Gypo decides to shop Frankie out of self-preservation and a desire for money. This is a profoundly stupid decision with inevitable consequences, but one that director Ford implies is inevitable, in light of Gypo's lack of money. We are encouraged to sympathize with him, as he takes the reward money and spends it mostly on a night of pleasure, touring the pubs of Dublin and acquiring fair-weather friends who are only to willing to spend it for him. Accompanied by professional hanger-on Terry (J. M. Kerrigan), Gypo beats up anyone he dislikes, and reveals a sentimental love for romantic songs.The action is relentlessly studio-bound, but Ford creates atmosphere through oblique shots and plenty of smoke. Dublin, as represented in this film, is a narrow city full of small streets and alleys, where your enemy could be lying in wait at any time. Once the IRA have discovered who the informer is, Gypo doesn't have a chance.However Ford doesn't blame Gypo, as he has Frankie's widow Mary (Heather Angel), and girlfriend Katie Madden (Margot Grahame) both claiming that it was not his fault. during a time of severe economic hardship. Gypo is allowed to die in church, looking up at the image of God as he falls, signifying redemption.The filming is straightforward, centering mostly on the characters. McLaglen is memorable as the ursuline Gypo - an imposing figure lacking the expression to ensure his continued safety. He is ideally complemented by Kerrigan as Terry, an F. J. McCormick-like figure full of Irish clichés but with a perpetual eye on the main chance.

During the Irish rebellion of the 1920s, a rebel turns in one of his friends for a reward. Once regarded as a towering achievement for Ford, winning him his first Oscar, it now stands as one of his most dated films, mainly due to the terrible overacting. McLaglen is the main offender here, playing his larger-than-life drunkard so over-the-top that it's painful to watch these days. Of course, the Academy awarded him an Oscar for it and he went on to play variations on this character in numerous other Ford films, mostly Westerns. The rest of the cast is equally bad. The film is visually impressive, but it's hard to look past the melodramatics.

This amazing Oscar winner (4 in total) and John Ford's first Academy Award winner, is simply spellbinding with a pounding score by Max Steiner. Called an Art film, because Ford had very little money to make this great story about guilt and retribution, and greed and stupidity. But what makes this movie such a classic, is the direction and astounding photography and use of fog and lighting, that was so different from the usual American film, and more in the tradition of German expressionism. And the Oscar winning performance by Victor McLaglen as the drunken Gypo is simply unbelievable. Basically the movie takes place in Ireland, and Gypo turns in a friend in the rebel movement to the English to collect 20 pounds to give to his girlfriend. But having all that money, he starts blowing it on an all night drunk and giving it away, while the leaders of the movement are trying to track down the informer. The whole movie is one night in a dark and foggy Ireland, and a cast of characters that are memorable but all along, the whole world of Gypo is closing in on him, both psychologically. If I had to pick maybe three directors to have ALL their movies on a deserted island forever, and nobody elses, John Ford would certainly be one of them. What a truly remarkable movie...

Victor McLaglen's performance is one of the finest in film history.I think we can all feel for "Gypo" because we've all struggled with what is right and what isn't and been wrong. This was one of the first art-house pictures to be released by a major American movie studio (RKO Radio Pictures).Joseph H. August's cinematography is at its very best here. However, August's stunning portion was mostly overlooked; he didn't receive the Oscar nomination he rightly deserved.This is a psychological drama, with thought, philosophy, sadness, all conveyed with as little words as possible.