The Informer (1935 film)

The Informer
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Ford
Screenplay by	Dudley Nichols
Based on	The Informer by Liam O'Flaherty
Produced by	John Ford Cliff Reid (associate)
Starring	Victor McLaglen Heather Angel Preston Foster Margot Grahame Wallace Ford Una O'Connor
Cinematography	Joseph H. August
Edited by	George Hively
Music by	Max Steiner
Production company	RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures (USA)
Release date	May 9, 1935 (1935-05-09) (USA)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$243,000[1]
Box office	$950,000[1]

The Informer is a 1935 dramatic film, released by RKO. The plot concerns the underside of the Irish War of Independence, set in 1922. It stars Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Una O'Connor and J. M. Kerrigan. The screenplay was written by Dudley Nichols from 1925 the novel of the same title by Liam O'Flaherty. It was directed by John Ford. The novel had previously been adapted for a British film The Informer (1929).

Along with Mutiny on the Bounty, The Informer was a big contender at the 8th Academy Awards, competing directly in all six categories they were nominated for (though Mutiny got eight nominations in total, given its three Best Actor nominations). The Informer won four Oscars: Best Director for Ford, Best Actor for McLaglen, Best Writing Screenplay for Nichols, and Best Score. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."^[2][3][4]

Plot[]

In Dublin in 1922, Gypo Nolan (Victor McLaglen) has been kicked out of the outlaw Irish Republican Army (IRA) for not killing a Black and Tan who killed an IRA man. He becomes angry when he sees his streetwalker girlfriend Katie Madden (Margot Grahame) trying to pick up a customer. After he throws the man into the street, Katie laments that she does not have £10 for passage to America to start afresh.

Gypo later runs into his friend and IRA comrade Frankie McPhillip (Wallace Ford), a fugitive with a £20 bounty on his head. Frankie, tired of hiding for six months, is on his way home to visit his mother (Una O'Connor) and sister Mary (Heather Angel) under cover of the foggy night. The slow-witted Gypo decides to turn informer for the £20 reward, enough for passage to America for the both of them. The Black and Tans find Frankie at his house, and Frankie is killed in the ensuing gunfight. The British contemptuously give Gypo his blood money and let him go.

Gypo subsequently buys a bottle of whiskey and tells Katie that he obtained money by beating up an American sailor. He goes to Frankie's wake, and acts suspiciously when coins fall out of his pocket. The men there tell him that they do not suspect Gypo of informing, but he then meets with several of his former IRA comrades, who wonder who informed on Frankie. Gypo claims it was a man named Mulligan (Donald Meek). Though Gypo is drunk and talking nonsense, the others begin to suspect him but do not have enough evidence as yet. Gypo leaves and gives out £1 notes to a blind man (D'Arcy Corrigan) and some bar patrons, but people wonder why he had such a sudden influx of cash. Meanwhile, Mary tells the IRA that the only person Frankie talked to that day was Gypo, and the men decide to hold an inquest into the death.

Gypo goes to an upper-class party to look for Katie, but gets drunk and buys rounds of drinks. Gypo is then taken away by his former IRA comrades when they figure out it was he. He is taken to a kangaroo court, where Mulligan is questioned and is accused once again by Gypo. However, the comrades do not believe Gypo, and give him a detailed accounting of where he spent his entire £20 reward. Gypo then confesses to ratting out Frankie.

Gypo is locked up, but before he can be killed he escapes through a hole in the ceiling. He runs to Katie's apartment, where he tells her that he informed on Frankie. Katie goes to see the commissioner who presided over the trial, Dan Gallagher (Preston Foster), to beg him to leave Gypo alone. The rigid Gallagher says he cannot do anything, and Gypo might turn in the entire organization to the police if he is allowed to live. However, other IRA members, having overheard Katie, go to her apartment and shoot Gypo, much to Katie's horror as she hears the shots. Gypo wanders into a church where Frankie's mother is praying and begs forgiveness as he confesses to her. She does forgive him, telling him that he did not know what he was doing, and the absolved Gypo dies content on the floor of the church after calling out to Frankie with joy.

Cast[]

• 

  Wallace Ford as Frankie McPhillip in The Informer

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  Lobby card for The Informer featuring Victor McLaglen, Preston Foster and Donald Meek

• 

  McLaglen and Grahame

Reception[]

Writing for The Spectator in 1935, Graham Greene praised the film as "a memorable picture" the substance of which made "superb material for the screen". Greene singled out the acting of Victor McLaglen for specific praise, noting that he had "never given an abler performance".^[5]

The film was popular at the box office, earning a profit of $325,000^[1] and remains one of John Ford's most widely referenced films.

Awards and nominations[]

Academy Awards – 1935[]

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning four. McLaglen won Best Actor for his portrayal of Gypo Nolan, beating out Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, and Franchot Tone for the better-remembered Mutiny on the Bounty, and Ford won Best Director. Dudley Nichols won Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, but turned it down because of union disagreements. It was the first time an Oscar was declined, though he claimed it three years later.^[6] The film also won the Oscar for Best Score; Max Steiner won for the first time. The film was nominated for Outstanding Production,^[7] as well as for Best Film Editing.

Award	Result	Winner
Outstanding Production	Nominated	RKO Radio (John Ford, Producer) Winner was Mutiny on the Bounty (MGM) (Irving Thalberg and Frank Lloyd, Producers)
Best Director	Won	John Ford
Best Actor	Won	Victor McLaglen
Best Writing, Screenplay	Won	Dudley Nichols
Best Film Editing	Nominated	George Hively Winner was Ralph Dawson – A Midsummer Night's Dream
Best Music (Scoring)	Won	Max Steiner

The film's other awards and nominations:

• National Board of Review—Best Picture
• New York Film Critics Circle Awards—Best Film and Best Director
• Venice Film Festival—John Ford nominated for the Mussolini Cup

Adaptations in other media[]

The Informer was adapted as a radio play on the July 10, 1944, and October 17, 1950, episodes of The Screen Guild Theater, the March 28, 1948, episode of the Ford Theatre. On the Academy Award Theater's May 25, 1946, episode, McLaglen reprised his role.

See also[]

• The Plough and the Stars—A film also directed by John Ford set in Revolutionary Ireland

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Informer (1935 film).

• The Informer at IMDb
• The Informer at the TCM Movie Database
• The Informer at Rotten Tomatoes