The Informer

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S R Saw it for John Ford. It was a very different movie for him and I did enjoy it for its groundbreaking ideas / filming / themes. It was a bit dated, but helped me appreciate Ford a bit more and his telling of some Republican Army stories. It was on TCM, but RUS. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/15/24 Full Review Al G John Ford produced the great series of Irish and Irish-American movies. "The Informer" was one of the earliest and possibly the best. The twenty-first century is a century of civil wars and resistance movements in many nations. Even if you're not interested in Ireland, movies like "The Informer" is worth a second look. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/25/24 Full Review Audience Member Before director John Ford became known for his westerns, he was already a world class director. "The Informer" shows how he had command of the medium from the start. It tells the story of a former IRA fighter (Victor McLaglen) who anonymously informs on a former comrade which results in the comrades death. He collects the reward and then spends the night trying to regain his popularity among his neighborhood peers. What good is it to collect such a reward if you cant flaunt it and buy some new friends. McLaglen is not your typical leading man. He is ogre-like and a bit gruesome. That is partly why the film works so well. He seems as far away from Hollywood as you can get...an that is high praise. Thee film won four Oscars including Director and Actor. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member A thought-provoking drama of desperate living, paranoia, and the consequences of one's actions, John Ford gives the film an appropriately dark atmosphere, and the sets have a nightmarish quality to them. As McLaglen stumbles half-drunk through the night, everything around him shows his feelings. His character tends to often feel guilty, but at other times he feels in the mood to celebrate. He is overcome by a wave of different emotions, upset from different things. McLaglen handles all of this very well, giving a startling realistic performance that is good enough to provide some compensation for Margot Grahame's over-acting. However, this is just the one character that is complex and fascinating. The supporting characters all are very thin, and the romance between Foster and Angel adds nothing to the tale. Even so, this is very effective film-making, with some clever use of dissolve editing and a haunting music score by Max Steiner. It is overall quite an effective film about moral play, desperation and responsibility. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Stereotypical rubbish. Easily John Ford's weakest film. A film obviously made to cater to American audiences, this film is painfully full of Irish stereotypes; that is admittedly funny at first due to the period it was made, but gets very boring as it goes on. McLaglan's performance of drinking a gazillion whiskies and shouting "Bartley meboy!" a million times gets boring real quick. The three actors in Mutiny on the Bounty deserved the Best Actor Oscar way more than McLaglan. There would be people who would say that that was due to the time it was filmed. However, all the Best Picture nominated films I have seen (Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Blood, A Midsummer Night's Dream & Top Hat) were miles better than this film. The Oscar-winning directing and writing were also far inferior than Captain Blood and Mutiny on the Bounty. The one positive and impressive scene was the killing of Frankie McPhillips which was acted and directed very well. Overall, a stereotypical film that at first funny, gets boring and ridiculous very quickly. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review steve d Engaging enough but nothing special. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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