Editing The Informer (1935 film)

{{short description|1935 film by John Ford}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = The Informer
| image          = The Informer (1935 window card).jpg
| alt            = 
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| director       = [[John Ford]]
| producer       = John Ford
| screenplay     = [[Dudley Nichols]]
| based_on       = {{based on|''[[The Informer (novel)|The Informer]]''<br>1925 novel|[[Liam O'Flaherty]]}}
| starring       = [[Victor McLaglen]]<br/>[[Heather Angel (actress)|Heather Angel]]<br/>[[Preston Foster]]<br/>[[Margot Grahame]]<br/>[[Wallace Ford]]<br/>[[Una O'Connor (actress)|Una O'Connor]]
| music          = [[Max Steiner]]
| cinematography = [[Joseph H. August]]
| editing        = [[George Hively]]
| studio         = [[RKO Radio Pictures]]
| distributor    = RKO Radio Pictures
| released       = {{film date|1935|05|09}}
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| runtime        = 91 minutes
| budget         = $243,000<ref name="rko">Jewel, Richard. "RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951", ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'', Vol. 14 No. 1, 1994, p. 55.<!--publisher & place?--></ref>
| gross          = $950,000<ref name="rko"/>
}}

'''''The Informer''''' is a 1935 American [[Drama film|drama]] [[thriller film]] directed and produced by [[John Ford]], adapted by [[Dudley Nichols]] from the 1925 [[The Informer (novel)|novel of the same title]] by Irish novelist [[Liam O'Flaherty]]. Set in 1922, the plot concerns the underside of the [[Irish War of Independence]] and centers on a disgraced [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Republican man]], played by [[Victor McLaglen]], who anonymously informs on his former comrades and spirals into guilt as his treachery becomes known. [[Heather Angel (actress)|Heather Angel]], [[Preston Foster]], [[Margot Grahame]], [[Wallace Ford]], [[Una O'Connor (actress)|Una O'Connor]] and [[J. M. Kerrigan]] co-star. The novel had previously been adapted for a British film [[The Informer (1929 film)|of the same name]] in 1929.

Along with ''[[Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film)|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: [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]] for Ford, [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] for McLaglen, [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Writing Screenplay]] for Nichols, and [[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Score]] for [[Max Steiner]].

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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2018/12/12/675384976/jurassic-park-the-shining-and-23-other-movies-added-to-national-film-registry|title='Jurassic Park,' 'The Shining,' And 23 Other Movies Added To National Film Registry|website=NPR.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=National Film Registry Turns 30|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-18-144/library-of-congress-national-film-registry-turns-30/2018-12-12/|access-date=2020-11-16|website=Library of Congress}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Complete National Film Registry Listing |url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/|access-date=2020-11-16|website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

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

Gypo later runs into his friend and IRA comrade Frankie McPhillip, 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 and sister Mary 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 (restitution)|blood money]] and let him go.

Gypo subsequently buys a bottle of whiskey and tells Katie that he obtained money by beating up an [[United States Navy|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. 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 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 he was likely the informant. 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, 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. 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==
{{col div}}
* [[Victor McLaglen]] as "Gypo" Nolan
* [[Heather Angel (actress)|Heather Angel]] as Mary McPhillip
* [[Preston Foster]] as Dan Gallagher
* [[Margot Grahame]] as Katie Madden
* [[Wallace Ford]] as Frankie McPhillip
* [[Una O'Connor (actress)|Una O'Connor]] as Mrs McPhillip
* [[J. M. Kerrigan]] as Terry
* [[Joe Sawyer|Joseph Sauers]] as Bartly Mulholland
* [[Neil Fitzgerald]] as Tommy Connor
* [[Donald Meek]] as Peter Mulligan
* [[D'Arcy Corrigan]] as The Blind Man
* Leo McCabe as Donahue
* [[Steve Pendleton|Gaylord Pendleton]] as Dennis Daley
* [[Francis Ford (actor)|Francis Ford]] as "Judge" Flynn
* [[May Boley]] as Madame Betty
* Grizelda Harvey as The Lady
* [[Denis O'Dea|Dennis O'Dea]] as Street singer
{{col div end}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Wallace-Ford-The-Informer-trailer.jpg|[[Wallace Ford]] as Frankie McPhillip in ''The Informer''
File:The Informer lobby card.jpg|Lobby card for ''The Informer'' featuring Victor McLaglen, Preston Foster and Donald Meek
File:Victor McLaglen-Margot Grahame in The Informer.jpg|McLaglen and Grahame
</gallery>

==Political context and censorship==
The film did not mention the IRA by name and, like [[Carol Reed]]'s ''[[Odd Man Out]]'' (1947), only "casually touched on the underlying conflict." Writing in ''The IRA in Film and Television: A History,'' author [[Mark Connelly]] observes that both films share a common "jaundiced view of Irish nationalism and its adherents." The IRA was portrayed as little more than a criminal gang "whose principal activities were robbery, murder and vigilante reprisals." Gypo Nolan was largely unmotivated by ideology, instead wishing to rejoin the "Organization" to regain "security, status, and a sense of belonging." Instead, the films used the backdrop of [[The Troubles]] for morality tales designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience.{{Sfn|Connelly|2012|pp=147-148}}

Politics and the cause of Irish nationalism was avoided to "circumvent controversy and pass the censors" in both the U.S. and Great Britain. With an eye toward distribution of the film in Britain, [[Joseph Breen]] of the [[Motion Picture Association|Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America]], submitted the script of ''The Informer'' to the [[British Board of Film Classification|British Board of Film Censors]], which requested numerous changes to omit references to the Anglo-Irish conflict.{{Sfn|Connelly|2012|p=148}}

''Odd Man Out'' and ''The Informer'' are also similar in being "dramatic portrayals of lapsed Catholics rediscovering their lost faith," and "end with their dying protagonists assuming Christ-like poses."{{Sfn|Connelly|2012|p=147}}

==Reception==
[[File:The Informer (1935 three-sheet poster).jpg|thumb|Theatrical release poster]]
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".<ref>{{cite journal |last= Greene|first= Graham|author-link= Graham Greene|date= October 11, 1935|title= Anna Karenina/The Informer|journal= [[The Spectator]]}} (reprinted in: {{cite book|editor-last= Taylor|editor-first= John Russell|editor-link= John Russell Taylor|date= 1980|title= The Pleasure Dome|url= https://archive.org/details/pleasuredomegrah00gree/page/26|page= [https://archive.org/details/pleasuredomegrah00gree/page/26 26]|isbn= 0192812866|url-access= registration}}</ref>

The film was popular at the box office, earning a profit of $325,000<ref name="rko"/> 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 [[Academy Award for Best Actor|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 (1935 film)|Mutiny on the Bounty]]'', and Ford won [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]]. Dudley Nichols won [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/118398 |title=8 Academy Award Nominees and Winners Who Snubbed the Oscars - Mental Floss |access-date=2012-02-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226002232/http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/118398 |archive-date=February 26, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> The film also won the Oscar for Best Score; [[Max Steiner]] won for the first time. The film was nominated for [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Outstanding Production]],<ref name="silentera">{{cite web |url=http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1206730182536 |title=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science |access-date=March 28, 2008 |work=Academy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112110146/http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1206730182536 |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> as well as for [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]].

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Category !! Nominee!! Result 
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Outstanding Production]] || [[RKO Pictures|RKO Radio]] ([[John Ford]], Producer) || {{nom}} 
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]] || John Ford|| {{won}} 
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] || [[Victor McLaglen]]|| {{won}} 
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Writing, Screenplay]] || [[Dudley Nichols]]|| {{won}} 
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]] || [[George Hively]] || {{nom}} 
|-
| [[Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Music (Scoring)]] || [[Max Steiner]]|| {{won}} 
|-
|}

'''Other awards and nominations:'''
* [[National Board of Review Awards 1935|National Board of Review]]—Best Picture
* [[1935 New York Film Critics Circle Awards|New York Film Critics Circle Awards]]—Best Film and Best Director
* [[Venice Film Festival]]—[[John Ford]] nominated for the [[Mussolini Cup]]

==Reputation==
[[File:The Informer Stone Inscription.jpg|thumb|Stone inscription for ''The Informer'' at [[John Ford Statue|Ford's statue]] in [[Portland, Maine]].]]
Circa 1950, ''The Informer'' graced many [[List of films considered the best|lists of the top films ever made]], and many critics at the time considered it the greatest American sound film.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Tag |title=John Ford: The Man and His Films |date=1986 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Los Angeles |isbn=0520050975 |page=181 |edition=1st}}</ref> The movie's reputation as one of the all-time greats has declined considerably since then.

==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==
*''[[Odd Man Out]]'' 
* [[The Plough and the Stars (film)|''The Plough and the Stars'']]
* [[Uptight (film)|''Uptight'']]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last1=Connelly |first1=Mark |title=The IRA on Film and Television : a History. |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Co., Publishers |location=Jefferson |isbn=9780786489619}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* {{IMDb title|0026529}}
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-informer-am23897 ''The Informer'' at AllMovie]
* {{TCMDb title|id=226}}
* {{AFI film|5203}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|1010553_informer|The Informer}}

{{Liam O'Flaherty}}
{{John Ford}}
{{Dudley Nichols}}
{{National Board of Review Award for Best Film}}
{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Informer (1935 film), The}}
[[Category:1935 crime drama films]]
[[Category:1935 films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:American crime drama films]]
[[Category:Films about the Irish Republican Army]]
[[Category:Films based on Irish novels]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Liam O'Flaherty]]
[[Category:Films directed by John Ford]]
[[Category:Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award–winning performance]]
[[Category:Films produced by Cliff Reid]]
[[Category:Films scored by Max Steiner]]
[[Category:Films set in 1922]]
[[Category:Films set in Ireland]]
[[Category:Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award]]
[[Category:Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award]]
[[Category:Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award]]
[[Category:Irish War of Independence films]]
[[Category:RKO Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Dudley Nichols]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:1930s American films]]
[[Category:1930s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language crime drama films]]