1935 - The Informer

Happy New Year! Awards season is beginning to ramp up and there are a lot of exciting titles in the running, barely any of which I've seen as yet. I did get the chance to watch Encanto with my family the other night and thoroughly enjoyed it. No doubt we'll be hearing its name mentioned when the Best Animated Film nominations are announced. And with new films from Oscar-bait directors Anderson, Branagh, Campion, McKay, Scott and Spielberg, among many others, I'm looking forward to potentially adding some new favourites to my all-time list.

For now, let's begin the new year with one more of 1935's Best Picture contenders...


The Informer
Director:
John Ford
Screenplay:
Dudley Nichols

(based on the novel by Liam O'Flaherty)
Starring:
Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Una O'Connor
Academy Awards:
6 nominations
4 wins, including Best Director and Best Actor (McLaglen)

It's 1922 in Dublin during the Irish War of Independence and Irish outcast Gypo Nolan (McLaglen) wanders the streets in a melancholy state. He stumbles across a poster offering a £20 reward for the capture of one of his old friends, Frankie McPhillip (Ford), with whom he fought against the British. Gypo's girlfriend, Katie (Grahame), dreams of escaping her troubled life in Ireland, but moving to America doesn't come cheap. In fact, rather coincidentally, two tickets to America cost exactly £20. No points for guessing what happens next.

The Informer is a keen study in guilt, specifically the behaviour of a reluctant snitch. Director John Ford knows how to create tension and he expertly conveys the anxiety Gypo feels. Taking place over the course of a single evening, the story moves at a slow and very suspenseful pace. Joseph H. August's photography is stunning, a fine example of film noir cinematography, despite the film not really falling into the film noir genre. The moody lighting streaking across the fog, along with some superb shot composition, makes for some captivating visuals.

The performances from most of the cast are perhaps more melodramatic than average for this era - and I'm not just talking about the atrocious Irish accents. Nonetheless, despite McLaglen's overacting, he ended up winning the Best Actor Oscar. If I had the vote, I undoubtedly would have voted for any of the three nominees from Mutiny on the Bounty over McLaglen. I wonder if those three did in fact split the vote, allowing McLaglen to slip through. Then again, overacting wasn't as distasteful back then, so maybe the majority of Academy voters genuinely appreciated McLaglen's performance. For my money, Preston Foster (pictured) was the standout. Maybe he was aided by a more stoic character but he seemed to be less melodramatic than the rest.

The film garnered six nominations, though not for cinematography, sadly. Its main rival was Mutiny on the Bounty, which happened to be nominated in exactly the same six categories. The Informer was the big winner on Oscar night, taking home four awards, the most of any film that year. But Mutiny on the Bounty had the last laugh by taking out Best Picture.