Fifty Years of Film in 50 Weeks, #15: The Informer, 1935

"Then Judas repented himself - and cast down the thirty pieces of silver - and departed." 

The Informer, 1935

Director: John Ford
Writer: Dudley Nichols, from the novel by Liam O'Flaherty
Cinematographer:  Joseph H. August 
Produced by: John Ford for RKO Radio Pictures.
Starring: Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Una O'Connor, Donald Meek
Music: Max Steiner

Why I chose it
This tied for first in my Twitter poll, but the Oscars the film won, especially the score by Steiner and Best Actor for Victor McLaglen, convinced me I needed to see this early John Ford talkie, which won him his first Best Director Oscar.

'No-spoiler' plot overview
In one Dublin evening during the Irish Civil War of 1922, a brutish, desperate, recently court-martialed ex-member of the IRA Gypo Nolan (McLaglen), informs on a fellow rebel (Wallace Ford) to the British 'Black and Tan' authorities and comes to regret this act, as the rebel is killed and Nolan quickly wastes the 20 pounds he gained for his informing.

Production Background 
John Ford was a successful director during the silent era and made a grudging transition to sound, employed by Fox. There he made epics and bucolic "Griffithian" dramas according to his biographer, Scott Eyman. When he switched to RKO, his style changed, and he indulged his love of German expressionistic technique, which was infused into the dark night settings and dramatic lighting of The Informer. McLaglen and Ford were collaborators for decades, both hard-drinking Celtic souls who somehow found great humanity in their films' characters. Tales told that McLaglen was actually drunk during his scenes of inebriation were debunked much later by Ford himself. 

Ford specifically requested composer Max Steiner for the movie based on his score for The Lost Patrol made with Ford the previous year. Previews were lukewarm, making the production team nervous, but critics were rapturous and surprising most, it earned a hefty profit. Based on this reception and the resulting Oscars, Ford was now a bona fide star director, coveted by the industry despite his being difficult to work with. As for Steiner, he won his first Oscar, and much praise for his score. Director Frank Capra even sent him a telegram exclaiming the score was the best he'd ever heard (Music by Max Steiner, by Steven C. Smith, 2020).

Some other notable film-related events in 1935*:

• RKO's and Rouben Mamoulian's Becky Sharp (1935) was the first feature-length Technicolor film to be shot entirely in 3-strip color - a milestone film dramatizing William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Vanity Fair with Miriam Hopkins in the title role.
• British director Alfred Hitchcock became an internationally famous figure for his thriller The 39 Steps.
• Twentieth Century Pictures (founded in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck and Joseph Schenck) and the Fox Film Corporation (founded by William Fox in 1915) merged to form 20th Century-Fox, overseen by Schenck and Zanuck.
• Selznick International Pictures, a major Hollywood motion picture studio, was founded in 1935 by David O. Selznick, who had left MGM. As an independent producer, David O. Selznick served as a "one-man" film industry with tremendous authority and power over the selection of stars and decisions of directors.
• Olivia de Havilland debuted in film with A Midsummer's Night Dream. 

*Thanks to Filmsite.org

My Random Observations

• For the first quarter of the film, this feels like a silent. There are long dialogue-free stretches, with dramatic music, expressionistic lighting and close-ups of faces overcome with emotion.  This isn't surprising, as Ford, experienced in directing silent film, was emerging from that era to the new 'talking picture' era that he would master as well. As a fan of the late silent period, I loved this "throw-back" feeling, considering much of the early 1930s were pre-Code dialogue-rich offerings.
• Despite its minimalist sets, unsubtle symbolism and expressionistic filming technique, the film feels authentic. Ford, a son of Irish immigrants, had a knack for getting the culture down. It truly felt like you were looking at real events in war-torn Dublin through perhaps a distorted lens. Credit should go, of course, to McLaglen, whose towering central performance is believable if heavily dramatic.
• Someone should write an opera from this story. Having not read the novel, I'm not sure if the outlines of the plot are more complex than in the film, but the simple story, filled with high-pitched emotion and stirring action, and its short time frame would be perfect set to music. Perhaps some of Steiner's score could inspire the composer, along with popular Irish tunes inflected with appropriate dissonance, of course.
• Once again, I'm taking a moment to laud one of my favorite character actors: this time, Wallace Ford. No relation to director John, Ford had a difficult early life but emerged in movies with his raw talent in the early 1930s to take on flawed leading men or secondary parts that put his boyish enthusiasm and bluster with a natural vulnerability bordering on weakness of character to good use. The part of the doomed Frankie McPhillip is perfect for him. If his Irish accent isn't consistent, well, it's not uncommon for actors to not quite nail difficult accents (although Ford was born in England so... hmmm.). Ford was handsome and likeable as a young actor, and aged, as many do, with a few extra pounds, continuing his career through the early 1960s. His last role was of the brow-beaten grandfather in A Patch of Blue with Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, and Elizabeth Hartman.

  

  Wallace Ford in middle age (Wikipedia)

  
  

Screenshots

Our first glimpse of conflicted, downtrodden Gypo.

Gypo considers the reward offered for the capture of his compatriot.

A street tenor (Denis O'Dea) sings 'The Rose of Tralee'

A side of character actor Donald Meek that we rarely see. 
Here he's sizing up streetwalker Katie.

Katie and Gypo pine to escape war-torn Dublin. If they 
only had the cash.

Frankie McPhillip (Wallace Ford) wanted and hiding.

Gypo and Frankie share confidences at an IRA hangout.

Gypo in the act of informing.

Frankie beset by the Black and Tans.

Frankie's mother collapses in grief.

Gypo with Frankie's mother and sister, trying to hide his guilt.

Gypo, buying everyone a meal, is very popular for a few minutes.

 A biblical denouement as Gypo repents his guilt before 
a life-sized crucifix and Frankie's mother.

Frankie tries to negotiate with IRA leaders Gallagher and 
Mulholland (Preston Foster & Joe Sawyer).

Desperate lovers Gypo and Katie (Margot Grahame) have a tender moment.

Where to Watch
The film is available on DVD (Warner Bros. Archive) and currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, where I watched, and other streaming platforms.

Further Reading
I enjoyed the Self-Styled Siren's essay looking at the evolution of film criticism centered on the film, and also this SUNY-Albany article with production tidbits.

Outlaws hiding out in Custer's cavalry in Warpath (1951)

If you're looking for a quintessential 1950s Western that has just about everything, look no further than Paramount's Warpath (1951). Sure, there are more profound and certainly more iconic Westerns...but hey, why not expand your horizons?

This film review is my contribution to the Classic Movie Blog Association's fall blogathon on the topic of movie outlaws. Go here, if you dare, to read all the great entries.

Warpath boasts a solid cast, starring Edmond O'Brien, Dean Jagger, Polly Bergen, Harry Carey Jr., and Wallace Ford. As I've been digging into the career of Edmond O'Brien via the recently published biography, Edmond O'Brien, Everyman of Film Noir (to be reviewed in an upcoming post), this one grabbed my attention because it's the first Western that O'Brien headlined. In fact, this film emerged when O'Brien, who specialized in film noir, was arguably in his prime-- just two years after D.O.A. and White Heat and two years before The Hitch-hiker.

Producer Nat Holt helmed Warpath for Paramount Studios. Westerns were his specialty, as he free-lanced during the 1940s and 50s for Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and RKO.  Writer Frank Gruber also specialized in Westerns, having written novels and short stories in the genre. In the director's chair was Byron Haskin, who also helmed Too Late For Tears, a fantastic noir that has recently been restored by the Film Noir Foundation and has played to the delights of 21st-century audiences on Turner Classic Movies and at festivals. Ray Rennahan, the cinematographer, had a long career from silents to television, and many Westerns in the 1950s--of note he was the DP for the epic Western Duel in the Sun starring Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, and Joseph Cotten.

Warpath starts rather romantically, planting us squarely in the west of Gen. George Armstrong Custer, who commanded the Seventh Cavalry against the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes at his 'last stand' in the battle of the Little Bighorn, Montana.

We soon meet O'Brien's character, John Vickers, an officer during the Civil War who now, a decade later, is looking to get revenge against three men who were responsible for the death of his fiancee, but who had evaded justice and were said to be hiding out in the Seventh Cavalry, probably with names changed. With little more than their original names to go on, since he never got a good look at these men, Vickers shows up in a small town in North Dakota and on the street, immediately meets and kills (after being drawn on, of course) the first of the three men (how he knew it was his target was not explained). Shortly after, he meets Molly Quade (Bergen)--who has just arrived to help her long-lost father (Dean Jagger) run his local store--and saves her from some unwanted moves by an officer. The two develop an instant attraction. Strangely, Molly's father seems to not want her to have anything to do with the soldier.

Molly (Polly Bergen) immediate sets her sights on the
handsome stranger.

Vickers, who had been an officer in the Civil War, enlists as a private in the Seventh Cavalry and intends to find the two missing outlaws while continuing to serve his country. Unfortunately, he has to report to O'Hara, the local sergeant (Forrest Tucker) the same officer whom Vickers prevented from assaulting Molly. Also in the group are Pvt. 'Irish' Potts, (a delightful Wallace Ford) and Pvt. Fiore (Paul Fix). Harry Carey, Jr. plays the regimental captain.

At the dance: even cavalrymen get to have fun once in a while.
(l-r Paul Fix, Wallace Ford, Edmond O'Brien)

The revenge story takes a back seat in the middle of the film when trouble brews on the range, and a series of skirmishes with the native tribes break out. Sgt. O'Hara, who is now suspected by Vickers as one of his targets, proves himself to be a coward, while our hero Vickers's skill is noticed by none other than Custer himself. Vickers is rapidly promoted and now is O'Hara's commander.

Gen. Custer (James Millican) promotes John Vickers (O'Brien)

When embarking to meet and warn Custer about an impending attack, his group is ambushed and taken prisoner by an army of Sioux. This time O'Hara is the hero, sacrificing himself to save the others (this after Pvts. Potts and Fiore also get themselves killed at the hands of the natives).  At this point, Vickers has already figured out who the outlaws are but keeps this to himself for a while, as he begins to question whether he wants his legacy to be his private vengeance and simultaneously condemn himself to outlaw status. Complicating the decision is Molly's direct condemnation of his plan. As expected, the plot threads are all tied up in a way that allows Vickers and Molly to get together at the end. (You'll need to watch the film to see who the outlaws are!)

On the positive side, this film boasts well-drawn, three-dimensional characters, has a complex story with a few plot twists, and entertains with exceptional action sequences and strong production values that make me wish I could see it on the big screen. There are scenes with large contingents of soldiers and natives, all filmed on location near Billings, Montana. There are wagon trains, but Paramount did not give director Haskin the budget to use real trains, so he reused film from The Great Missouri Raid early on in the film (from D. Sculthorpe's bio Edmond O'Brien, Everyman of Film Noir, 2018).

Settlers and Cavalry about to be attacked by the Sioux.

On the negative side, Warpath is a bit overlong and suffers from mediocre editing. The film doesn't have a significant point of view on the Western ideology or the plight of the native American, but is, in essence, a somewhat moralistic piece of entertainment solidly of its time.

Edmond O'Brien, ca. 1940s.

O'Brien went on to have quite a career in Westerns, even though I'm never sure if his New York City accent and manners were really right for the genre. Yet, I highly recommend The Big Land, an Alan Ladd vehicle with good friend O'Brien in support. Of course, near the end of his career he had a memorable turn as grizzled gun-fighter Freddie Sykes in Sam Peckinpah's classic The Wild Bunch (1969).


I watched Warpath on Amazon Prime Video.

Fawcett Comics made a comic book from this film in August 1951, which was one of only twenty film adaptations the company made.