Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Ten: The (Bad) Luck of the Oirish

Another nominee from 1936, and although The Informer didn't win Best Picture it won four awards at the ceremony. The most historic of those had to be Best Director for John Ford who won his first of four awards. But unlike most of his other films this wasn't a western. Instead The Informer is quite a moody thriller set in 'Ireland' about Gypo Nolan who informs the police about his fugitive friend Frankie and gets £20 for his trouble which he intends to use for two plane tickets to America for him and his girl so they can escape the life they have. But instead he spends it on booze, girls and food and at the same time incurs the wrath of the Irish rebels who want to find out who informed on Frankie and make him pay. As John Ford is known for his big shoot outs and ellobarately shot sequences The Informer is quite dark and feels quite insular as we are transported into Gypo's sad and lonely life as his guilt takes over him. Although the final sequences where he has to escape the rebels are very exciting what comes before it is very mundane and at times quite boring compared to the all-action Captain Blood and the all-singing all-dancing Top Hat this is obviously the worst of the films form that year so far. Another problem was obviously a lot of the cast members aren't Irish and the film isn't filmed in Ireland and there isn't a lot done to disguise either of these issues so in a way it felt a bit sloppy.

One Oscar I think the film did deserve was Best Actor for Victor McLaglen. In a time when leading men were dashing like Errol Flynn, charming like Clark Gable or could dance like Fred Astaie, the ordinary looking McLaglen gave a performance that was ahead of its time. Quite subtle and able to convey emotions without launching into a massive monologue this was a performance by what we refer to today as a 'character actor'. In fact he beat both Gable and Charles Laughton for that year's winning film Mutiny on The Bounty, to the award. Apart from Ford and McLaglen the other two awards were for Best Score (moody and set the tone very low-key) and Best Screenplay (not the best but then definitely not the worst from that era). As for Ford he would go onto bigger and better things but we all have to start somewhere.