The Informers

Surprisingly tough, given that this was made in 1963, and surprisingly good British crime movie directed by the usually reliable Ken Annakin. It's based on the novel, "Death of a Snout" and it's about Police Inspector Nigel Patrick's attempt to find out who killed his number one informant. It has an excellent cast that includes Margaret Whiting, Darren Nesbitt, Frank Finlay, Roy Kinnear, Harry Andrews and Colin Blakely and Annakin makes great use of his London locations. It may not surface very often these days but it's certainly worth seeing.

Colin Blakely tries to talk brother John Cowley into ending his career as a 'snout', an informer to Chief Inspector Nigel Patrick. He can come into the profitable junk business as a partner with Blakely. Cowley says he's never had it so good..... until the gang that's been hitting banks learns he's been grassing and kills him Meanwhile, Patrick is ordered to stop associating with criminals. He scoffs and keeps on working information his way. This is, until the gang frames him with photographs and cash from one of the recent robberies hidden in his attic. He's taken in and charged.

Ken Annakin's movie, derived from a novel by Douglas Warner, offers an examination of the limited loyalty on both sides of the battle between law and crime, with a slow series of character studies that gradually speeds up, into an exciting final fifteen minutes. Both sides have brains, and both sides make mistakes, and that makes it all the more believable. Patrick gives a fine performance as an honest cop who cuts a few too many corners.

Annakin would spend the rest of the 1960s offering bloated comedy epics. Here, he takes his time, and it really pays off.

Firstly the location of Johnoes house was in North End Road Golders Green Green.It stars one of my favourite actors in Nigel Patrick and villains in Darren Nesbitt.I saw the film at the Odeon Temple Fortune on 24th November 1964.I would make the point that so many detectives at Scotland Yard at the time were corrupt they didn't need to frame them.I enjoyed the film then and now with reservations as I felt ,and still do that the climax is very contrived.By the performances of the dog and cat were noteworthy!

Ken Annakin, a director not known for masterpieces but for comedies and trusty box office returns, takes an unusually serious approach in THE INFORMERS, a dour British noir with Nigel Patrick a police detective making his own decisions in contravention of his boss' standing orders.

Instead of collating evidence piecemeal to take the criminals to court, he decides to speed things up on his own without a word to anyone in the office, with the upshot that clever villain Frank Finlay sets him a trap that makes him look like he is on the take and seeing prostitutes on the side, and he is remanded in custody and actually suspended from duty by uncompromising police chief Harry Andrews.

Derrin Nesbitt, as ever, plays the flamboyantly ruthless criminal who resorts to underhand methods to get lovely Margaret Whiting (is she the one who sings "My Foolish Heart" and other 1950s songs?) to ensnare Patrick. Very fine acting from all, down to the smallest part.

I like the script in general and dialogue in particular, complete with cockney accents giving the film and characters considerable authenticity, and presenting an unusual angle on dereliction of police duty with the best possible intentions.

Extremely effective B&W cinematography with clever use of closeups.

At least for this period; because you know better than me that during the late fifties and early sixties, there were hundreds - maybe not thousands - of short black and white crime movies, mostly produced by Butchers or Danziger's companies, and a few other ones too. Most of them, the bulk of this huge batch are forgettable, only a few emerge from my memory; I have seen so many of them. Some are excellent, for instance Sidney Hayer's' PAYROLL or Cliff Owen's PRIZE OF ARMS. No one can miss LEAGUE OF THE GENTLEMEN, light hearted though. This one is excellent because adapted from a Douglas Warner's novel, also terrific story, but maybe a bit old fashioned from today's standards. It is a shame that no more novels of this author were put on screen, big or small.