A Lei dos Facínoras

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.

No matter what title's used, UNDERWORLD INFORMERS or simply THE INFORMERS, it's right up front about those shady characters desperate enough to run to the law and name names...

Only here it's Scotland Yard's Nigel Patrick who takes foot after them... one snitch/snout in particular in a newly-slain informer's hard-working ex-con brother Colin Blakely, so intensely energetic he needed far more screen time...

But it's pretty boy criminal Derren Nesbitt on the freewheeling forefront, strutting his wealth as he and more cautious partner Frank Finlay hang in a crowded nightclub while their planned bank heist (after several previous knockoffs) occurs simultaneously elsewhere...

So Nigel Patrick's Chief Inspector John Edward Johnnoe... vulnerable to strict chief Harry Andrews since he cuts corners to begin with... dives into a dog-eat-dog plot saturated enough for three crime flicks while curbed by two dames that, like any Noir, has one naive the other wicked.

Unfortunately the gorgeous Katherine Woodville is benign and underused as the cop's wife, leaving the good stuff to bad girl/moll Margaret Whiting who, despite framing our hero, is equally sympathetic as a single mom mentally and physically abused by that rich pompous crime lord Nesbitt...

Who really has the most fun since, unlike everyone else... dizzy from all the complicated bedlam... he's grinning till the end, and with an unapologetic villainy that -- possibly inspired by the likes of Robinson and Cagney -- becomes downright infectious.

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!

A truly excellent example of the British thriller genre produced on modest budgets in the late 50's and early'60s. Nigel Patrick goes against type from his usual suave, raffish and urbane gent about town - although he's still a fairly suave and urbane Detective Inspector here, albeit a very doggedly determined one.

DI Johnnoe prefers the old tried and tested methods of crime busting, including associating with known criminals as snouts. His boss (Harry Andrews) , backed up by the weasely and ambitious Smythe (Allan Cuthbertson), is keen to do away with these old habits and trouble lies in store when Johnnoe persists after one of his snouts is bumped off.

The supporting cast is magnificent, with a roll call of superb Brit actors, many of whom were just emerging into fame at the time. In particular, Frank Finlay, Colin Blakely (both outstanding), also Derren Nesbitt, George Sewell, Brian Wilde, to name but a few. Even Peter Bowles gets an early (uncredited) turn as the mysteriously-named "Peter the Pole".

The final punch up is a little chaotic, but it doesn't detract from the overall narrative of the film which starts as a detective vs bad guys story, but soon evolves into a much deeper and engaging theme. Thoroughly recommended.