The Informer

When I bought this movie on Grapevine video I really wasn't expecting too much, but, the quality of the print was pretty good. This British movie was made during the transition from silents to talkies and had it's own music soundtrack, however, halfway through the movie it suddenly becomes a talkie and that's where it's weakness lies as the two leads were both European, Lars Hanson was Swedish and Lya Di Putte was, I believe, Hungarian, so the director did what Hitchcock did to Anni Ondra in "Blackmail", he had two actors off set speaking the lines while Hanson and Di Putte mouthed their words and that's the films weak point as they speak their lines very slowly compared to the other actors around them and for Hanson's character the voice simply doesn't fit. Apart from that, the movie is actually pretty good, the story of a man who betrays a friend and attempts to avoid the vengeance of the men's other friends. I have to say that people say Hanson didn't look the part of Gypo Nolan, I disagree, he does pull it off, but, the voice actor doing his voice doesn't help and having heard his real voice I did find it disconcerting when I heard the voice of the other actor coming out of his mouth. But, all in all this is a very good early British movie and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in that era of film making,.