Each era makes bad films in its own way and with its own conventions that come from accepted styles of acting and writing that when used well still work 70 years latter, but when misused make a film laughable remnant of a time long past. The Informer commits several sins that it make it hard to take seriously.

The film tells the story of an an ex-IRA man, Gypo Nolan, who was kicked out of the IRA because he couldn’t execute a man and let him escape and as a consequence is now broke. Gypo is desperate to leave Ireland with his girl because neither the English nor the IRA trust him. To raise money he turns in his friend for 20 pounds, the same price for two tickets two America. His friend is killed when the English try to arrest him and Gypo begins to feel guilty and heads out into Dublin on an all night bender where he spends all his money. The IRA figures out it is him and they take him to a trial where he is judged and eventually killed while trying to escape.

What makes the film so silly is not so much Gypo and the adventures he has in Dublin while he drinks. In many ways the Gypo’s drunkenness is one of the best examples of the exuberant internalization acting style of the 30’s, where the actor mixes some of the pantomime from the silent era which gives him pronounced movements with loud and boisterous talk to make the characterization in language as much as in movement. No, what makes it silly are the supporting roles. One could see a Gypo go off the edge, even if to our sensibilities it is more an metaphorical than a realistic portrayal. The supporting characters are stiff and wooden and, worse, they add the weakest of melodramatic elements. The head of the IRA unit is a stiff and by the book man and his love is the sister of the man who was betrayed. In one comic scene they express their love is such melodramatic ways you can’t help but laugh, and if you don’t laugh its because you are wondering what this scene is doing in the film. Moreover, she is the least impassioned woman you have ever seen. Her brother has been murdered and she attends the trial in such a calm manner you’d think she was there for a parking ticket. The week melodrama and the stiff acting don’t balance well with the impressionistic (possibly influenced by the Germans) parts of the film.

The way the IRA is portrayed is also strange. The IRA is a force of complete restraint and law, and not only do its commanders insist on fair trials, but even the accused are willing to accept the verdicts. When Gypo is shot by the IRA and is dying he asks for forgiveness of the sister and accepts that he shouldn’t have betrayed his friend and the IRA. The IRA only has one gun man who is evil, but the IRA is shown to be able to handle him and his desire for excess, and those who do the executions such as Gypo, and latter another young innocent, are too good to do it and will not commit murder. There is little complexity to the role of the IRA and at worst they are a flawed force for good.