User reviews

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.

Surprisingly, one of the best tough-cop performances in a British film came from Nigel Patrick in "The Informers," an actor who has considerably more strength in this kind of role than all those witty, urbane characters in which he has found himself would seem to suggest...

Patrick played a detective-sergeant with a genuine London accent and showed a fierceness towards a gang of crooks which at the time (1963) was highly unusual in British pictures… It could be that the characterization was in a direct line from his Soho racketeer in "The Noose ( 1948), his cold-hearted spymaster in "Count Five and Die,"( 1958) and his police detective in "Sapphire" (1959). Somewhere inside Nigel Patrick, it seems, there is a Sterling Hayden trying to break out

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.

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.

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!

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.

Nigel Patrick is effective as a Scotland Yard chief inspector on the trail of a sophisticated gang responsible for a Whitechapel bank robbery. "Johnnoe" is getting close. His meticulous, no-nonsense, style of investigation is leading him close to Frank Finlay's "Sale" whom we know from the outset is a lynchpin in the criminal organisation. The criminals are no slouches, though, and they cleverly arrange to set-up the policeman and have him disgraced and suspended. Now it falls to his wife "Mary" (Katherine Woodville) and the brother of one of the gang's other victims "Ruskin" (Colin Blakely) to get to the bottom of the frame, the crime and the murder before it's too late. It's maybe just a bit too long, but once we get going it's a well made and paced crime drama that puts together a strong cast of familiar faces and makes good use of a decent story to set up an action packed fisticuff denouement.

I love these sort of films,1950s/1960s British crime films. Some are well known but this one is fairly obscure,despite the well known director and cast.

So I was glad when I caught this on a film channel. It has its faults,mainly sometimes unrealistic,but it is well made and has a great cast. 10 years after this film was made the British film industry was almost dead,why? I think because of tv and the idea that British films were dull,some were but some were great.

This starts out to be one kind of crime film and evolves into something else entirely. A lead detective tells his subordinates to stop using informants because he believes they should transition to more modern methods. But inspector Johnnoe does not intend to take a useful tool out of his toolbox just because he needs to add some additional tools. So he disobeys orders and continues using them, and one in particular - Jim Ruskin.

There have been a string of bank robberies going on in London, and Jim has a tip on who is involved. But the crooks see Jim watching them, and his drunk routine does not fool them. They take Jim prisoner and murder him, but not before he phones Johnnoe's house and leaves a message as to who is responsible for the robberies. So now as a result Johnnoe is hanging around and bothering the thieves and they have to do something to discredit him, because murdering an inspector will just get more heat on them.

When it comes to a lone nut criminal or one lone ranger of a cop, American cinema is pretty good. But nobody does films about ensemble crimes and teamwork like the Europeans. And since I hate to watch subtitles, I really like British crime and noir films. This one goes to such a wild place I'll just let you watch how it play out. The one actor I recognized was Derrin Nesbitt, who just excelled at playing memorable and unpredictable sociopaths. I'd highly recommend this.

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.

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.

Nigel Patrick reprises his copper from 'Sapphire' in all but name in this terse little thriller with an incisive script by Alun Falconer and glacial photography by Reg Wyer that vividly evokes a London in which police still drove Bentleys; and the criminal Mr Big's lair was a dingy but vast studio flat which only a Russian oligarch could today afford.

On the one occasion I met it's director Ken Annakin I told him how much I'd liked it, his blank expression indicating he hadn't thought about it since he'd made it; which once again showed little appreciation of the worth of their own work the people who actually made these films frequently had.

Ken Annakin tended to constantly change his subject, from hilarious comedies, some unsurpassed (like "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines") to real serious films of pathos and beauty, like "The Call of the Wild", the best film version of that masterpiece. Here he takes up the subject of the London underworld with crooks and gangsters galore, sometimes working together and sometimes making war against each other, it's like the Dickensian underworld but 100 years further on. Of course some ladies get caught in between, and the crimes here involve any kind of felony, burglary, blackmail, framing, murder and so on, presenting a cast surpassing all excellence. You will feel disgusted at the crimes and brutality of the film, there are some really nasty villains here, but you must acknowledge the supreme acting. This is a hell of a mess of intrigues to hold together, but Ken Annakin makes it through with flying colours. It's an unusual role for Nigel Patrick, but he survives more than well, while many others go down on the way. Frank Finlay is particularly repulsive in his superior evil of cleverness, while there is practically no music here - only for an introduction and then for some sparse accompaniment that you hardly even hear. It's a horrible but eloquent panorama of professional criminality.

I highly rate gifted director Ken Annakin's gritty 60s crime thriller 'The Informers' (1963), not only does it have an exceptionally fine cast of notable actors, the narrative simmers with a tangibly darker, hair-trigger element of pending danger, and full-blooded character actor Derren Nesbitt's blazingly charismatic performance as ruthless two-bit thug Bertie Hoyle on the rise is both nuanced, and fascinatingly vivid, while appearing initially likeable, his easy, matinee idol smile belies a murderous appetite for callous violence.

Rousing action, robust performances, an exciting plot, earthy dialogue and dynamic location shooting lends 'The Informers' an unsually compelling vibrancy. The dangerously duplicitous, uncompromisingly tough criminal milieu of 'The Informers'almost foreshadows the game changing, catchphrase-making masterpiece 'The Sweeney'. This tremendously exciting, flint-edged British thriller doesn't focus on the cold mechanics of the bank job itself but instead dissects the febrile aftermath, wherein the disparate characters struggle with the all-too human mental miasma of greed and debilitating distrust! While the erudite Nigel Patrick convinces as steely Chief Inspector John Edward Johnoe, Colin Blakely, Derren Nesbitt and a deliciously Machiavellian Frank Finlay stand out, and the galvanizing score by Clifton Parker is one of the splendid film's more energizing components. Not only is 'The Informers' effortlessly watchable, it amply rewards subsequent viewings.