---
title: "The Informer: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-informer/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-informer"
critics_score: 76
critics_reviews: 7
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Informer (1935): what the critics said

Critics' score 76 from 7 reviews: 6 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative.

Most critics admire The Informer, and the praise gathers around two things: Victor McLaglen as Gypo and the look of John Ford’s Dublin. The 1935 reviews treat McLaglen’s blundering, pathetic betrayer as the film’s centre and credit the picture with a psychological seriousness rare in the early talkies. Later writers keep returning to the imagery instead: fog-shrouded streets, shadowy tenements, snatches of hymn and song drifting through the night. Nearly everyone reaches for the word Expressionist.

The reservations come from the later reviews and cluster around the script and the direction. Empire finds the writing has not aged well and the ominous, religious elements laid on too thick; Film Comment is warmer but holds the film at arm’s length as a moody nocturne. Time Out is the outright dissenter, finding it heavy-handed, humourless and patronising, with only the camerawork worth saving. The spread is wide, and it runs along the decades: the closer a critic sits to 1935, the higher the score.

## The New Yorker

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 1935. 

Any picture so perfected advances a serious concern for the cinema through its sure progress and consistent development. Victor McLaglen delivers a magnificent performance as Gypo, clarifying the betrayal with sympathy amid the tense Sinn Fein Dublin atmosphere.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1935/05/18/grateful-notes-of-praise)

## The New York Times

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 10 May 1935. 

The Music Hall presents Victor McLaglen in the film version of Liam O'Flaherty's 'The Informer.' It stands out as one of the remarkable talking films for its psychological study and skillful vignette of Irish revolutionary realities.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1935/05/10/archives/the-music-hall-presents-victor-mclaglen-in-a-film-version-of-liam.html)

## Variety

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1934. 

The film is forcefully and intelligently written, directed and acted. It excels through Victor McLaglen's faithful characterization of the blundering, pathetic betrayer Gypo, guided by John Ford's direction.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/1934/film/reviews/the-informer-1200410957/)

## Empire — Kim Newman

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 

The critic sees the film as a heavily allegorical tale of Irish rebellion that falls into the category of Ford's Oscar-winning but now lesser-regarded works. It praises the Expressionist atmosphere, foggy Dublin visuals, and McLaglen's strong screen presence in the chase scenes while noting the script has not aged well and there is an overdose of the ominous and religious elements.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/informer-review/)

## Film Comment

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 11 May 2026. 

The piece discusses Ford's 1935 adaptation of Liam O'Flaherty's novel as a grim, moody, nocturnal reverie set in revolutionary Dublin, balancing empathy for the traitor with faith in the betrayed cause. It singles out the film's indelible, expressionist imagery of fog-shrouded streets, shadowy tenements, and floating snatches of songs and hymns.

[Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/rep-diary-ford-and-ireland/)

## Time Out — TCh

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 8 February 2012. 

The critic finds the film heavy-handed, humourless and patronising, despite its Oscar wins and contemporary acclaim. Only the expressionist camerawork stands out amid the over-emphatic direction, script and score.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-informer)

## Collider — Liam Gaughan

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 9 March 2025. 

The critic calls The Informer a brilliant exercise in tension and an edgy study in morality and guilt that was radically ahead of its time. It has aged very well as a thought-provoking examination of the ramifications of betrayal and remorse.

[Read the review](https://collider.com/john-ford-the-informer/)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-informer.md