The Informers [Underworld Informers] ** (1963, Nigel Patrick, Margaret Whiting, Harry Andrews, Colin Blakely, Derren Nesbitt, Frank Finlay) – Classic Movie Review 12,138

The 1963 British black and white crime thriller film The Informers [Underworld Informers] is based on Douglas Warner’s novel Death of a Snout, and stars Nigel Patrick, Margaret Whiting, Harry Andrews, Colin Blakely, Derren Nesbitt and Frank Finlay.

Director Ken Annakin’s 1963 British black and white crime thriller film The Informers [Underworld Informers] [The Snout] is based on Douglas Warner’s novel Death of a Snout, and stars Nigel Patrick, Margaret Whiting, Harry Andrews, Colin Blakely, Derren Nesbitt and Frank Finlay. It is filmed at Pinewood Studios and on location in London.

The Informers is a typical Rank Organisation British studio black and white thriller of the early Sixties, with Nigel Patrick, Colin Blakely, Harry Andrews, Derren Nesbitt and Frank Finlay shining in a sufficiently detailed and complicated but somehow still routine case about a London police inspector, Chief Inspector John Edward Johnnoe (Patrick), trying to trace a bank robber, Bertie Hoyle (Derren Nesbitt) who framed him for taking a bribe after killing one of his informers, Jim Ruskin (John Cowley), the Snout of the film’s original title.

This Fifties hangover, with an improbable story based on Douglas Warner’s novel Death of a Snout, could have been a contender but is rather tired in almost all departments, yet still has its moments and points of interest. But Patrick is effective as the investigating cop and so is Colin Blakely as Charlie Ruskin, the dead man’s crook brother who eventually reluctantly joins him in the murder hunt. Indeed the stalwart Brit cast are film’s best recommendation, though Patrick and Blakely give the film’s most admirable performances, with plenty to do. Patrick can hold the screen smoothly and intensely as the star turn, and Blakely is a very fine star character actor, eye-catching but still ‘real’. Harry Andrews enjoys his supercilious unsympathetic role as Patrick’s disloyal police Superintendent boss, Ronald Hines is stalwart as Patrick’s loyal police Sergeant Geoff Lewis, while Allan Cuthbertson is effortlessly hateful as Patrick’s disloyal police colleague Smythe.

On the other side of the law, Roy Kinnear does his sweaty turn enjoyably as the crook Shorty, Frank Finlay underplays his main villain role as Leon Sale, and Derren Nesbitt overplays his main robber role as Bertie Hoyle. Finlay could have stoked it up a bit perhaps and Nesbitt toned it down a bit maybe, but they still make it work.

There are basically only two female roles, but both of them are considerable. Margaret Whiting plays the prostitute and crook’s moll Maisie Barton (she is Bertie Hoyle’s property), and Katherine Woodville plays Patrick’s wife Mary Johnnoe. Neither role is very satisfying, and the playing is only vaguely satisfactory.

The London location shooting is the film’s other main recommendation, with filming at locations including the Thames Embankment, Westminster, Shaftesbury Avenue, Soho, Paddington, Covent Garden (Bow Street), Hampstead Heath, Gloucester Mews, Whitechapel Tube Station, and Golders Green.

There’s a bizarre fight off involving almost all the characters that would be better in a Keystone Kops comedy. It doesn’t quite work, though it comes near to it. actually like most elements of the film. That’s followed by a shootout that doesn’t work at all. Brit crime thrillers of this era always seemed to have fights and guns. They could often make the fisticuffs work but rarely the shootings. Guns weren’t really much part of the British landscape at the time, and they just succeed in making the Brit film seem to be aping American movies.

The screenplay speaks up strongly for the unofficial concept and use of police informers (snouts) as well as policemen acting unofficially, not recording their activities in their official diaries and coming and going freely in the criminal underworld. The film starts with Scotland Yard boss Superintendent Alec Bestwick (Harry Andrews) banning the use of snouts, and sets out to show that working according to the book won’t work. This of course points the way from cost 1950s Dixon of Dock Green to Dirty Harry. Smythe (Allan Cuthbertson) is an honest cop but he’s a prig and a prat, whereas crooks Charlie Ruskin (Colin Blakely) and his buddy Ben (Michael Coles) are honourable criminals.

Also in the cast are Katherine Woodville [billed as Catherine Woodville], Frank Finlay, Roy Kinnear, Derren Nesbitt, John Cowley, Michael Coles, Allan Cuthbertson, Ronald Hines, Peter Prowse, George Sewell, Kenneth J Warren, and Brian Wilde. Anne Woodward makes her debut, as Aunt Ada (uncredited) and Faye Craig (uncredited) plays a Black woman fancied by Bertie Hoyle in an uncomfortable pub scene.

Colin Blakely and Margaret Whiting (1933-2023) were married in real life.

Ex-police officer John Gosling is credited as technical adviser.

It was released by the Rank Organisation on 19 June 1963.

It was produced and distributed by the Rank Organisation as a lower‑budget movie that screened as part of a double‑bill. As it runs 105 minutes, it was obviously intended as a main feature, but it would be more effective as one of the support features of the day that would run around an hour. On the other hand, Rank’s budget pays for decent sets and a good amount of outside shooting.

The film’s original title of The Snout was changed to The Informers at a late stage of post-production as it was felt it would baffle audiences. The Informer became The Informers to distance it from John Ford’s 1935 film The Informer.

The cast

The cast are Nigel Patrick as Chief Inspector John Edward Johnnoe, Margaret Whiting as Maisie Barton, Katherine Woodville as Mary Johnnoe, Colin Blakely as Charlie Ruskin, Derren Nesbitt as Bertie Hoyle, Harry Andrews as Superintendent Alec Bestwick, Michael Coles as Ben, John Cowley as Jim Ruskin, Allan Cuthbertson as Smythe, Frank Finlay as Leon Sale, Ronald Hines as Sergeant Geoff Lewis, Roy Kinnear as Shorty, Peter Prowse as Mick Lonergan, George Sewell as Fred Hill, Kenneth J Warren as Lou Waites, Brian Wilde as Lipson, Peter Bowles as Peter the Pole, Donal Donnelly as Tommy the Trotter, Garfield Morgan as second inspector, and Martin Wyldeck as officer in Police Operations Room.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,138

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