Review: The Informers/Underworld Informers


Just as senior officer Harry Andrews is explaining that the use of snouts (informants) is on the way out, Scotland Yard copper Nigel Patrick finds out that one of his informants has been murdered. Going against orders, he tries to bring down the people responsible, chiefly Derren Nesbitt as the outwardly respectable (but thoroughly rotten) mobster, and Frank Finlay as his clever accomplice. Roy Kinnear is another member of the gang, Colin Blakely plays the brother of the dead man, Margaret Whiting is a hooker used to manufacture some dirt on Patrick when he gets too close, Katherine Woodville is Patrick’s wife, and Allan Cuthbertson is a brown-nosing cop.


Sometimes hokey, but mostly gritty, often expertly acted 1963 B-movie directed by Ken Annakin (“Paper Tiger”, “The Long Duel”). Patrick is rock-solid in the lead (as he always was), and there are fine supporting turns by veteran character actors Andrews (who is unfortunately saddled with crappy lines), Kinnear (looking shockingly young!), and especially Blakely and Finlay as the informer’s disgruntled brother, and criminal mastermind, respectively.

There's a terrible performance by Nesbitt, though, as the other chief baddie, he’s seriously amateurish. Still, it’s consistently watchable stuff for fans of British crime flicks of the period, in particular.


Rating: B-

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