Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Diana Lynn, Sonny Tufts, Dick Foran, Frank
McHugh, Allen Jenkins
Directed by John Farrow

Print: black/white
Runtime: 77 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

A film that possibly held the record for the most Irish-descent players in
an American-produced movie before "The Quiet Man" was shot on
location in Ireland, and that includes "The Informer." Barry Fitzgerald is a
rapid fan of following the ponies (but none too good at picking the
winners)and owns a shabby boarding house east of NYC's Third Avenue.
Mostly, he never works, follows his hunches, philosphizes through most
of the 77 minutes and changes the life course for most of those around
him. His dependence upon his daughter (Diana Lynn) keeps him
interfering with her romance with a returning WW II sailor (Sonny Tufts,
just before Paramount finally gave up on him.) And he will stretch the
truth beyond accepted boundaries. Fitzgerald's real-life brother Arthur
Sheilds plays his brother who he has built up to be a rich man, but who is
really a diver working for the police department. Could have been a ten if
there had been a leprechaun or two or Pat O'Brien in the cast.