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.
Review of Underworld Informers
