Easy Come, Easy Go

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.