An adaptation of the novel The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty, one of the last, and finest, works of British silent motion pictures was screened in Hungary the following year with a title (Szabadság, szerelem) taken from a poem by Sándor Petőfi.
Woven around a turbulent story of betrayal, jealousy, guilt and forgiveness among freedom fighters in a divided Ireland post-1921, the movie was made – at the dawn of talkies – in two versions, silent and partly sound; and although the lead protagonists, Swede Lars Hanson and Hungarian Lya de Putti, gave incredibly subtle and convincing performances, both had to be dubbed due to their heavy accents. This fact sealed the fate of Lya de Putti in sound films: sadly, this was to be her final picture in a relatively short life.
Accompanying music by Garth Knox including Irish motifs and instruments enhances the film’s hypnotic atmosphere verging on film noir to an almost cathartic level.
British Film Institute – BFI National Archive
Oldal követése
