This is the first of John Ford's two movies set in Ireland, the other being the "small story" The Quiet Man. T his movie is of an entirely different character.
Filmed in 1935, and set in 1920, this film is unabashedly pro Irish Republican Army and involves an IRA man who turns on his fellows. Victor McLaughlin, who typically was cast in a supporting role as an Irishman (he was a Canadian) is cast in the lead role as the simple minded Gypo Nolan, who wants to immigrate to the United States and who is duped, more or less, into betrayal. Nolan spends the rest of the film wrestling with his conscience as the IRA closes in on the identity of The Informer.
All in all, this film is well regarded for its time, and is an Academy Award winner, although its frankly really odd to see a film that's so unabashedly pro IRA. Filmed when it was, it was almost certainly filmed entirely on a film set, so we see very little of any place really. Dublin, where the film is set, is mostly a foggy grimy urban location which we never really get a very good look at. In terms of material details, they're probably more or less correct as there's very few of them, but at least in terms of clothing, the film does a really good job of getting the look right. The actual period photo below of British anti Republican agents in Ireland, for example, gives a pretty good idea of what characters in the film look like.
All in all, a heavily dated film, but one worth watching if it happens to be on, if for no other reason than that it's well regarded for the time in which it was made.
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