The Informer (1935 film) film was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning four. McLaglen won Best Actor for his portrayal of Gypo Nolan, beating out Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, and Franchot Tone for the better-remembered "Mutiny on the Bounty", and Ford won Best Director. Dudley Nichols won Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, but turned it down because of union disagreements. It was the first time an Oscar was declined, though he later claimed it three years later. The film also won the Oscar for Best Score; Max Steiner won for the first time. The film was nominated for Outstanding Production, as well as for Best
Charles Laughton best of the 1950s, and has been selected by the United States National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress. At the time of its original release it was a critical and box-office failure, and Laughton never directed again. The documentary "Charles Laughton Directs The Night of the Hunter" by Robert Gitt (2002) features preserved rushes and outtakes with Laughton's audible off-camera direction. Laughton made his London stage debut in Gogol's "The Government Inspector" (1926). He appeared in many West End plays in the following few years and his earliest successes on the stage were as Hercule Poirot