Won the first Academy Award for an originally composed score.

Analyzed by Kathryn Kalinak, "Max Steiner and the Classical Hollywood Film Score: An Analysis of The Informer" in Film Music 1 ed. Clifford McCarty.  She briefly discusses Steiner's appropriation of classical repertory.  "The Blind Man" melodically evokes the minstrel's song "Che faranno ivecchi miei" from Puccini's La Fanciulla del West.  The melodies do not in fact appear related, though Kalinak may be correct that their locations in the story and subject of homesickness are similar.  Kalinak suggests that Steiner again draws on Fanciulla when he matches each drip of water while Gypo awaits execution with a note from the money motif, as Puccini scores Johnson's drops of blood.  When Gypo decides to betray Frankie Steiner borrows the rhythm of the theme from Dvorak's New World Symphony mvmt ii.  Mary's theme is highly chromatic and reminiscent of Wagner's "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde.  Steiner's "The money" (descending tritone followed by augmented chord arpeggiated downward against pedal point) derives from Verdi's Requiem Mass.  Kalinak does not further detail these relationships.