In 1912, An upper-class family’s engagement celebration is interrupted by the arrival of an unusual police inspector (Alastair Sim). A girl has just died, probably by suicide, and she is connected to the family. The inspector’s probing questions reveal secrets, prejudices, and misdeeds.
An Inspector Calls is a classic British drawing room mystery play with many successful stage runs. Director Guy Hamilton, later known for his James Bond films, keeps it simple in this film production, letting the play do the heavy lifting. The photography is crisp and the camera gives each character the focus they need, but he adds no unnecessary flourishes. It was the right approach. The dialogue is why this movie exists and Hamilton lets it shine.
Of course in a film so still, casting is everything, and again the right choices were made. Arthur Young and Olga Lindo personify privileged, arrogant capitalists, just as Eileen Moore and Bryan Forbes project the spoiled and unthinking youth of those privileged elites. But the linchpin is Alastair Sim. He swaggers. He smiles mischievously. He wraps his distain in wit and just a touch of decorum. The inspector is clearly the brightest one in the room, something easy for Sim to display. He has never put in a poor performance and this is one of his best. The only flaw to the film is that he isn’t in more of it since he doesn’t appear in the flashbacks where family members recount their relations with the dead girl.
The play, and so the movie, is primarily a moral tale and it is effective, detailing the cruel effects of one’s behavior. But it is also a political piece, with far more relevance to today’s society than I wish it had. Playwright and novelist J.B. Priestley was a socialist who saw the dangers of class division and the need for society to act for the good of all, and all to work for that society. While the point is made, the film cuts the line that sums it up: “We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish.”
An Inspector Calls is a first rate movie, if none-too-subtle. If you don’t mind your messages delivered directly, and the fantasy aspect kept slight, you’ll want to see this.
J.B. Priestley’s novel Benighted is the basis for The Old Dark House (1932). Alastair Sim was the lead in the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge. He pops up on this site mainly due to his extensive work in Post-War British Comedies, including The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), Laughter in Paradise (1951), Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951), Innocents in Paris (1952), Folly to Be Wise (1950), The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1954), The Green Man (1956), and School for Scoundrels (1960).