“THE
CONSCIENCE COPâ€
By
Raymond Benson
It
was an unexpected pleasure to discover Guy Hamilton’s film version of J. B.
Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. The 1954 film is based on Priestley’s 1945
stage play and is a mostly faithful adaptation (by Desmond Davis), with some
“opening up†and invented flashback scenes featuring a character who, in the
play, is only talked about and doesn’t appear.
Hamilton
(who went on to make four James Bond films, including the iconic Goldfinger)
does a splendid job focusing on the tight-knit chamber piece that unfolds as a
murder mystery-meets-confessional family drama. The acting all around is
top-notch as well.
Alastair
Sim, known mostly for comic roles and for his definitive Scrooge (A
Christmas Carol, 1951, aka Scrooge in the U.K.), plays Inspector
Poole (called “Goole†in the play), a seemingly all-knowing, canny inquisitor
who appears out of nowhere one night in 1912 London to question each member of
the wealthy and upper class Birling family about a young woman named Eva Smith
(played in the aforementioned flashbacks by the charming Jane Wenham). Eva
apparently died from poison that day in the infirmary. As is soon revealed, the
patriarch and matriarch of the Birlings (played by Arthur Young and Olga
Lindo), their daughter Sheila (Eileen Moore), their alcoholic and rebellious
son (future writer/director Bryan Forbes, who went on to make such classics as Whistle
Down the Wind in 1961 and other British classics of the 60s), and Sheila’s fiancé
Gerald Croft (Brian Worth), all had dealings with the deceased young woman
prior to her death. Was it a suicide? Was it murder?
As
the film goes on, Poole deftly persuades each participant to tell his or her
story about Eva. At one point, though, we begin to suspect that Poole is not
who he seems. In fact, there is something rather supernatural about him. He
predicts actions before they happen, and he mysteriously comes and goes.
Perhaps he is really there to act as the conscience of these people who
may or may not bear some responsibility in Eva’s demise. The outcome of the
mystery is quite satisfactory, but it’s also open to interpretation. Brilliant
stuff, actually.
Kino
Lorber’s new Blu-ray restoration (from StudioCanal) looks marvelous, and it
contains optional English subtitles for the hearing impaired. An audio
commentary by film historian David Del Valle is included as a supplement, along
with a short interview with actress Jane Wenham (who gave up acting and married
Albert Finney, a union that produced a son but ended in divorce after four
years). Trailers for this and other Kino Lorber releases round out the package.
An
Inspector Calls is
a terrific British drawing-room mystery/drama, and an admirable example of how
to adapt a story from stage to screen. Highly recommended.
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