Product description

An Inspector Calls [DVD] [1954]

Price: £17.00
RRP: £12.99
Average customer rating: 4.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5014138300319
Label : Cinema Club
Manufacturer : Cinema Club
Publisher : Cinema Club
Release date : 2005-04-04
Title : An Inspector Calls [DVD] [1954]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Parental Guidance
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1954-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 77
Studio : Cinema Club
Theatrical releaseDate : 1954-11-25
Number of discs : 1

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2009-05-28 rating:

Alastair Sim at his best
Great adaptation of the classic JB Priestly novel. Alastair Sim is marvelous as the rather ambiguous inspector of the title, and develops the storyline superbly. The suporting cast (with a very young Bryan Forbes) also add to the atmosphere being created during the tale. I had wanted to buy this for some time and eventually found it at a very reasonable price, so jumped at the chance of purchasing it. If you want a great story, and excellent acting, pick this up as soon as you can, you won't be disappointed.

review by: date: 2007-04-25 rating:

A bit of moralizing and a lot of irony, courtesy J. B. Priestly and Alastair Sim, make for a fine movie
An Inspector Calls may be melodrama with moralizing, but it's great melodrama and the moralizing is aimed at a family, and a class of English society, that deserves every bit of it. It's 1912 and the Berling family is at dinner to celebrate the engagement of the daughter to a fine catch. The Berlings are well-intrenched members of England's wealthy upper-middle class. They are paragons of social certitude, complacency and condescension. Arthur Berling is an industrialist who bargains hard and pays his employees as little as possible. Sybil Berling, his wife, is acutely aware of their place in society and controls her children's' lives with an only partially disguised will of iron. Sheila Berling, their daughter, has been brought up to believe her place in society is a natural result of breeding. Eric Berling, their son, drinks too much and is too much the weakling to stand up to either of his parents. He still lives at home and works for his father. Joining them at dinner is Sheila's fiancee, Gerald Croft, a rather self-centered man with shrewd charm and good manners. Since his family's business, Croft Industries, is combining with Berling's business, the marriage is as much a business alliance as it is a romantic match. And as dinner is concluded and the women adjourn to the parlor and the men pour port and take cigars, Inspector Goole (Alastair Sim) appears. He informs them that a poverty-stricken young woman, Eva Smith, has committed suicide and he has just come from viewing her body. He intends to question them about their relationship with her. They deny ever knowing any one named Eva Smith. "If we had to take responsibility for everyone we came in contact with, it would be very awkward, wouldn't it?" says Arthur Berling. In the course of the evening, Inspector Goole will prove they know much more about Eva Smith than they care to remember. br / br /In a series of flashbacks we learn Eva Smith's story. She had been a factory girl who was fired by Arthur Berling for asking for a small increase in her wages. She had been seduced and then abandoned after a few weeks by Gerald Croft, who met her when she had not eaten for sometime and had no place to stay. She had finally gotten a job at a millinery shop, but had been fired at the insistence of Sheila Berling, who was jealous because Eva was prettier than Sheila. She had been denied any charity from the city's charity board, headed by Sybil Berling, because she was pregnant but would not say who the father was. If she wouldn't tell so that the man could be exposed and punished, said Sybil Berling, then she should not expect a bit of charity from respectable people. At this point, alone and destitute, Eva Smith took her life. And, of course, we learn that Eric Berling while drunk had met Eva Smith and forced himself on her. When he learned she was pregnant, Eric had stolen money from his father to give her, but when Eva learned the money was stolen she refused to take it and refused to see Eric again. br / br /During these revelations, Inspector Goole gently and insistently questions and prods for the truth. He does so with a smile, but with such irony that the Berlings begin to realize that Eva Smith had much more integrity and honor than any of them. They begin to realize, even the parents, how complacent and harsh their social values are. "I suppose," says Inspector Goole, "if we knew the consequences we'd all be a bit more careful." Ah, but wait. Do they really learn anything that will last? That may depend on whether or not there really is an Inspector Goole, who now seems to have vanished, and whether or not there was a young woman. Even more, it depends on the final phone call to the Berling residence that evening from the police. br / br /J. B. Priestly was one of Britain's most successful writers with a career spanning over 60 years. He said before he died in 1984, "There was no respect for youth when I was young, and now that I am old, there is no respect for age. I missed it coming and going." He was a socialist who found England's class system artificial and pretentious. He also was a fine writer whose books can still be read with pleasure. When his ironic point of view is combined with Alastair Sim's ability to use wry amusement to tease out the pretensions and self-centered snobbery of the Berlings and their class, we wind up with An Inspector Calls. There may be moralizing, but it's in a good cause, and there's not a little hint of the supernatural. An Inspector Calls, nonetheless, still works as a strong story and a strong, amusing and satisfying movie. The Region Two DVD has no extras but it contains a fine DVD transfer. br / br /And for those who enjoy meaningless trivia, when the original stage play of An Inspector Calls opened in the late Forties in London, it was a smash hit. Among the cast on opening night was Ralph Richardson playing Inspector Goole and Alec Guinness and Margaret Leighton as the two Berling children.

review by: date: 2006-03-08 rating:

For school ma'ams and sirs
Just a quick note if you are buying this to show to your GCSE pupils and you haven't seen it since your school days: the DVD is excellent quality even on a large screen. The Inspector is great and it's good to show the pupils the costumes and setting. It's not entirely faithful to the script though: for a start we have flashbacks showing Eva / Daisy which I think take away some of the mystery (and on a personal level, any sympathy for the character!). And why oh why oh why do they change the Inspector's name to Poole?!

review by: biggins77 date: 2005-07-28 rating:

A good film - but not a masterpiece
I watched this film purely on the basis of earlier reviews, and must confess to being disappointed. The film has its good points-Alastair Sim's sinister inspector is undeniably well cast, and the underlying plot is interesting. These do not justify more than 3 stars however.pThe film gives every appearance of being a straight adaptation of a story intended for the stage, and this I feel is a major flaw. Good cinema should surely be more than this. From the very early stages, the development of the plot is eminently predictable, which destroys any building suspense. Compared to other black and white drama of the previous decade, such as Hitchcock's 1940's work (e.g. Notorious, Rebecca) or even his earlier British work (39 Steps, A Lady Vanishes) this film simply does not stand up. pFor those who enjoy 1940's and 1950's black and white British films, this film will probably appeal as a very watchable version of a good play. However, this is by no means a great film.

review by: graham1382 date: 2005-04-06 rating:

Powerful, thought provoking and eerie
There couldn't have been a better inspector, than the brilliant Alastair Sim and a supporting cast of fine, talented actors, makes the story that much more convincing. The entire film, from start to finish, leaves nothing to the imagination. It is a masterpiece! The upper class family, convinced that they are of a better status than those not so fortunate. Doing what they can to convince themselves that they have done no wrong, yet their consciences are awakened, when the eerie, calm and knowledgeable inspector enters.pThe story flows smoothly; first one, then another, then the entire family gathering, are given an insight into their behaviour and attitude towards those less fortunate than themselves. It is a fascinating insight into the debauch behaviour of the "haves", towards the "have nots". As relevant today as it was then!pIt says much about us all! An absolute must see; I've been waiting for years for this film to be released!

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