An Inspector Calls
Tags: plot twist

Plot synopsis:
At the Birlings' home in April 1912, Arthur Birling - a wealthy mill owner and local politician - and his family are celebrating the engagement of daughter Sheila to Gerald Croft, the son of one of Birling's competitors, Croft Limited. In attendance are Arthur's wife Sybil and their adult children Sheila and Eric. Eric, the younger, has a drinking problem that is discreetly ignored. After dinner, Arthur speaks about the importance of self-reliance. He talks about his impending knighthood and about how "a man has to look after himself and his own."
Inspector Goole arrives immediately, interrupting the evening and explaining that a woman called Eva Smith has killed herself by drinking strong disinfectant. He implies that she has left a diary naming names, including members of the Birling family. Goole produces a photograph of Eva and shows it to Arthur, who acknowledges that she worked in one of his mills. He admits that he dismissed her from Birling & Co. 18 months ago for her involvement in an abortive workers' strike. He denies responsibility for her death.
Sheila enters the room and is drawn into the discussion. After prompting from Goole, she admits to recognising Eva as well. She confesses that Eva served her in a department store, Milwards, and Sheila contrived to have her fired for an imagined slight. She admits that Eva's behaviour had been blameless and that the firing was motivated solely by Sheila's jealousy and spite towards a pretty working-class woman.
Sybil enters the room and Goole continues his interrogation, revealing that Eva was also known as Daisy Renton. Gerald starts at the mention of the name and Sheila becomes suspicious. Gerald admits that he met a woman by that name in the Palace Bar. He gave her money and arranged to see her again. Goole reveals that Gerald had installed Eva as his mistress, and gave her money and promises of continued support before ending the relationship. Arthur and Sybil are horrified. As an ashamed Gerald exits the room, Sheila acknowledges his nature and credits him for speaking truthfully but also signals that their engagement is over by handing the ring, that Gerald had bought for her, back to him.
Goole identifies Sybil as the head of a women's charity to which Eva had turned for help. Despite Sybil's haughty responses, she eventually admits that Eva, pregnant and destitute, had asked the committee for financial aid. Sybil had convinced the committee that the girl was a liar and that her application should be denied. Despite vigorous cross-examination from Goole, Sybil denies any wrongdoing. Sheila begs her mother not to continue, but Goole plays his final card, making Sybil declare that the "drunken young man" who had made Eva pregnant should give a "public confession, accepting all the blame". Eric enters the room, and after brief questioning from Goole, he breaks down, admitting that he drunkenly raped Eva before meeting up with her several times later and then stole £50 (~ £1570 in December 2016) from his father's business to help her when she became pregnant. Arthur and Sybil are upset by this, and the evening dissolves into angry recriminations.
The implication resulting from Goole's questioning is that each of the people there that evening had contributed to Eva's despondency and suicide. He reminds the Birlings that actions have consequences, and that all people are intertwined in one society, saying, "If men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish", alluding to the impending World War. Goole then leaves.
Gerald returns, telling the family that there may be no "Inspector Goole" on the police force. Arthur makes a call to the Chief Constable, who confirms this. Gerald points out that as Goole was lying about being a policeman, there may be no dead girl. Placing a second call to the local infirmary, Gerald determines that no recent cases of suicide have been reported. The elder Birlings and Gerald celebrate, with Arthur dismissing the evening's events as "moonshine" and "bluffing". The younger Birlings, however, still realise the error of their ways and promise to change. Gerald is keen to resume his engagement to Sheila, but she is reluctant, since he still admitted to having had an affair.
The play ends abruptly with a telephone call, taken by Arthur, who reports that a young woman has died, a suspected case of suicide by disinfectant, and that the local police are on their way to question the Birlings. The true identity of Goole is never explained, but it is clear that the family's confessions over the course of the evening are true, and that they will be disgraced publicly when news of their involvement in Eva's demise is revealed.

Review: So if you like good drama you would be hard pressed to beat this and all the more amazing was the fact it was mostly delivered in a drawing room, so that speaks volumes for the way it was acted.
It's a whodunit of sorts but who did it isn't the point (while being the only point - it'll make sense after) An inspector calls onto a wealthy family at dinner time in 1910 to impart some seemingly unrelated piece of bad news.
It turns out each member of the family has encountered Eva, and each in turn damaged her life in some way.I must admit I had my doubts beforehand about this, I tend to think sometimes if it ain't broke don't fix it, I love both the 1954 and 1982 versions respectively.
As an English student who recently read thoroughly the play this movie is based of, my main thoughts about this film is that it's a perfectly crafted piece that follows the plot of the play quite accurately, but I also consider myself quite "unexperienced" in the matter because I have only seen this adaptation and not the rest- so maybe by watching the rest of the movies my opinion on the quality of this movie may differ, but I hope that not drastically.
Nevertheless, as soon as the plot starting moving the skepticism faded away and I was left awestruck by the actors' outstanding performances; Mr and Mrs Birling were just how I pictured them throughout the story; Gerald was given much more emotional depth than what I had imagined and Eric even though it wasn't how I initially thought of him made me comprehend a completely different interpretation of his character.
Above all, what most impressed me was the score; from the beginning until the very end the score was used skilfully to match the characters' emotions in certain scenes, but the feeling of strings and a piano matched the main themes of the play, and probably may be the main reason for my passionate liking of this film..
On the whole the suspense was well maintained and it stayed quite close to the original, although the later scenes after the Inspector left the house were new and added little to the overall story.
Through this brief sequence we are given a clear idea of the class-differences permeating the film between the haves and the have-nots, the exploiters and the exploited, that forms one of Priestley's major themes.Eva Smith does not appear in the Priestley text; in this version she is transformed into a hard-working girl who is not backward about coming forward.
Yet it soon becomes clear that all of them treat her as an object to be picked up and cast aside at will; it's a tribute to Eva's strength of character that she manages to sustain her integrity throughout, until she gives up the ghost and commits suicide.At the end of the film the floorboards shot is explained, as Eva describes herself as "a crack in the floorboards" - a member of the underclass who is allowed to fall through in a crassly unequal society.
No one, it seems, is willing to treat her on her own terms as a human being.Walsh's version also represents the Inspector (David Thewlis) as a mysterious figure moving slowly in the darkness towards the Birling residence, walking along a narrow slum in shadow, his bowler hat and long coat silhouetted, and visiting the dying Eva in hospital.
Thewlis's expression remains impassive throughout - even if he despises the Birlings' superciliousness, he will never let his emotions get the better of him.In the central moments of the drama, as the truth about the family was gradually revealed, Walsh used repeated close-ups to focus on the protagonists' changing expressions: Arthur's look of quiet confidence was transformed into an expression of utter despair as he ran his hands through his hair; his wife Sheila (Miranda Richardson) tried her best to retain an impassive exterior, but the tell-tale movements of her cheek and neck-bones betrayed her emotions.
Her stoicism in the face of the inevitable truth-revelation was contrasted with Eric's expressions - at first he looked guiltily at everyone in full knowledge that he had been in some way responsible for Eva's death, but as the drama unfolded he acquired a strength of character as he tried to come to terms with his past.
After watching this movie adaptation of An Inspector Calls, I felt that this remake turned into a great success.
But as the film progressed my attitude towards the characters changes, Eric and Sheila aren't the spoiled brats I thought they were- they actually care about the death of this young woman.
Gerald, I realized has more emotional depth Han I gave him credit for, but Mr and Mrs Birling we're exactly what I thought they'd be like and their attitudes towards Eva didn't really change.
As for the Inspector I thought that David Thewlis did a great job being the Inspector and his character was also amazing but what I didn't like about the Inspector was that towards the end of the film, he starts time traveling (Priestly hinted that the Inspector was supernatural) but I started getting very confused and became unsure of if he was there before she died and it was a flash back or he is the reason she is dead...
Surely one of the best films of the year with a great suspense and twists.I expected a crime solving drama, like a detective use his brainpower to nab a suspect in a style, but this was complete an unexpected narration with various angles of briefing involving a family and their individual link to a woman.
But what this film's specialty is that makes realise for its characters that how their part influenced a woman's life.It's the year 1912, during a wealthy Birling family celebrating their daughter's engagement, a mysterious inspector interrupts them to question on a woman who committed suicide on that evening.
The character played by David Thewlis as Goole was effortless, but very important among others in the film, so it is impossible moving away without praising his contribution.
JB Priestley's play An Inspector Calls from 1946 is a celebrated theatrical play that depicts the Birling family cruel treatment of Eva Smith a former factory employee, shop girl and then a fallen woman.
Their daughter is due to marry a suitable suitor and Arthur Birling (Ken Stott) is looking forward to receive an offer of a knighthood.However an Inspector Goole (David Thewlis) arrives to spoil the celebration that a young woman has tragically killed herself and each person in the room shares some responsibility.This television film is a more sombre affair than the Alistair Sim version and maybe appears a tad heavy handed with its moralising which still has relevance today (Priestley was a socialist).
I think the ending worked better in the Sim film but I felt this was the better film as some of the hard edged Birlings (Stott and Miranda Richardson) revert to type as soon as the Inspector leaves unaware that a counter punch is yet to be delivered..
David Thewlis was the only redeeming actor in the film, and he tried hard to make his character believable, but I think he also felt the story lacked reality and it showed..
It's filmed with class and atmosphere and the production and costume design are evocative and beautiful to look at.Faring best of the cast are David Thewlis, Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson.
The rest of the cast also impress, if not quite up the level of Thewlis, Stott and Richardson.Writing is similarly very strong and thought-provoking, a lot is covered and talked about but done in a way that never comes over as confusing.
The emphasis on the psychological elements give a lot of complexity, help make the characters interesting and show their flaws without making us hate them.'An Inspector Calls' storytelling is gripping from start to finish.
While taking its time to tell the story it does not drag and the ending, while a bit confusing on first watch, is very clever and unexpected.Overall, splendid stuff and a 2015 television highlight.
I was initially hesitant as the poster was not particularly attractive, but I am glad that I did not judge this book by it's cover.It was quite obvious that this was a piece created for the theatre, and fortunately the actors managed to pull of this filmed version perfectly.It's one of those pieces where each word has a sense, where each movement and each reaction has meaning.JB Priestly understood how to portray society and it's problems down to a tee.This piece/film/play is as pertinent today as it was in it's époque.I thoroughly recommend this film as one of those that at first appears to be a slightly superficial but with some retrospection we are understand how deep it actually descends.Definitely worth watching...
But we pretty much sat through the entire movie wondering why this inspector thought it was ok to show up and accuse 5 people of "killing" a woman by being mean to her one time each over the course of 2 years.
It's a shame the director did not extend changes or liberties to it, but the critics may have had a go at him/her if they had.Some reviewers here did not like the time travel bit the inspector was doing at the end, but I understood a different sequence was occurring which was not time travel, but another chance for the family to do the right thing before the tragedy actually occurred.
It's very well acted by its ensemble cast with David Thewlis almost ghoulish as the soft-spoken, avenging "Inspector" Goole, Ken Stott as the self-important patriarch Mr, soon-to-be Sir Birling and especially Sophie Rundle as the spirited but doomed Eva/Daisy/Alice whose fate casts a long shadow over the whole Birling family, father, mother, son, newly engaged daughter and her well-to-do fiancé Mr Croft, assembled at the Birling mansion to celebrate the engagement.The play is opened up just enough so as you'd notice with some external scenes but mostly, as you'd expect it's played indoors, intensifying the drama to a backdrop of hypnotic chamber music as the plot edges inevitably to its climaxes.
I say climaxes because of the two big reveals that Priestley employs, firstly exposing the hypocrisy of the staid pre-Great War English society in their links to this young woman's demise and then the brilliant twist at the end just when it seems as if they've all gotten away with it.Some of Priestley's wider themes seem to be just that, i.e. wide of the mark, like his prediction of a bloody uprising by the downtrodden working classes, although considering the social upheaval later in the depicted decade, obviously with events abroad in Russia, Ireland and Weimar Germany to name but three, never mind the General Strike and Red Clydeside disputes of the post-War era here in Britain maybe he wasn't so far out either.
It's only in the words and actions of the two youngest members of the afflicted Birlings that we see any hope of societal change in the future as we observe their conscience-stricken reaction to events, neither tainted by the jaundiced, self-motivated experience of their elders.The treatment of the Inspector I thought played up the fantastic element just a little too much with the extended epilogue showing him as a sort of omnipresent spirit surrounding Eva as she comes to her fateful end almost as if the director felt the need to explain his unexplained presence,which for me reduced the character's effectiveness as the pricked conscience of the group, his last appearance should really have been after he finished with the family at the house.Nevertheless, any production like this which respects the context of the original play as this one undoubtedly does, even if at times it creaked rather than crept along, still managed to entertain me just as it always has, as a taut, cleverly written, psychological thriller with a moral in the tale..
​'AN INSPECTOR CALLS' - 2015Directed by Aisling Walsh{Maudie; Song for a Raggy Boy}Starring David Thewslis{Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas}, Ken Stott{The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; Cafe Society} and Chloe Pirrie{Shell; Youth}Plot Overview: After a young girl commits suicide, Inspector Goole(David Thewlis) pays the Birling family a visit.
My opinion of the play is that it's a perfectly passable metaphor for Socialism VS Capitalism, contains some good characters and lines but ultimately falters due to its 'Scooby-Doo' plot structure.
Inspector Goole was the only character I liked in the play, and that statement carries over to this film.
I should like and care for certain characters in the movie, Eva Smith for example, but I just don't.
David Thewlis was excellent and it has a fantastic atmosphere, but the story and characters are distinctly lacking.
An Inspector Calls (2015) This BBC production is a clever, subtle, well acted movie that is very much in the form of the play it is based on by J.B. Priestly.
However, somewhere along their path to happiness they fell and lost their morality - Left with a mere visage to conceal their selfishness.Throughout the film, each member of the family is slowly picked apart by the inspector, and while the adults won't take responsibility for their actions, the children are quickly filled with guilt.
Despite all of the film being a simple conversation, it was an unfortunately accurate depiction of social class, and each carefully described event helped the audience piece together the mystery, and with each family member their actions only got worse.
'An Inspector Calls' is a wonderful play written by J B Priestley and first performed in the mid-1940s.
That said, this version comes close.As the Inspector, David Thewlis is wonderfully cast and Ken Stott makes a great contribution as the rich and selfish Mr Birling.
I had no idea about this film nor what to expect other than I love British movies and the lead actor, David Thewlis.
A classic story, An Inspector Calls has been remade many times, done as a play, for TV, film, and radio.This particular production is from the BBC in 2015.
David Thewlis plays the mysterious Inspector Goolie, who is investigating the suicide of a young lower-class woman.
We are responsible for each other."And that about sums up the themes of this excellent story, beautifully acted here by Thewlis, Miranda Richardson, Ken Stott, Sophie Rundle, Kyle Soller, and Finn Cole.Written by J.
Once the inspector arrives and begins his perfect unraveling of the family, if you don't know exactly what's coming before each member makes their big reveal then you really are in for a shocking treat.
The cast does a brilliant job; David Thewlis is great as The Inspector, he gives a subtle performance as the character who clearly has a low opinion of those he is dealing with.
The 1954 film version I had studied as part of my A-Levels so know it inside out more so then the book, this new version competes very well, the only area I felt it didn't was The Inspector himself, Sim brought something multi dimensional to the part, witty, intelligent with a darker undertone, David Thewlis I didn't think added such depth to the role, he was good but just lacked a bit of sparkle.
The inspector asked all the right questions, and did so precisely in the order needed to make all of members of the family aware of they're part in the tragic demise of the low class girl.
"An inspector calls film" has perfectly suited the characters into the 1912 lifestyle, setting the scene in a single night in April, in the luxurious mansion of the Birling's high class family.In my opinion, this film has plasm through the characters, all the feelings and thoughts that the characters in the play had, making the film be the live version of the play.
Sybil Birling played by Miranda Richardson, perfectly acted a high class powerful lady which is cold, doesn't show any sign of empathy or even care about her sons, family, nor even any lower class person as Eva Simth ( Sophie Rundle ).
In the film his character reflects the power a business man like him has in society and shows that he is cold hearted as his wife, and the capacity he has for firing from his business any employee he wants, doesn't matter the reason he has.Gerald, Sheila and Eric ( Kyle Soller, Chloe Pirrie & Finn Cole) give the appearance of the younger generation which is manly guided by stereotypes and influenced by the society and their high class parents.
Eric, represents the 'black sheep' of the family, hiding all his feelings, thoughts and acts, making him be totally invisible and in a certain way mysterious until Inspector Goole (David Thewlis) appears in scene.
In my opinion, David Thewlis has successfully acted Inspector Goole, showing how determine and cold minded he needs to be for the puzzling and enigmatic situation of Eva Smith's death.
In my opinion, this movie adaptation of the famous play 'An Inspector Calls' clearly shows what the author (J.B Priestley) wanted to transmit to the audience: we are all a community and, therefore, we should all care about each other.
Ken Scott, for example, who played Mr Birling did a great job, he clearly showed how Priestley would have wanted the film to be.
The Inspector (David Thewlis), in the other hand was always firm, he didn't move much and he showed very little compassion with the other characters.
In this play, a rich, British family (representing capitalist mentality) sit down and try to enjoy a nice dinner, celebrating an engagement, when the Inspector arrives (representing the socialist way of thinking) and tells them a girl (Eva Smith) committed suicide because of them.