An Inspector Calls

Over the last two decades, the cut-away or flashback has been used to great cinematic effect. Tarantino almost made the technique his own, giving audiences a new way of enjoying a great story, keeping us on our toes. Guy Hamilton uses this to great effect in the screen adaptation of An Inspector Calls but JB Priestley mastered this when he wrote it as a play in 1945. Quite simply, he set the play in 1912 with the central character, capitalist Arthur Birling, rubbishing rumours that war may soon break out in Europe and proclaiming that a new unsinkable ship, The Titanic, has just been built enabling transatlantic travel inside 5 days. In a tour de force of dramatic irony, we all know what happened and how history played a cruel trick on Birling and his family. The great, looming presence of Alistair Sim appears as a police inspector investigating the mysterious death of Eva Smith, a former employee of Birling's. Gatecrashing a Birling family gathering, he subtly starts questioning each individual about Eva Smith. Sim is compelling and typically menacing in doing so, manipulating each character. Some interpret An Inspector Calls as a cautionary tale about learning mistakes from history and with allusions to Cold War ideologies, the themes in the play are hugely relevant today. It can however be enjoyed for what it is; a superb thriller with excellent pace and dialogue that undoubtedly inspired Tarantino.