An Inspector Calls
Director: Guy Hamilton
Year Released: 1954
Rating: 3.0
Police Inspector Poole (Alastair Sim) appears - seemingly out of thin air - at the residence of factory owner Arthur Birling (Arthur Young), his wife Sybil (Olga Lindo), their frequently-intoxicated son Eric (director Bryan Forbes) and their daughter Sheila (Eileen Moore) while they're celebrating Sheila's engagement to Gerald (Brian Worth) to inform them that a meek woman named Eva Smith (Jane Wenham) took her own life by drinking poison ... and then goes on to suggest every single one of them had something to do with her suicide. Granted viewers can overlook the large number of coincidences in this morality tale (which was adapted from the play by J. B. Priestley) - what is this population of this "industrial town" that they live in? Twenty? Maybe thirty? - the message still resonates about the way wealthy individuals easily use up and discard those not in their same class, like when Arthur fires Eva for asking for a raise, or Eric impregnates her and she can't get any "help." The "twist" suggests the family is capable of feeling guilt (in the face of being "caught") ... except in reality I highly doubt the billionaires of the world lose a second of sleep over how they treat people.