An Inspector Calls

[Russ]

A film which after many years I finally had the great pleasure of watching last night.



However..will someone please help, what was the ending all about ?



Please reply thanks

[DB7]

Haven't watched it in a while. Doesn't Alastair Sim just slip away leaving the family to ponder the error of their ways?

[smudge]

Indeed he does - if he was ever there at all...



As I recall, towards the end of the film Brian Worth slips out to the street, whereupon he meets a beat bobby. He asks of the mysterious inspector, only to be told that there is no such person at the local station.



However, at the patriarch's moment of triumph Sim's character is gone - leaving behind only the gently rocking chair...



So who was the inspector ? A shade seeking deliverance for errors made whilst he trod the earth ? Or simply a collective conscience for the errant family ? We have to draw our own conclusion.



Soon after, the telephone rings and the father finds out that a young girl has died - that afternoon.



So is the whole thing cyclical, in the similar form of purgatory which Mervyn Johns experiences in DEAD OF NIGHT ? You tell me...

[DB7]

smudge:

So who was the inspector? Or simply a collective conscience for the errant family?

That was always the impression I got. Throughout, Sim is more concerned with morality than legality.

[Rennie]

Russ:

A film which after many years I finally had the great pleasure of watching last night.



However..will someone please help, what was the ending all about ?



Please reply thanks

According to the plot synopsis in David Quinlan's excellent book, 'British Sound Films', the Inspector is proved to be bogus, maybe even an apparition.