An Inspector Calls

Alastair Sim - Inspector Goole
Olga Lindo - Sybil Birling
Arthur Young - Arthur Birling
Brian Worth - Gerald Croft
Eileen Moore - Sheila Birling
Bryan Forbes - Eric Birling
Jane Wenham - Eva Smith

J.B. Priestley's superb blend of morality play and thriller transfers well from the stage to the screen, gaining much from Alastair Sim's masterly performance as the angel of vengeance in the title role.

Set in a Yorkshire household during the early 1900s, Inspector Goole (Alastair Sim) calls at the home of a wealthy industrialist Arthur Birling (Arthur Young) to investigate the mysterious circumstances behind the death of a young woman named Eva Smith (Jane Wenham). Each one of the family has a secret - and a series of flashbacks reveals each one of the smug, well-to-do family is partly responsible for driving her to suicide; the father had fired her from his factory, his daughter had got her the sack from a shop, the son had made Eva pregnant, and Sybil Birling (Olga Lindo) had refused her charitable aid. The determined Inspector slowly proves their collective guilt before a final supernatural twist in the tail.