J. B. Priestley - An Inspector Calls, etc.

[Fiona1986]

I thought showing us the interactions between Eva/Daisy/Sarah and the Birlings was an interesting addition. The end scenes just added to the mystery of who the inspector really was, though! In the book it's left unclear but the TV showed him watching the girl and sitting in the hospital with her and then ?disappearing.

[Katharine]

Good to read your comments Fiona. My mother told me not to bother to watch the film as she said it was just as horrible as the 1950s version. Having now read your comment about the end not being very clear, and not knowing who the inspector was, then I can see why Mum thinks I won't like it. I hate books/films that don't have a proper ending.

[John Pickup]

It seems that just about all of us were watching An Inspector Calls last night. Erika and I enjoyed it as well. I really must see the Alastair Sim film version. I do think that David Thewlis played the Inspector very well, I love to hear his voice.

[Anita Bensoussane]

** SPOILER WARNING for An Inspector Calls **

I thought showing us the interactions between Eva/Daisy/Sarah and the Birlings was an interesting addition.

I enjoyed seeing those scenes but it did mean that we (if not the Birlings and Gerald) lost the possibility that the members of the family (or soon-to-be-member in the case of Gerald) had had dealings with different girls. In the play, that possibility is left open.

Did I miss it, or did Mr. Birling not get to say his famous line about the Titanic being "absolutely unsinkable"?

[Carlotta King]

I like the word "lugubrious" too. It's used in at least one Enid Blyton book. Can anyone name the book (I've got a particular title in mind, though there may be others as well) and say which character is described as lugubrious?

Its the gorgeous Mr Tubby in Rubadub!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Go to the top of the class, Cathy! Wolfgang is at the top too as he gave the same answer by PM - and he also named a second book (The Mystery of the Vanished Prince, Chapter 9) in which the word appears.

[Carlotta King]

Thanks Anita! But I think Wolfgang wins because I couldn't think of the second one, I was convinced that it described a villain of some sort but I've just remembered that its in one of my Biggles books instead!

[Poppy]

In the book it's left unclear but the TV showed him watching the girl and sitting in the hospital with her and then ?disappearing.

Me and my Mum assumed that he was a ghost after seeing the end...?

[Katharine]

Fiona, what year/age did you read An Inspector Calls? I've just read a synopsis and thought it quite an unpleasant plot for children to have to study. I know I'd have hated it and found it disturbing if I'd had to study it at school. I definitely won't be watching either version of the films now I now what it's about.

[Poppy]

Personally, I found it no more unpleasant or disturbing than any Agatha Christie book I have read, or general Murder-Mystery. I would watch it again, and as I said, I am hoping the Library will have a copy of the book.

[Katharine]

I can't quite remember how old you are Poppy, but I'm pretty certain I wasn't reading Agatha Christie books when I was your age either. I was strictly Enid Blyton and similar then.

Although I do enjoy Agatha Christie, the impression I got from the write up of An Inspector Calls, that the subject matter was a bit more distressing than anything I can recall reading in an Agatha Christie.

SPOILER ALERT

I find it very distressing to read/hear about any situations involving unborn children.

[Fiona1986]

** SPOILER WARNING for An Inspector Calls **

I thought showing us the interactions between Eva/Daisy/Sarah and the Birlings was an interesting addition.

I enjoyed seeing those scenes but it did mean that we (if not the Birlings and Gerald) lost the possibility that the members of the family (or soon-to-be-member in the case of Gerald) had had dealings with different girls. In the play, that possibility is left open.

I thought so too. I wondered it towards the end they would show her with different faces as a sort of reveal but perhaps that would have lent too much strength to the Birlings' final argument and let them off the hook too much?

In the book it's left unclear but the TV showed him watching the girl and sitting in the hospital with her and then ?disappearing.

Me and my Mum assumed that he was a ghost after seeing the end...?

He could have been but the original play gives no hint of anything supernatural happening.

Fiona, what year/age did you read An Inspector Calls?

I remember it was in high school. I had Miss Harris... so... either third or fourth year (age 14/15) while I was doing my standard grades. The class had to read it aloud as a play and I remember one or two kids being rather stumbling and embarrassed over the mentions of sex.

[Anita Bensoussane]

He could have been but the original play gives no hint of anything supernatural happening.

The play doesn't explain who the Inspector is but there seems to be something supernatural going on - e.g. his name is Goole (which sounds like "ghoul"), he isn't known to the local police, he appears to have foreknowledge of events and he's concerned with making individuals face the consequences of their actions rather than with gathering facts.

[Fiona1986]

I suppose so, though I never saw it like that. I certainly never picked up on Goole/ghoul! He certainly has an air of mystery about him but I always just saw him as a man.

[Courtenay]

The play doesn't explain who the Inspector is but there seems to be something supernatural going on - e.g. his name is Goole (which sounds like "ghoul"), he isn't known to the local police, he appears to have foreknowledge of events and he's concerned with making individuals face the consequences of their actions rather than with gathering facts.

Maybe he's actually Harley Quin (Agatha Christie's most enigmatic sleuth)...