The British black-and-white mystery drama An Inspector Calls marks its 60th anniversary this year with a sharp 4K restoration by Studiocanal. The single-setting cult classic follows the titular inspector (Alastair Sims) as he investigates the sudden suicide of working-class girl Eva Smith (Jane Wenham). For the chivalrous old inspector, the burden of this death falls on one of the Birlings, an upper-class London family.
A simple and elegant thriller for whodunit fans. An Inspector Calls is based on the play of the same name by JB Priestly. And yet this twisty mystery feels like it's one for Agatha Christie fans, with its biting satire on highbrow British socialites and morally grey character motivations. Alistair Sims's Inspector Poole starts the narrative by interrupting a dinner at the fancy Birling household. Poole cuts to the chase right away, explaining how one of the be responsible for the suicide of working-class girl Eva. Through detailed flashbacks, we sit in a juror's seat and decide who's guilty of Eva's tragedy. It's a simplistic premise elevated with fast-paced twists and the easygoing personality of Alistair Sims's titular inspector.
The restoration calls for revisiting this overlooked 50s gem. An Inspector Calls is directed by Guy Hamilton, the British thriller auteur who ended up directing James Bond classics like Diamonds Are Forever and The Man with the Golden Gun. But before his 007 era, he helmed this 50-era classic that deserves a revisit with this crisp restoration from Studiocanal. The single-setting premise is good enough to wrap an intriguing mystery for a compact runtime of 80 minutes, complete with some twists that would seem twisted for anyone unfamiliar with JB Priestly's source material (which might include many new-age viewers).
It's both a predictable yet unpredictable thriller worth revisiting six decades later.
Watch An Inspector Calls