alastair sim

cottage to let

Mrs. Barrington, a kook of a woman (Jeanne de Casalis), has agreed to take in child evacuees from London during World War II. She’s also agreed to allow her cottage to become a military hospital. Naturally, she has forgotten to inform her leasing agent of any of this so besides the children and the infirmed she has let her cottage out to a strange man, Charles Dimble (Alastair Sim). Also living at her estate is her husband John Barrington (Leslie Banks) an inventor who is currently working on a new bombsight which is of great interest to the Royal Airforce and Nazi spies.

Cottage to Let is a wonderful little drama filled with mysterious and eccentric characters and enough twists and turns to keep everyone guessing.

Mrs. Barrington might be a bit dotty, but she’s smart enough to realize she only has so many rooms so she only takes one child evacuee, and one soldier in need of attention. Still, that amounts to a large cast of characters. Moreso when the British military higher-ups come into town when John Barrington refuses to come to London to clue them in on his work.

Early on we realize there must be a spy amongst this lot, but we aren’t sure who it could be. The film has a lot of fun insinuating various characters but never quite letting us know who it is.

It is suspenseful in the way Hitchcock’s films are often suspenseful – which is to say it creates some interesting tension while also letting you know no real harm is going to come to our heroes. It is also clever and quite funny.

I found it to be wonderfully delightful.

an inspector calls

The Birlings, an upper-class English family sit down to dinner. They are celebrating the engagement of the daughter Sheila (Eileen Moore) to Gerald (Brian Worth) a young man of good stock with great prospects. The father Mr. Birling (Arthur Young) a man of some standing in the community is ever so pleased with this match. The prim and proper Mrs. Birling (Olga Lindo) who dedicates her time as head of a charity organization designed to help destitute young women, is also pleased. Even young Eric (Bryan Forbest) who perhaps drinks too much and is not yet ready to become a serious young man, is happy for his sister.

Into this scene of merriment enters Inspector Poole (Alastair Sim) who tells the family a tale of a young woman, Eva Smith (Jane Wenham) who just that night swallowed some poison and died an excruciating death.

As the family begins to wonder what all that has to do with them the Inspector begins to question them one by one and as it turns out each of them knows the young girl independently of the other. And each of them ultimately treated her quite poorly due to her class and station in life.

Mr. and Mrs. Birling stand by the idea that they did nothing wrong. They treated a woman of her class and station as she should be treated. He fired her for demanding a raise, she denied her charity because she was too uppity and should be able to find means elsewhere.

But the younger people, Eric and Sheila become appalled by their (and their parents) behavior. They treated the poor girl terribly and could therefore be seen as responsible for her death.

In the middle of this is the Inspector. He is from the lower classes which puts him beneath the Birlings in social standings, but as an inspector, he is granted certain powers. He is allowed to question the family but is expected not to push. When he does they push back.

Alastair Sim is magnificent. You can tell the actor was having a glorious time and we do too, just watching him. He seems to know the answers to all of his questions before he asks them, but he wants the Birlings to answer them anyway. He wants them to understand how their behavior affected the young woman (and will continue to affect others.). He pushes just far enough to get their cackles up, but not enough to have them throw him out (or to call his superiors.). A sly little grin periodically appears on his face showing how much he’s enjoying himself.

It is a wonderful little film. As an American class distinctions of the type they have in England are fascinating to me. I love films like this that dig into those social standings and play with them.

I highly recommend seeking it out and watching.