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An Inspector Calls

Directed by Guy Hamilton

The Belles of St. Trinian's

Directed by Frank Launder
Screening on Film
  • An Inspector Calls

    Directed by Guy Hamilton.
    With Alastair Sim, Jane Wenham, Brian Worth.
    UK, 1954, 35mm, black & white, 80 min.

A family dinner in early 1900s Yorkshire is disrupted when an inspector (Sim) arrives to inform the guests that a young woman has been murdered. The family members reflect privately on their relationships to the deceased and their potential responsibility for her death, but a supernatural twist provides the final moral judgment. In this adaptation of a popular J.B. Priestley stage play, Alastair Sim gives one of his finest performances as the mysterious inspector.

  • The Belles of St. Trinian's

    Directed by Frank Launder.
    With Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, George Cole.
    UK, 1954, 35mm, black & white, 92 min.
    Print source: HFA

In this riotous comedy based on Ronald Searle's popular cartoons, Alastair Sim takes on the dual role of Miss Fritton, the headmistress at the prestigious St. Trinian's School for Girls, and her bookie brother. The bookie secretly enrolls his daughter in the school so that she may pick up racing tips from a classmate whose father owns a prize racehorse. He quickly realizes that his only way to beat the horse is to kidnap him, but when some of the prank-minded students get the same idea, his plans fall apart. This sharp satire of British society sets its sights on the country's education system, which had been the subject of much controversy in the wake of World War II.

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Rosine Mbakam, 2025 McMillan-Stewart Fellow