| / Movies Online / Musical |
The Inspector General (English Subtitled)
Comedy, Musical, Romance.
The film is loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's play The Inspector General. The plot is re-located from the Russian Empire into an unspecified corrupted region of a country that suddenly finds itself under the supervision of the First French Empire.
Georgi (Danny Kaye), an illiterate member of a wandering band of Gypsies led by Yakov (Walter Slezak) escapes from a travelling medicine show after he innocently lets slip that the elixir they're selling is a fraud.
Tired and hungry, he wanders into the small town of Brodny and whilst trying to sample the contents of a horse's feedbag, he's arrested as a vagrant and sentenced to hang the next day by a corrupt police chief (Alan Hale Sr.), desperate to prove his efficiency.
The town is run by a corrupt Mayor (Gene Lockhart), whose employees and councillors are all his cousins and equally corrupt and incompetent, but they are frightened when they learn that the Inspector General is in their neighborhood, and probably in disguise.
The band of officials and the mayor want to protect their town and their lives, so, acting foolishly they seal off every road to keep the inspector from entering their town.
They mistake Georgi for the Inspector and ply him with food and drink whilst plotting to have him killed. Yakov wanders into the small town and convinces Georgi to stay on as an inspector general and accept the bribes the officials so willingly throw at him.
Meanwhile, hearing tales of his legacy and courageous efforts the mayor's wife instantly takes a liking to Georgi, hoping he will fall in love with her and whisk her away from the mayor and his lack of attention to her. However Georgi has fallen in love with a servant and wishes to marry her.
Naturally, their plans go awry and Georgi, despite his innocence, discovers how corrupt they really are. And when the real Inspector arrives suddenly, he also realizes that Georgi is the most honest fellow he's met since leaving Budapest.
The Inspector General names Georgi the new Mayor of Brodny and presents him the mayoral gold chain, having taken it from the old mayor saying, "We'll put something else around your neck." Yakov becomes the new chief of police and Georgi gets the girl of his dreams. (Wikipedia)
Movie Info
Directed by: Henry Koster
Starring: Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Elsa Lanchester, Barbara Bates, Gene Lockhart
Written by: Harry Kurnitz, Philip Rapp, Ben Hecht
Based on: The Inspector General 1832 play by Nikolai Gogol
Produced by: Sylvia Fine, Jerry Wald
Music by: Johnny Green, Sylvia Fine
Cinematography by: Elwood Bredell
Editing by: Rudi Fehr
Art Direction: Robert M. Haas
Release date: 1949
Running time: 100 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English, English subtitled
Cast
Danny Kaye
Walter Slezak
Elsa Lanchester
Barbara Bates
Gene Lockhart
Alan Hale
Characters
Inspector General
Georgi
Yakov
Leza
Maria
The Mayor
Kovatch
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
