The Inspector General
About The Inspector General
Georgi (Danny Kaye), tossed out of Yakov’s medicine show after he tells a village the elixir is fake, wanders into Brodny hungry and is sentenced to hang for eating from a horse’s bag. The mayor (Gene Lockhart) and his relatives have been pocketing taxes. They hear that Napoleon’s inspector general travels in disguise, decide Georgi is the man, and start bribing him. Yakov (Walter Slezak) turns up as his “adviser” and skims a larger payoff. The mayor’s wife (Elsa Lanchester) flirts with Georgi; he wants the kitchen maid Leza (Barbara Bates). A fake beheading in a barn fools the mayor into paying. Georgi wakes, stops Yakov leaving with the money, and runs off with Leza and a church organ the town had lost. The real inspector arrives. Georgi will not let an innocent man be killed in his place, gives his name, and is made mayor. Yakov gets the police job.
Cast & crew
More about The Inspector General
Henry Koster directed a Technicolor musical comedy, produced by Jerry Wald with associate producer Sylvia Fine, Kaye’s wife, who wrote the songs. Ben Hecht, Harry Kurnitz, and Philip Rapp adapted Nikolai Gogol’s 1836 play The Government Inspector and moved it from the Russian Empire to a corrupt town under the First French Empire. The working title was Happy Times. Elwood Bredell photographed; Rudi Fehr edited. Warner’s own ledgers split the receipts into $2,154,000 domestic and $1,756,000 foreign.
Themes
Making
Fine’s lyrics and Green’s direction sit under a Gogol plot that the script barely keeps: the town is Brodny, the feared visitor works for Napoleon, and the elixir-seller is the man they mistake for him.
Look
Elwood Bredell shot it in Technicolor. The barn scene is staged so Georgi’s head appears through a hole in a table, sold to the mayor as a finished execution.
Music
Sylvia Fine wrote the music and lyrics, including “The Inspector General” and “Happy Times,” both sung by Danny Kaye. Johnny Green handled musical direction and the incidental score.
Preservation
The film is in the public domain in the United States after the copyright, last held through United Artists Television and Turner, was allowed to lapse.
Notes
- The catalog year is 1950; the premiere date on the filmography is 31 December 1949.
- Sylvia Fine’s songs for Kaye include “The Inspector General” and “Happy Times.” Johnny Green did the musical direction and the incidental score.
- The last copyright holder in the chain was United Artists Television, later absorbed into Turner and Warner. The picture is in the public domain in the United States.
- Alan Hale and Rhys Williams are in the town faction with Walter Catlett.
Awards
- Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Score (Johnny Green)
Scenes
- Georgi tells the customers the elixir is worthless and Yakov throws him out of the troupe.
- The mayor’s circle, waiting for Napoleon’s inspector, takes the horse-thief for the dignitary.
- Yakov sticks Georgi’s head through a table and collects the murder money.
- Georgi brings back the church organ, refuses to let the real inspector be killed, and is handed the mayor’s chain.
Influenced by
- The Government Inspector (Nikolai Gogol, 1836)
Also available
- Internet Archive (the_inspector_general)