The Inspector General (1949)

    The Inspector General is a 1949 musical comedy film. It stars Danny Kaye and was directed by Henry Koster. The film also stars Walter Slezak, Gene Lockhart, Barbara Bates, Elsa Lanchester, Alan Hale Sr. and Rhys Williams. Original music by Sylvia Fine and Johnny Green.
    An illiterate stooge in a traveling medicine show wanders into a strange town and is picked up on a vagrancy charge. The town's corrupt officials mistake him for the inspector general whom they think is traveling in disguise. Fearing he will discover they've been pocketing tax money, they make several bungled attempts to kill him. Kaye is a wandering shill for snake-oil when he is mis-identified as an Inspector General come to examine a little corrupt town. Zaniness ensues, focused on Kayes performing talents rather than the town's corruption.

THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, screen play by Philip Rapp and Harry Kurnitz; directed by Henry Koster; produced by Jerry Wald for Warner Brothers. At the Strand.
Georgi . . . . . Danny Kaye
Yakov . . . . . Walter Slezak
Loza . . . . . Barbara Bates
Maria . . . . . Elsa Lanchester
The Mayor . . . . . Gene Lockhart
Kovatch . . . . . Alan Hale
Col. Castine . . . . . Walter Catlett
Inspector General . . . . . Rhys Williams
Telecki . . . . . Benny Baker
Lazlo . . . . . Norman Leavitt
Gizzick . . . . . Sam Hearn
Izzick . . . . . Lew Hearn
Gregor . . . . . Nestor Paiva
Burbis . . . . . Byron Foulger
A Lieutenant . . . . . Lennie Bremen

Synopsis

In eighteenth-century Hungary, the emperor Napoleon sends his inspector general throughout the country to uncover corruption and report back to him. In Brodny, Yakov, a traveling medicine salesman, and his assistant, Georgi, are demonstrating Yakov's special concoction, Golden Elixer. When an old lady spends her last pennies on a bottle, hoping to cure her dying husband, Georgi experiences a sudden fit of honesty and, after telling her that the elixer is worthless, is forced to run away from the angry crowd. Furious, Yakov orders Georgi away. Georgi fixes a hole in his boot with a piece of paper signed by Napoleon and then wanders into Brodny, where he is arrested as a horse thief. Soon, however, having heard that the inspector general is nearby, the council decides that Georgi is really the inspector general in disguise. They release him from jail, and when they find the bit of paper with Napoleon's signature, they are convinced that their suspicions are accurate. The mayor invites Georgi into his home, and together with the other councilors, plans a number of distractions to interfere with the investigations. The next morning, Georgi is about to tell the townspeople they have made a mistake, when Yakov, who is in the crowd, recognizes him and pretends to be his servant. Georgi is still determined to escape before his deception is discovered, until Leza, a servant girl, tells him that the people of Brodny are hoping he will stay and expose rampant government corruption and misery. That evening, various officials, one after another, visit Georgi's room to offer evidence of wrongdoings in exchange for mercy. Yakov takes advantage of this opportunity to demand money in exchange for silence. He tells Georgi that they will use the money to replace funds stolen by the council, which were to have been used to buy a church organ. Later, Leza overhears the council plotting to kill Georgi. She hands him a written warning, but Georgi, who is illiterate, asks Yakov to read it to him. Yakov claims it is a love letter, intending to send Georgi to his death. At midnight, Georgi hurries to the barn, thinking that he has a rendezvous with Leza. There, learning of Yakov's betrayal, he prevents Yakov from leaving with the funds he has collected. Georgi and Leza then take the money to buy an organ. While they are gone, the real inspector general arrives in Brodny, and when Georgi returns, he and Yakov are jailed. Impressed by Georgi's actions, however, the inspector general announces that Georgi is the first honest man he has met and names him the new mayor. Leza then joins Georgi as he greets the villagers.

Cast & Crew

Henry Koster Director
Danny Kaye as Georgi
Walter Slezak as Yakov
Barbara Bates as Leza
Elsa Lanchester as Maria
Gene Lockhart as The mayor
Alan Hale as Kovatch
Walter Catlett as Col. Castine
Rhys Williams as Inspector general
Benny Baker as Telecki
Norman Leavitt as Lazlo
Sam Hearn as Gizzick

Release Date 31 Dec 1949
Color/BW Color (Technicolor)
Sound Mono (RCA Sound System)

Production Dates mid-Aug--mid-Dec 1948 addl scenes 18 Jul 1949
Alternate Title(s) Happy Times
Duration (in mins) 102

Premiere Information New York opening: 30 Dec 1949
Distribution Company Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Production Company Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country United States



New York Times Movie Review
The Inspector General (1949)
December 31, 1949
Danny Kaye Inaugurates New Year in 'Inspector General,' a Laugh-Provoker at Strand
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: December 31, 1949

The Old Year can now exit laughing, thanks to Danny Kaye and to the people at Warner Brothers who have put "The Inspector General" on the screen. For this gaily contrived farce-operetta, which came to the Strand yesterday and which gives the incomparable Danny one of the most congenial roles that he has played, is a wonderfully cheering entertainment to speed the parting year upon its way and a grand lark with which the movie medium can salute the midcentury turn.

Don't be confused by the title. Nikolai Gogol's classic play may have provided inspiration and a Ruritanian setting for the plot, but that is as close as this picture comes to Russia or the nineteenth century. Philip Rapp and Harry Kurnitz, abetted, no doubt, by Sylvia Fine, have written a script which is, in spirit as well as detail, in the modern slapstick vein. And Miss Fine has written songs and ballads for Mr. Kaye to sing that no one is likely to reckon as Slavic madrigals.

Indeed, the whole structure of this picture is carefully and cleverly designed to give unrestrained play and freedom to the talents of Mr. Kaye. And he, being nobody's wall-flower, makes much of everything that's put his way. As a shill for a medicine-show barker—a harmless and illiterate tramp—who is presumed to be a great inspector general, traveling incognito, by the officials of a town, he brilliantly travesties the terror and then the bravura of this timid lout when he is fawned upon, lavishly feted and slyly bribed by the frightened councilmen.

At this late date, there's no necessity to describe Mr. Kaye's comic type—a charming combination of the meek, the meticulous and the mad—or his wonderful grace and dexterity in manipulating his face and form. It is enough to say that this excursion as a mistaken agent of Napoleon permits him to run a range of gestures and expressions that are past compare. And, wisely, Director Henry Koster has kept his Technicolor cameras at close range to catch the glitter and nuances of the gentleman's dazzling comic style.

Especially in his performance of the several musical turns that are carefully spotted through the picture does Mr. Kaye sparkle and shine. His first demonstration, via music, of the marvelous qualities of Yakov's Golden Elixir is a spinning and chucklesome thing, and he does a hilarious take-off of a gypsy drinking song. Best of his numbers, however, is a gaily satiric song, done in a trick montage production, called "Soliloquy for Three Heads" In this sophisticated melange Mr. Kaye plays three personalities, each trying to persuade his timid nature how to act as an inspector-general should. And this combination of Kaye-cophony is a rare cinematic treat.

In praising the star, however, we mustn't overlook the smooth drollery which Mr. Koster has achieved with his sly directorial style. Nor can we neglect the contributions of a dandy supporting cast. Gene Lockhart is highly amusing as the hugely crooked Mayor of the town and Elsa Lanchester is deliciously nutty as the latter's flirtatious wife. Walter Slezak operates coldly as the villainous medicine-show man and Alan Hale, Byron Foulger, Benny Baker and Sam and Lew Hearn are grand as frightened councilmen Likewise, Walter Catlett plays a near-sighted colonel whackily. Barbara Bates is pretty but no more as a romantic scullery maid.

Dressed up in handsome color, "The Inspector General" steps out as a thoroughly commanding presentation. It's a New Year's greeting from Mr. Kaye.

On the stage at the Strand are Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra.
 
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