The Inspector General
|
|
The Inspector General is a comic, satirical play by 19th century Russian playwright and novelist Nikolai Gogol, published in 1836 as The Revizor, as the Tsar's regional inspectors were known. Based upon an anecdote out of the life of legendary Russian writer and poet Pushkin, the play is a comedy of errors, sending up human greed and stupidity. The play revolves around the behavior of minor officials in a small provincial town, who react with grotesquely obsequious measures due to fear that their local misdeeds will be uncovered when the putative "Inspector General" arrives. The ostensible examiner (actually a minor bureaucrat from St. Petersburg) takes on the role, acquiring the perks in the process, and becomes involved with the mayor's daughter.
The first film based on the play was actually made in German, by Gustaf Gründgens in 1932; the German title was Eine Stadt steht Kopf, or A City Stands on Its Head. In 1949, a musical version was released, called The Inspector General, starring Danny Kaye (who sang the famous lines, "What does an Inspector General do? Inspect generals?" and "And so we drink! But first. . .") This film is probably best known to Western audiences, in no small part because it changed Gogol's pessimistic ending into a more upbeat, Americanized one in which the Inspector General winds up an heroic figure. Werner Egk produced an operatic version in 1957.
The play seems to be the clear inspiration for the "Hotel Inspector" episode of John Cleese's comedic television series Fawlty Towers.
In The Netherlands famous Dutch comedian Andre van Duin made his own Dutch version of the play called "De Boezemvriend" (meaning bosom friend, best buddy). It took place in The Netherlands during the Napoleonic era.
The play has been translated in all European languages and remains popular, inasmuch as it deals with the hypocrisies of everday life along with the corruption perpetrated by the rich and privileged.
Quotes
"Alexander of Macedon was a hero, it is true. But that's no reason for breaking chairs."