The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | |
---|---|
Directed by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Written by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Produced by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Starring | Roger Livesey Anton Walbrook Deborah Kerr |
Cinematography | Georges Perinal |
Edited by | John Seabourne Sr. |
Music by | Allan Gray |
Production company | |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors (UK) United Artists (US) |
Release date |
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Running time | 163 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £200,000 or US$2 million [1] or £188,812 [2] |
Box office | $275,472 (US) [3] |
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 British romantic-war film written, produced and directed by the British film-making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr and Anton Walbrook. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David Low, but the story is original. One film critic has described it as "England's greatest film ever" [4] and it is renowned for its sophistication and directorial brilliance as well as for its script, the performances of its large cast and for its pioneering Technicolor cinematography. Among its distinguished company of actors, particular praise has been reserved for Livesey, Walbrook and Kerr.
Major-General Clive Wynne-Candy is a senior commander in the Home Guard during the Second World War. Before a training exercise, he is "captured" in a Turkish bath by soldiers led by Lieutenant "Spud" Wilson, who has struck pre-emptively. He ignores Candy's outraged protests that "War starts at midnight!" They scuffle and fall into a bathing pool.
An extended flashback ensues.
Boer War
In 1902, Lieutenant Candy is on leave from the Boer War, where he has won the Victoria Cross. He receives a letter from Edith Hunter, who is working in Berlin. She complains that a German named Kaunitz is spreading anti-British "propaganda" regarding the Second Boer War concentration camps, and she wants the British embassy to intervene. When Candy brings this to his superiors' attention, they refuse him permission to go to Berlin, but he goes anyway.
In Berlin, Candy and Edith go to a café, where he confronts Kaunitz. Provoked, Candy inadvertently insults the Imperial German Army officer corps. The Germans insist he fight a duel with an officer chosen by lot: Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff. In the duel, both Candy and Theo suffer injuries, but become friends while recuperating. Edith visits them regularly and, although it is implied that she has feelings for Candy, [5] she becomes engaged to Theo. Candy is delighted, but soon realises that he loves her himself. Upon returning home, Candy takes Edith's sister Martha (who bears a striking resemblance to Edith) to the opera, but no romance is sparked.
First World War
In November 1918, Candy, now a brigadier general, believes the Allies won the First World War because "right is might". While in France with his driver Murdoch, Candy meets nurse Barbara Wynne, who bears a striking resemblance to Edith. He courts and marries her despite their 20-year age difference, while Murdoch becomes their butler.
In July 1919, Candy tracks Theo down at a prisoner of war camp in Derbyshire. Candy greets him as if nothing has changed, but Theo snubs him.
On 26 August about to be repatriated to Germany, Theo apologises and accepts an invitation to Candy's house. He remains sceptical that his country will be treated fairly.
Barbara dies in August 1926, and Candy retires in 1935.
Second World War
In November 1939, Theo relates to a British Immigration official how he was estranged from his children when they became Nazis. Before the war, he refused to move to England when Edith wanted; by the time he was ready, she had died. Candy vouches for Theo.
Candy reveals to Theo that he loved Edith and only realised it after it was too late. He admits that he never got over it. Theo meets Angela "Johnny" Cannon, who is Candy's MTC driver; Theo is struck by her resemblance to Barbara and Edith.
Candy, restored to the active list as a major-general, is to give a BBC radio talk regarding the retreat from Dunkirk. Candy plans to say he would rather lose the war than win it using the methods employed by the Nazis: his talk is cancelled. Theo urges his friend to accept the need to fight and win by whatever means are necessary because the consequences of losing are so dire.
Candy again is retired, but, at Theo's and Angela's urging, turns his energy to the Home Guard - his efforts in building this organisation win him national press attention. [lower-alpha 1] His house is bombed in the Blitz, claiming the life of Murdoch, and the land is replaced by an emergency water supply cistern. He moves to his club, where he relaxes in a Turkish bath before a training exercise he has arranged.
The brash young lieutenant who captures Candy is Angela's boyfriend, who used her to learn about Candy's plans and location. She tries to warn Candy, but it is too late.
Theo and Angela find Candy sitting across the street from where his house stood. He recalls that after being dressed down by his superior for causing the diplomatic incident, he declined the man's invitation to dinner, and often regretted doing so. He tells Angela to invite her boyfriend to dine with him.
Years before, Candy promised Barbara that he would "never change" until his house was flooded and "this is a lake". Seeing the cistern, he realises that "here is the lake and I still haven't changed". Candy salutes the new guard as it passes by him.
Cast notes:
According to the directors, the idea for the film did not come from the newspaper comic strip by David Low but from a scene cut from their previous film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), in which an elderly member of the crew tells a younger one: "You don't know what it's like to be old." Powell has stated that the idea was suggested by David Lean (then a film editor) who, when removing the scene from the film, mentioned that the premise of the conversation was worthy of a film. [7]
Powell wanted Laurence Olivier (who had appeared in Powell and Pressburger's 49th Parallel and The Volunteer ) to play Candy. However, the Ministry of Information refused to release Olivier—who was serving in the Fleet Air Arm—from active service, telling Powell and Pressburger "we advise you not to make it and you can't have Laurence Olivier because he's in the Fleet Air Arm and we're not going to release him to play your Colonel Blimp". [8]
Powell wanted Wendy Hiller to play Kerr's parts but she withdrew due to pregnancy. The character of Frau von Kalteneck, a friend of Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, was played by Roger Livesey's wife Ursula Jeans. Although they often appeared on stage together, this was their only appearance together in a film.
More problems were caused by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who, prompted by objections from James Grigg, his secretary of state for war, sent a memo suggesting the production be stopped. Grigg warned that the public's belief in the "Blimp conception of the Army officer" would be given "a new lease of life". [9] After Ministry of Information and War Office officials had viewed a rough cut, objections were withdrawn in May 1943. Churchill's disapproval remained, however, and at his insistence an export ban, much exploited in advertising by the British distributors, remained in place until August of that year. [9]
The film was shot in four months at Denham Film Studios and on location in and around London, and at Denton Hall in Yorkshire. Filming was made difficult by the wartime shortages and by Churchill's objections leading to a ban on the production crew having access to any military personnel or equipment. But they still managed to "find" quite a few Army vehicles and plenty of uniforms.
Michael Powell said of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp that it is
... a 100% British film but it's photographed by a Frenchman, it's written by a Hungarian, the musical score is by a German Jew, the director was English, the man who did the costumes was a Czech; in other words, it was the kind of film that I've always worked on with a mixed crew of every nationality, no frontiers of any kind. [10]
At other times he also pointed out that the designer was German, and the leads included Austrian and Scottish actors.
The military adviser for the film was Lieutenant General Douglas Brownrigg (1886–1946), whose own career was rather similar to Wynne-Candy's, as he had served with distinction in the First World War, was retired after Dunkirk, and then took a senior role in the Home Guard. [11]
The film was released in the UK in 1943. The première, organised by Lady Margaret Alexander, took place on 10 June at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, with all proceeds donated to the Odeon Services and Seamen's Fund. [14] The film was heavily attacked on release mainly because of its sympathetic presentation of a German officer, albeit an anti-Nazi one, who is more down-to-earth and realistic than the central British character. Sympathetic German characters had appeared in the films of Powell and Pressburger, for example The Spy in Black and 49th Parallel, the latter of which was made during the war.
The film provoked the extremist pamphlet "The Shame and Disgrace of Colonel Blimp" by "right-wing sociologists E.W. and M.M. Robson", members of the obscure Sidneyan Society, which proclaimed it a "highly elaborate, flashy, flabby and costly film, the most disgraceful production that has ever emanated from a British film studio."
The film was the third most popular movie at the British box office in 1943, after In Which We Serve and Casablanca . [15] [16]
Due to the British government's disapproval of the film, it was not released in the United States until 1945 and then in a modified form, in black and white as The Adventures of Colonel Blimp or simply Colonel Blimp. The original cut was 163 minutes. It was reduced to a 150-minute version, then later to 90 minutes for television, both in black and white. One of the crucial changes made to the shortened versions was the removal of the film's flashback structure. [17]
In 1983, the original cut was restored for a re-release, much to Emeric Pressburger's delight. Pressburger, as affirmed by his grandson Kevin Macdonald on a Carlton Region 2 DVD featurette, considered Blimp the best of his and Powell's works.
Nearly 30 years later, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp underwent another restoration similar to that performed on The Red Shoes . The fundraising was spearheaded by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's long-time editor and Michael Powell's widow. Restoration work was completed by the Academy Film Archive [18] in association with the BFI, ITV Studios Global Entertainment Ltd. (the current copyright holders), and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by The Material World Charitable Foundation, the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, Cinema per Roma Foundation, and The Film Foundation.
Although the film is strongly pro-British, it is a satire on the British Army, especially its leadership. It suggests that Britain faced the option of following traditional notions of honourable warfare or to "fight dirty" in the face of such an evil enemy as Nazi Germany. [19] [20] There is also a certain similarity between Candy and Churchill, and some historians have suggested that Churchill may have wanted the production stopped because he had mistaken the film for a parody of himself (he had himself served in the Boer War and the First World War). [21] [22] Churchill's exact reasons remain unclear, but he was acting only on a description of the planned film from his staff, not on a viewing of the film itself.
Since the highly successful re-release of the film in the 1980s, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has been re-evaluated. [23] The film is praised for its dazzling Technicolor cinematography, the performances by the lead actors as well as for transforming, in Roger Ebert's words "a blustering, pigheaded caricature into one of the most loved of all movie characters". [24] David Mamet has written: "My idea of perfection is Roger Livesey (my favorite actor) in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (my favorite film) about to fight Anton Walbrook (my other favorite actor)." [25] Stephen Fry saw the film as addressing "what it means to be English", and praised it for the bravery of taking a "longer view of history" in 1943. [26] Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote in 1995 that the film "may be the greatest English film ever made, not least because it looks so closely at the incurable condition of being English". [27]
The film appears in Empire magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time at number 80. [28]
Black Narcissus is a 1947 British psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, and Flora Robson, and featuring Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons, and Kathleen Byron. The title refers to the Caron perfume Narcisse Noir.
The Red Shoes is a 1948 British drama film written, directed, and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It follows Victoria Page, an aspiring ballerina who joins the world-renowned Ballet Lermontov, owned and operated by Boris Lermontov, who tests her dedication to the ballet by making her choose between her career and her romance with composer Julian Craster.
Michael Latham Powell was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a series of classic British films, notably The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). His controversial 1960 film Peeping Tom, today considered a classic, and a contender as the first "slasher", was so vilified on first release that his career was seriously damaged.
Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character by cartoonist David Low, first drawn for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard in April 1934. Blimp is pompous, irascible, jingoistic, and stereotypically British, identifiable by his walrus moustache and the interjection "Gad, Sir!"
Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a collaboration partnership known as the Archers, and produced a series of films, including 49th Parallel (1941), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).
Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom under the name Anton Walbrook. A popular performer in Austria and pre-war Germany, he left in 1936 out of concerns for his own safety and established a career in British cinema. Walbrook is perhaps best known for his roles in the original British film of Gaslight, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and The Red Shoes.
A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 British fantasy-romance film set in England during World War II.
Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death. Tall and broad with a mop of chestnut hair, Livesey used his highly distinctive husky voice, gentle manner and athletic physique to create many notable roles in his theatre and film work.
I Know Where I'm Going! is a 1945 romance film by the British-based filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown and Finlay Currie.
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell (1905–1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)—together often known as The Archers, the name of their production company—made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. Their collaborations—24 films between 1939 and 1972—were mainly derived from original stories by Pressburger with the script written by both Pressburger and Powell. Powell did most of the directing while Pressburger did most of the work of the producer and also assisted with the editing, especially the way the music was used. Unusually, the pair shared a writer-director-producer credit for most of their films. The best-known of these are The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951).
49th Parallel is a 1941 British and Canadian war drama film. It was the third film made by the British filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was released in the United States as The Invaders. The British Ministry of Information approached Michael Powell to make a propaganda film for them, suggesting he make "a film about mine-sweeping". Instead, Powell decided to make a film to help sway opinion in the then-neutral United States. Said Powell, "I hoped it might scare the pants off the Americans" and thus bring them into the war. Screenwriter Emeric Pressburger remarked, "Goebbels considered himself an expert on propaganda, but I thought I'd show him a thing or two". Powell persuaded the British and Canadian governments and started location filming in 1940, but by the time the film appeared, in March 1942, the United States, which had been trying to stay out of the war in Europe, had been drawn into taking sides against Germany.
The Small Back Room, released in the United States as Hour of Glory, is a 1949 film by the British producer-writer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger starring David Farrar and Kathleen Byron and featuring Jack Hawkins and Cyril Cusack. It was based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Nigel Balchin. The theme is the unsung heroes of the last war, the 'backroom boys', gradually coming into their own.
The Elusive Pimpernel is a 1950 British period adventure film by the British-based director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. It was released in the United States under the title The Fighting Pimpernel. The picture stars David Niven as Sir Percy Blakeney, Margaret Leighton as Marguerite Blakeney and features Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack and Robert Coote. Originally intended to be a musical, the film was re-worked as a light-hearted drama.
Oh... Rosalinda!! is a 1955 British musical comedy film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film stars Michael Redgrave, Mel Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, Ludmilla Tchérina and Anton Walbrook and features Anneliese Rothenberger and Dennis Price.
Ill Met by Moonlight (1957), released in the USA as Night Ambush, is a film by the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and the last movie they made together through their production company "The Archers". The film, which stars Dirk Bogarde and features Marius Goring, David Oxley, and Cyril Cusack, is based on the 1950 book Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe by W. Stanley Moss, which is an account of events during the author's service on Crete during World War II as an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The title is a quotation from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the book features the young agents' capture and evacuation of the German general Heinrich Kreipe.
The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) is the last film collaboration by the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and the last theatrical feature to be written by Emeric Pressburger or directed by Michael Powell. The film was made for the Children's Film Foundation.
Arthur Lawson (1908–1970) was a British art director. He had a long association with film directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, beginning in 1943 when he was floor manager on The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Three years later, when Powell and Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made A Matter of Life and Death, Lawson had graduated to assistant art director. He worked with Alfred Junge on the sets for Black Narcissus in 1947, and earned an Oscar for the set designs on The Red Shoes in 1948. Lawson's association with Powell continued right through to Peeping Tom (1960). He received a BAFTA nomination for The Bedford Incident in 1965.
Ursula Jean McMinn, better known as Ursula Jeans, was an English film, stage, and television actress.
Ian Christie is a British film scholar. He has written several books including studies of the works of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Martin Scorsese and the development of cinema. He is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound magazine and a frequent broadcaster. Christie is Professor of Film and Media History at Birkbeck, University of London.
Fred Daniels born George Frederick William Daniels, 1892 – 1959. Daniels was a pioneer of still photography in the film industry and recognised by the BFI.