The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
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| The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp |
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| Directed by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Produced by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Written by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
| Starring | Roger Livesey Deborah Kerr Anton Walbrook |
| Music by | Allan Gray |
| Cinematography | Georges Perinal |
| Editing by | John Seabourne Sr. |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors United Artists |
| Release date(s) |  10 June 1943 (premiere) 26 July 1943 29 March 1945 (limited) 4 May 1945 (wide) |
| Running time | 163 min |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £200,000 (estimated) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) is a film by the British filmmaking team of Powell & Pressburger under the banner of 'The Archers'. 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 itself is original.
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[edit] Plot
1943: The film begins with a British Home Guard exercise during the Second World War. The leader of the defenders, Major General Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey) is "captured" in a Turkish bath by soldiers of the 1st Battalion, the Loamshire Regiment, who have decided to strike earlier than the scheduled start time, as they believe this is how the Germans would fight, in contravention of all rules of war. This leads to Candy's vigorous protestations that "War starts at midnight!" He scuffles with the young lieutenant in charge of the soldiers and both fall into a bathing pool, and this segues directly into the film proper, which begins with Candy's days as a young and impetuous officer.
[edit] Boer War
1903: Candy is an officer in the light infantry, on leave from the Boer War in South Africa where he has been awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry. One day, he receives a letter from Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr) who is working in Berlin, Germany as an English teacher. She complains that a former spy is spreading anti-British propaganda about the Boer War, and she wants an official from the embassy to do something about it. When Candy brings this to his superiors' attention, they refuse him permission to intervene as he is a soldier, not a diplomat – but he decides to act anyway.
In Germany, he and Edith go to a fashionable café, where he recognizes one of those responsible for the propaganda as a former spy and double agent his division had captured in South Africa. He confronts the man and, provoked, inadvertently manages to insult the entire Imperial German Army, creating a diplomatic incident. As a result, he is forced to fight a duel with a German officer chosen by lot, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook), though he disapproves of duelling. In order to avoid a diplomatic crisis, the duel is ostensibly over Edith's honour.
After the duel, while they are recuperating from their wounds in the same nursing home, Clive and Theo become friends. Edith visits them both regularly in the hospital and although it is implied that she has feelings for Clive,[1] she ends up betrothed to Theo. Candy is delighted and leaves for home, but soon realizes to his consternation that he loves Edith.
The film then moves forward to the next war, showing the passage of time through a montage of trophies from Candy's hunting trips all over the world from 1903 to 1914; the last "trophy" is a German helmet, labelled "Hun".
[edit] World War I
As a Brigadier General in the First World War, Candy believes that the Allies won the war because 'right is might',[2] even though it is implied in one scene that the Allies use unsportsmanlike methods to extract information whilst Candy's back is turned.
By chance, he meets a nurse, Barbara Wynne (Kerr again), at a convent where he is sent for dinner and is surprised by her resemblance to Edith. Attempting to learn her identity once he is back in England, he stages a party for Yorkshire war nurses, in the (successful) hope that he would meet her again. He courts and marries her despite their age difference. Upon entering their house, Barbara makes Clive promise that he will "never change". Candy swears not to until his house is flooded and "this is a lake."
Concerned for the welfare of his friend, Candy tracks Theo down at a POW camp in England. Candy greets his friend as if nothing has changed between them, but he is snubbed by Theo. Later, on his way back to Germany to be repatriated, Theo apologizes and accepts an invitation to Clive's house, but is unconvinced by the assertions of the officers and government officials he meets there that his country will be treated fairly, and he returns to Germany with little hope.
Once again time moves forward in a montage, and it is disclosed that Candy's wife dies between the World Wars of an undisclosed cause. Candy retires in 1935.
[edit] World War II
In 1940, at an immigration office in wartime England, an older and sadder Theo relates to the official questioning him how his children had become Nazis and were estranged. Before the war, he had refused to move to England when his wife Edith wanted to; by the time he was ready to leave, she had died. Like Barbara, the cause of her death is not revealed. Candy shows up in time to vouch for Theo and save him from internment.
As Candy and Theo ride home, Candy reveals to his friend that he loved Edith and only realized it when it was too late. He admits that he never got over this feeling, and shows Theo a portrait of his dead wife Barbara, who, Candy believes, bears an uncanny resemblance to Edith. Theo does not immediately see the similarity, since he and Edith had grown old together, and his memories are of an older Edith, not the young woman that Clive had left behind in Germany. Theo then meets Clive's driver, Angela "Johnny" Cannon (Kerr yet again), who reveals that Candy had personally chosen her out of 700 other women. Theo is amused by the resemblance between her, Barbara, and Edith.
Candy, who has been restored by the War Office to the active list, is engaged by the BBC to give a radio talk regarding the British Army's retreat from Dunkirk. He planned to say that he would rather lose the war than win it using the methods employed by the Nazis – but the programme is canceled at the last minute. Theo, who had read the speech beforehand, realized that this would happen, and urges his friend to accept the need to fight and defeat the Nazi menace in any way possible, since the consequences of losing are so dire.
[edit] Home Guard
Now apparently irrelevant, Candy is sent back into retirement, but, at Theo's vigorous suggestion, he turns his energy to the Home Guard, Britain's secondary line of defence against invasion. Another montage illustrates how Candy's energy and connections are instrumental in helping to rebuild the Guard. His resolve does not waver even when his house is bombed in the Blitz, and is replaced by an emergency water supply cistern. He moves to his club, where he relaxes with his staff officers in a Turkish bath before the scheduled beginning of a training exercise he has arranged with the Army.
The film has now come full circle. The brash young lieutenant who captures Candy is in fact Johnny's boyfriend, who had used her as an unwitting spy to learn about Candy's plans and location. When she discovers this, she tries to warn Candy that they are coming for him, but barely fails. Candy is held prisoner for a few hours and is humbled by the incident.
Sitting in a park across the street from his old house, where Theo and Johnny find him, Candy recalls that when he had visited Germany against orders, he had been given a severe dressing down by his superior in the War Office, but that, afterwards, the man had invited him to dinner. He declined the invitation, which he has often regretted doing. He then orders Johnny to invite her boyfriend to dinner and "he'd better accept." Theo then muses whether or not the young officer will become a "grand old man" like Candy.
Clive remembers the promise he made years ago to Barbara that he would "never change" until his house is flooded and "this is a lake." Seeing the water cistern, he realizes that "here is the lake and I still haven't changed." The film ends with Candy saluting the new guard as it passes by him.[3]
[edit] Cast
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[edit] Production
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, 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 actually suggested by David Lean (then an editor) who when removing the scene from the film, mentioned that the premise of the conversation was worthy of a movie on its own right.[4]
Powell wanted Wendy Hiller to play Kerr's parts but she pulled out 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.
Further problems were caused by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who sent a memo suggesting the production be stopped. Churchill's reasons and why he did not succeed have been debated by film historians.
The film was shot in four months at Denham Film Studios and on location in and around London, and at Denton Hall in West Yorkshire. Filming was made difficult by the wartime shortages and by Churchill's objections leading to a ban on them having access to any military personnel or equipment. But they still managed to "find" quite a few Army vehicles and plenty of uniforms.
[edit] Releases
The film was released in the UK in 1943. 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, 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. In his Criterion Collection commentary on the film, Martin Scorsese claims to have seen the 90 minute version. One of the crucial changes made to the shortened versions was the removal of the flashback structure of the film.[5]
In the 1980s, 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.
[edit] Criticism
The film was heavily attacked on release, due mainly to 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.
Although the film is strongly pro-British, it is a satire on the British army. It suggests that Britain needs to 'fight dirty' in the face of such an evil enemy.[6] There is also a certain similarity between Candy and Churchill and some historians have suggested that Churchill may have mistaken the film for a parody of him (he had himself served in the Boer War) [7][8]. The reasons remain unclear and one should bear in mind that Churchill was acting only on a description of the planned film from his staff, not on a viewing of the film.
Other critics comment:
- "What is it really about?" — C. A. Lejeune, The Observer, 1943.
- "Colonel Blimp is as unmistakably a British product as Yorkshire pudding and, like the latter, it has a delectable savor all its own." — New York Times March 30, 1945.
- "It addresses something I've always been profoundly interested in — what it means to be English ... it is about bigger things than the war. It takes a longer view of history which was an extraordinarily brave thing for someone to do in 1943, at a time when history seemed to have disintegrated into its most helpless, impossible and unforgivable state." – Stephen Fry, interviewed by the Daily Telegraph, 2003.
The film provoked an extremist (and unintentionally funny) pamphlet The Shame and Disgrace of Colonel Blimp by "right-wing sociologists E. W. and M. M. Robson," members of the obscure Sidneyan Society:
- "[A] highly elaborate, flashy, flabby and costly film, the most disgraceful production that has ever emanated from a British film studio."
In recent years, particularly after the highly successful re-release of the film, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has been re-evaluated critically[9] and is today regarded as a masterpiece of British cinema. The film is praised for its dazzling Technicolor cinematography (which, with later films such as The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus, would become The Archers' greatest legacy), 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'.[10]
[edit] Miscellany
- Michael Powell once said of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp that it is
At other times he's also pointed out the the designer was German, and the leads were Austrian, Scottish and Welsh....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.[11]
- 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)."[12]
- The portrait of Barbara Wynn shown by Candy to Kretschmar-Schuldorff when they meet at the start of the Second World War was later used as a prop in the film The League of Gentlemen in which Roger Livesey appears as a former army officer turned con-man who makes his living by posing as clergymen of various faiths.
- During the Boer War episode Candy claims to have meet Arthur Conan Doyle who was writing The Hound of the Baskervilles.
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ This is suggested by Michael Powell in the DVD commentary track.
- ^ Moor, Andrew (2005). Powell and Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces (Cinema and Society). London: I. B. Tauris, p76. ISBN 1850439478.
- ^ The death of the old ideas is the death referred to in the title. The final shot is a close-up of the motto on the tapestry used as the background in the opening scene which states "Sic Transit Gloria Candy" (Thus passes the glory of Candy), parodying the well-known saying, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi — "Thus passes the glory of the world", i.e. fame is fleeting.
- ^ Michael Powell, commentary on the Criterion Collection Laserdisc (also available on the Criterion DVD)
- ^ As may be seen in the shortened version available at some national libraries like the BFI
- ^ As is shown in the film in Theo's speech to Clive after Clive's broadcast is cancelled
- ^ Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (1994). in Ian Christie: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-14355-5.
- ^ A. L. Kennedy (1997). The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. BFI. ISBN 0-85170-568-5.
- ^ Chapman, James (March 1995). The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp: reconsidered. p. 19-36. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (October 27, 2002). The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). rogerebert.suntimes.com.
- ^ Ian Christie, "Powell and Pressburger", 1985; in David Lazar, Michael Powell: Interviews, 2003. ISBN 1578064988
- ^ David Mamet, Bambi vs. Godzilla, 2007, p. 148
[edit] Bibliography
- Chapman, James. "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp: reconsidered." Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 03/95 15(1) p. 19-36.
- Christie, Ian. "The Colonel Blimp File." Sight and Sound, 48. 1978
- Includes the contents of Public Record Office file on the film
- Christie, Ian. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (script) by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger. London: Faber & Faber, 1994. ISBN 0-571-14355-5.
- Includes the contents of Public Record Office file on the film, memos to & from Churchill and the script showing the difference between the original and final versions
- Kennedy, A.L. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. London: BFI Film Classics, 1997. ISBN 0-85170-568-5.
- Powell, Michael. A Life in Movies: An Autobiography. London: Heinemann, 1986. ISBN 0-434-59945-X.
- Powell, Michael. Million Dollar Movie. London: Heinemann, 1992. ISBN 0-434-59947-6.
- Vermilye, Jerry. The Great British Films. Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1978. pp66-68. ISBN 080650661X.
[edit] External links
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at the Internet Movie Database
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at the TCM Movie Database
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at Allmovie
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp at the British Film Institute's Screenonline. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).
- Synopsis and review at the British Film Institute.
- Criterion Collection essay by Ronald Haver
- Blimp material at the Powell & Pressburger Appreciation Society
- Trailer at Virgin.net
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp movie posters at MoviePosterDB.com
[edit] DVD Reviews
- Region 2 UK - Carlton DVD
- Region 2 Franc - Warner Home Vidéo / L'Institut Lumière
- Review by John White at DVD Times (UK)
- Region 1 USA - Criterion Collection
- DVD Comparisons
- DVD Beaver comparison of Carlton & Criterion releases
- Celtoslavica comparison of Carlton & Criterion releases
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