The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

Directors:

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writers:

Michael Powell (written by) &
Emeric Pressburger (written by)

Release Date:

4 May 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

A Lusty Lifetime of Love and Adventure in Lavish Technicolor (US Lobby Card tag)

Plot:

Clive Candy V.C. has fought in the Boer War and the first world war. He still believes he can win any...

Plot Keywords:

WWI | Prisoner Of War | Historical | Military | Patriotism

Cast

James McKechnie	...	Spud Wilson
Neville Mapp	...	Stuffy Graves
Vincent Holman	...	Club porter (1942)
Roger Livesey	...	Clive Candy
David Hutcheson	...	Hoppy
Spencer Trevor	...	Period Blimp
Roland Culver	...	Colonel Betteridge
James Knight	...	Club porter (1902)
Deborah Kerr	...	Edith Hunter / Barbara Wynne / Johnny Cannon
Dennis Arundell	...	Café orchestra leader
David Ward	...	Kaunitz
Jan Van Loewen	...	Indignant citizen
Valentine Dyall	...	von Schönborn
Carl Jaffe	...	von Reumann (as Carl Jaffé)
Albert Lieven	...	von Ritter

Also Known As:

Colonel Blimp (USA)
The Adventures of Colonel Blimp (USA)

Runtime:

163 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Microphonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #03762) | South Korea:12 (2003) | Australia:G | Finland:S | UK:U | Ireland:G | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

139 Park Lane, Mayfair, London, England, UK

Company:

Archers, The

Trivia:

Director Michael Powell was intrigued by how second-unit cameraman Jack Cardiff was filming the animal heads and gave Cardiff his first big break as the cinematographer on his next film A Matter of Life and Death (1946).

Quotes:

Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff: You know that, after the war, we had very bad years in germany. We got poorer and poorer. Every day retired officers or schoolteachers were caught shoplifting. Money lost its value, the price of everything rose except of human beings. We read in the newspapers that the after-war years were bad everywhere, that crime was increasing and that honest citizens were having a hard job to put the gangsters in jail. Well in Germany, the gangsters finally succeeded in putting the honest citizens in jail.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Roger Livesey's greatest role

I'd forgotten what a good film this was until I watched it on DVD recently. 'The Archers' had such an impressive body of work even a gem can be temporarily out of mind - such was the case with Colonel Blimp while I was catching up with all their other work.

There seem to be three performances approaching greatness in this - first of course, that of Livesey as Clive Wynne-Candy throughout his long service as a soldier to old age and 'Blimpishness', a superb portrayal and very memorable; then Anton Walbrook - brilliant in all his scenes as the sympathetic German who finally becomes reconciled to 'his wife's country'; and finally, in three roles, Deborah Kerr, standing for Candy's ideal woman. There'd be one more film for the Archers before Kerr became established in Hollywood, and she is excellent in her trio of roles in this.

Special mention should go not only to P&P for their tremendous vision and energy, but also the great Jack Cardiff who put such wit and clarity in sequences such as the animal head shots. The film itself is one of Britain's best. I'm amazed to hear it was suppressed in its entirety for so many years, and glad it survived to become the masterpiece it surely is.