A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Directors:

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writers:

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

Release Date:

March 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance | War

Tagline:

Neither Heaven nor Earth could keep them apart!

Plot:

A British wartime aviator who cheats death must argue for his life before a celestial court.

Plot Keywords:

Heaven | Trial | Death | England | Love

Awards:

1 win

Cast

David Niven	...	Peter Carter
Kim Hunter	...	June
Robert Coote	...	Bob Trubshawe
Kathleen Byron	...	An Angel
Richard Attenborough	...	An English Pilot
Bonar Colleano	...	An American Pilot (also as Bonor Colleano)
Joan Maude	...	Chief Recorder
Marius Goring	...	Conductor 71
Roger Livesey	...	Doctor Frank Reeves
Robert Atkins	...	The Vicar
Bob Roberts	...	Dr. Gaertler
Edwin Max	...	Dr. McEwen
Betty Potter	...	Mrs. Tucker
Abraham Sofaer	...	The Judge / The Surgeon
Raymond Massey	...	Abraham Farlan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Richard Nielson
Robert Arden	...	GI Playing Bottom (uncredited)
Robert Beatty	...	US Crewman (uncredited)
Tommy Duggan	...	American Policeman (uncredited)
Erik	...	Spaniel (uncredited)
John Huntley	...	Extra in Celestial Courtroom (uncredited)
John Longden	...	Narrator of introduction (uncredited) (voice)
Howard Marshall	...	Cricket commentator on radio (voice) (uncredited)
Lois Maxwell	...	Actress (uncredited)
Wally Patch	...	ARP Warden (uncredited)
Roger Snowden	...	Irishman (uncredited)
Spangle	...	Spaniel (uncredited)
Wendy Thompson	...	Nurse (uncredited)
Geoff van Rijssel	...	Extra in Celestial Courtroom (uncredited)
Joan Verney	...	Girl (uncredited)

Directed by
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writing credits
Michael Powell		(written by) and
Emeric Pressburger		(written by)

Produced by
George R. Busby	....	assistant producer (as George Busby)
Michael Powell	....	producer
Emeric Pressburger	....	producer

Original Music by
Allan Gray

Cinematography by
Jack Cardiff

Film Editing by
Reginald Mills

Casting by
Pat MacDonnell		(uncredited)
Adele Raymond		(uncredited)

Production Design by
Alfred Junge

Costume Design by
Joseph Bato		(uncredited)
Hein Heckroth		(uncredited)

Makeup Department
George Blackler	....	makeup artist
Ida Mills	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Robert C. Foord	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Parry Jones Jr.	....	assistant director
Paul Kelly	....	second assistant director (uncredited)
Laurie Knight	....	third assistant director (uncredited)
Pat Marsden	....	third assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Arthur Lawson	....	assistant art director
Joseph Bato	....	assistant painter (uncredited)
William Hutchinson	....	draughtsman (uncredited)
William Kellner	....	draughtsman (uncredited)
Terence Morgan II	....	assistant property maker (uncredited)
Don Picton	....	draughtsman (uncredited)
Roger Ramsdell	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
C.C. Stevens	....	sound recordist
Michael Colomb	....	assistant boom operator (uncredited)
Peter Davies	....	dubbing sound camera (uncredited)
Roy Day	....	sound maintenance (uncredited)
John Dennis	....	pre-dubbing (uncredited)
Desmond Dew	....	dubbing crew (uncredited)
David Hildyard	....	boom operator (uncredited)
Harold Rowland	....	sound camera operator (uncredited)
G. Sanders	....	assistant boom operator (uncredited)
Alan Whatley	....	dubbing crew (uncredited)

Special Effects by
W. Percy Day	....	additional effects (as Percy Day)
Henry Harris	....	special effects
Douglas Woolsey	....	special effects
William C. Andrews	....	special effects (uncredited)
George Blackwell	....	additional effects (uncredited)
Stanley Grant	....	additional effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Peter Ellenshaw	....	assistant matte artist (uncredited)
Stanley Grant	....	special photographic effects (uncredited)
Jack Whitehead	....	back projection (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Geoffrey Unsworth	....	camera operator
Bill Wall	....	chief electrician (as William Wall)
Dick Allport	....	clapper loader (uncredited)
Eric Besche	....	focus puller (uncredited)
Jim Body	....	focus puller (uncredited)
Christopher Challis	....	second assistant camera (uncredited)
Fred Daniels	....	still photographer: portraits (uncredited)
Eric Gray	....	still photographer (uncredited)
George Minassian	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Johnnie von Klotze	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Hein Heckroth	....	costumes

Editorial Department
David Powell	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Walter Goehr	....	conductor
Lambert Williamson	....	assistant conductor (as W.L. Williamson)

Other crew
Joan Bridge	....	associate colour control
Michael C. Chorlton	....	motor-bike shots (as Michael Chorlton)
Natalie Kalmus	....	color control
John Seabourne Jr.	....	liaison editor
Alan Brook	....	advisor: table tennis (uncredited)
Alan Brook	....	trainer: table tennis (uncredited)
Andrew Donally	....	support team (uncredited)
Bernard Kaplan	....	technical advisor: operating theatre (uncredited)
Vivienne Knight	....	publicist (uncredited)
Ainslie L'evine	....	assistant continuity (uncredited)
Bunny Parsons	....	continuity (uncredited)
Bill Paton	....	assistant: Mr Powell (uncredited)
Maggie Unsworth	....	continuity (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Archers, The
• Independent Producers

Distributors

• Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited (1946) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1946) (USA) (theatrical)
• CBS Television Network (1977) (USA) (TV)
• J. Arthur Rank Film (1948) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Carlton Visual Entertainment (2001) (UK) (DVD)
• Columbia Pictures Industries (1994) (USA) (all media) (restored version)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD) (restored version)
• Epix Media (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• EuroVideo (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• PVB Editions (2003) (France) (DVD)
• Pickwick Video (1995) (UK) (VHS)
• Sony Pictures Television (????) (USA) (TV)

Special Effects

• Technicolor Limited

Also Known As:

Stairway to Heaven (USA)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White (Dye-Monochrome) | Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | USA:PG (1995) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #11724) | West Germany:16 | Finland:K-16 | Spain:T | UK:U (video rating) (1995) (uncut) | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | Ireland:G

Filming Locations:

D&P Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Archers, The

Trivia:

Robert Coote's character was given the last name "Trubshawe", after Niven's friend Michael Trubshawe, the source of numerous references and/or character names in Niven's films.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: After Peter's second encounter with the Heavenly Messenger, this time in Frank's library, the doctor and June desperately attend to Peter's condition. June kneels in front of Peter and begins to giggle uncontrollably, then expertly hides herself behind Frank to avoid the camera.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: This is the universe. Big, isn't it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in L.A. Without a Map (1998)

Soundtrack:

Shoo Shoo Baby

Stunning archery

The opening flourishes left me purring with delight at their inventiveness - the altered version of the Archers' logo, the introductory disclaimer, the way the camera pans over the cosmos. It's strange to think that `It's a Wonderful Life' came out in the same year. No great coincidence: the 1940s was awash with heaven-and-earth films; but the glowing cotton wool nebulas and cutesy angels of the competition look tattered, something best passed over in silence, when placed next to Alfred Junge's vision.

It continues to look great all the way through, as more and more striking ideas are sprung upon us. I'm not a great fan of mixing colour with black and white in general. One of the two visual schemes almost always looks ugly when placed next to the other. Not so here. Powell dissolves colour into monochrome and monochrome into colour as if it's the most natural thing in the world, a mere change of palettes. Both the colour photography and the black and white could stand on their own.

As for the story ... this may be Pressburger's best script, or at least it would have been had the conclusion been a more logical outcome of preceding events. Other than that it's tight, yet with more going on than I can possibly allude to here. Was the heavenly stuff real or imaginary? (Or both? Perhaps Carter dreamt up a fantasy that was, as it so happened, true.) Everyone says we're meant to neither ask nor answer this question, but I don't see why. I'm sure we ARE meant to ask the question. The film even gives us clues as to what the answer is - indeed, the problem is that there are too many clues and they seem at first to be pointing in different directions. The fact that other things ought to occupy our attention as well doesn't mean that this shouldn't occupy us as well. There is, as I've said before, a lot going on.

Consider the scene in which Abraham Farlan (Heaven's prosecuting lawyer) plays a radio broadcast of a cricket match, and contemptuously says, `The voice of England, 1945.' Dr. Reeves (the defence) acknowledges the exhibit with a great deal of embarrassment, and then produces one of his own: a blues song from America, which Farlan listens to as though he's got a lemon in his mouth. Reeves looks smug.

Snobbery? Well, I don't see why it's snobbish to condemn blues music - and that's not what Powell and Pressburger are doing, anyway. As the song is being played, we get a shot of the American soldiers listening to it: several of them nod their heads to the rhythm, perfectly at home. THEY don't find it incomprehensible. There's something valuable about the song and neither Reeves nor Farlan knows what it is. Reeves probably realises as much. All English audiences (and all Australian, Indian, etc. audiences as well) know without being told that there is something of value in the cricket broadcast, too; and that while Reeves understands THAT, he is unable to explain it to Farlan - hence the blues broadcast, which shows that people can understand each other without sharing an understanding of everything else. It's a clever scene.

One last thing. I found David Niven a bit cold, without the charisma he would acquire later in his career; but even so, I don't think a film has grabbed my heart quite so quickly after the action began, as this one did.