Trivia for
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) More at IMDbPro »

• For the table tennis scene, Kim Hunter and Roger Livesey were trained by Alan Brooke, the British champion who played many games with International Champion Victor Barna. During a visit to Denham Studios the two champions played a couple of games before an admiring audience of artists and technicians. For luck, Hunter borrowed one of Brooke's tournament bats for her film game.
  
  
• Betty Field was one of the many American actresses considered for the part of June. But Powell and Pressburger never actually got to see her.
  
  
• The huge escalator linking this World with the Other, called "Operation Ethel" by the firm of engineers who constructed her under the aegis of the London Passenger Transport Board, took three months to make and cost 3,000 pounds (in 1946). "Ethel" had 106 steps each 20 feet wide and was driven by a 12 h.p. engine. The full shot was completed by hanging miniatures.
  
  
• The backcloth of the High Court scene, suggesting tiers of seats stretching into infinity, measured 350 feet long and 40 feet high. Altogether 8 backcloths of similar large dimensions were used in Other World scenes, and 29 elaborate sets were constructed. In all these vast scenes 5,375 crowd artistes were used, including real R.A.F. crews, Red Cross nurses and W.A.A.C.s.
  
  
• The inspiration for Peter's medical condition came from the semi-autobiographical novel "A Journey Round My Skull" by Hungarian novelist Frigyes Karinthy. More precise medical detail came from Emeric Pressburger's research in the British Library and consultations with Michael Powell's brother in law, Dr. Joe Reidy, who was a plastic surgeon in London.
  
  
• It was during a visit to Hollywood in 1945 that director Michael Powell decided to cast the then-unknown Kim Hunter as June, the American servicewoman, largely upon the recommendation of Alfred Hitchcock, who had done a series of screen tests of actors and actresses auditioning for parts in his upcoming production, Notorious (1946). The trouble was that in these tests, Hunter was not seen but, rather, heard off-camera, feeding lines and cues to the actors Hitchcock was actually testing. But Hitchcock assured Powell that he would arrange a "face-to-face" with Hunter and her agent, so that he could see for himself whether she fit the requirements of the "all-American" girl Powell had envisioned opposite David Niven. And upon first encountering Hunter, Powell agreed with Hitchcock that she indeed was a perfect choice for the role.
  
  
• The first scene shot was David Niven washing up on the beach. Originally planned to fade in from black, Michael Powell decided on the spot that the effect would be too cheesy. When Jack Cardiff told him to look through the camera, Cardiff then deliberately breathed right onto the lens, which fogged the glass for a few seconds until it evaporated. Powell loved the idea and had him use it for the shot.
  
  
• Richard Attenborough only has one line which is: "It's heaven isn't it."
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The voice of the Introduction Narrator was that of John Longden, and the voice of the Cricket Match Commentator was that of Howard Marshall.
  
  
• The film has been adapted for the stage twice. First, in 1994 as a musical by Thomas Morgan and Kevin Metchear, at the King's Head Theatre, London, England, UK, and then again in 2007, as a play, by Tom Morris and Emma Rice at the National Theatre (Olivier), London, England, UK.
  
  
• Lois Maxwell's debut.
  
  
• Michael Powell's golden cocker spaniels Erik and Spangle make their fourth and final appearance on film in Dr. Reeves' Camera Obscura.
  
  
• David Niven and Raymond Massey who both starred together in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946) both died on the same day, July 29th 1983.
  
  
• Dr Reeves quotes from Lord Byron's poem, "CLXXIII: She walks in beauty like the night" when noting June's arrival.
  
  
• The lines Carter quotes to June as from 'His Pilgrimage' by Sir Walter Raleigh and 'To his Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell.
  
  
• The judge quotes Sir Walter Scott's lines from a stanza which is part of the third Canto of 'The Lay of the Last Minstrel'. Since Scott's death, the stanza has been separately published under the title 'Love'.
  
  

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