The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Encyclopedia
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a 1943 film by the British film making
team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
under the production 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. The film is renowned for its Technicolor
cinematography.
. Major General
Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey
) is the leader of a Home Guard squad in a training exercise. He is "captured" in a Turkish bath by soldiers from the opposing side, led by the young lieutenant "Spud" Wilson. Wilson has struck pre-emptively, breaking established conventions of war, as he believes this is how the Germans fight. He ignores Candy's outraged protests that "War starts at midnight!" and they scuffle and fall into a bathing pool.
The film segues back forty years to 1902 when Candy was a young lieutenant, and begins an extended flashback
starting with his days as a young and impetuous officer. The flashback lasts for most of the film following Candy's life, eventually leading back to the altercation in the Turkish bath.
in South Africa
, where he has been awarded the Victoria Cross
for gallantry. Through a friend, he receives a letter from Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr
), a woman he has never met who is working in Berlin
as an English teacher. She complains that a German named Kaunitz is spreading anti-British propaganda about the Boer War
, and she wants the British 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.
Candy and Edith go to a fashionable café, where he recognises Kaunitz as a former spy and double agent who had been captured in South Africa by his division. He confronts Kaunitz who, during their exchange, spits in his face. Provoked, Candy manages to inadvertently insult the entire Imperial German Army officer corps, creating a diplomatic incident. As a result, he is forced to fight a duel
with a German officer chosen by lot: Theodor Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook
) – although the German privately disapproves of duelling. In order to avoid a diplomatic crisis, the duel is officially said to be over Edith's honour.
After the duel, Candy and Theo become friends while recuperating from their wounds in the same nursing home. Edith visits them both regularly and although it is implied that she has feelings for Clive, she becomes engaged to Theo. Candy is delighted and leaves for home, but soon realises to his consternation that he loves her himself.
The film then moves forward to the First World 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 – Flanders" and dated 1918.
in the First World War, Candy believes that the Allies won the war because "right is might", 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's second role), at a convent where he is sent for dinner and is surprised by her striking 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 twenty-year 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 prisoner of war
camp in England after the Armistice
. Candy greets his friend as if nothing has changed, but is snubbed. Later, on his way back to Germany to be repatriated, Theo apologises and accepts an invitation to Clive's house. He remains sceptical of 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. Candy's wife dies between the world wars of an undisclosed cause. Candy is retired in 1935.
.
After dinner, Candy reveals to Theo that he loved Edith and only realised it when it was too late. He admits that he never got over it, and shows Theo a portrait of his dead wife Barbara. Theo does not immediately see the similarity, as he and Edith had grown old together, and his memories are of an older Edith. Theo then meets Clive's driver, Angela "Johnny" Cannon (Kerr's third role), 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
. Candy plans to say that he would rather lose the war than win it using the methods employed by the Nazis – but this sentiment ensures his talk is cancelled at the last minute. Theo reads the speech beforehand, realises that this would happen, and urges his friend to accept the need to fight and win by whatever means are necessary, since the consequences of losing are so dire.
Now apparently irrelevant, Candy is sent back into retirement, but, at Theo's and Angela's vigorous suggestions, he turns his energy to the Home Guard, Britain's secondary line of defence against invasion. Another montage, this time taken from Picture Post
dated September 19, 1942, illustrates how Candy's energy and connections are instrumental in helping to build up the Home Guard. His resolve does not waver even when his house is bombed in the Blitz
(in which his batman-turned-butler is killed) 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.
The film has now come full circle. The brash young lieutenant who captures Candy is in fact Johnny's boyfriend. He had used her as an unwitting spy to learn about Candy's plans and location. When she discovers this, she tries to warn Candy, but is too late. Candy is held prisoner for a few hours and is humbled by the incident.
Theo and Johnny find Candy sitting in a park across the street from his old house. He recalls that when he had visited Germany against orders, he had been given a severe dressing down by his superior in the War Office. Afterwards, the man had invited him to dinner. He declined, but had often regretted doing so. He then orders Johnny to invite her boyfriend to dinner and "he'd better accept".
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 realises that "here is the lake and I still haven't changed". The film ends with Candy saluting the new guard as it passes by playing a patriotic song in his honour.
Cast notes:
, 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 film in its own right.
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, 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". 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.
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 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.
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.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp underwent a complete restoration similar to that performed on The Red Shoes. With fundraising spearheaded by Martin Scorsese
and his longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker
, the restoration work was completed by Robert Gitt (assisted by Barbara Whitehead) at the UCLA Film and Television Archive
. The restored version premièred in New York on 6 November 2011 followed by a screening in London on 30 November.
and 49th Parallel
, which were also made during wartime.
Although the film is strongly pro-British, it is a satire on the British Army, especially its leadership. It suggests that Britain needs to "fight dirty" in the face of such an evil enemy as Nazi Germany
. 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). 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.
Other critics comment:
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:
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 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".
The film currently has a rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes
.
DVD reviews
Region 2 UK – Carlton DVD
Region 2 France – Warner Home Vidéo
/ L'Institut Lumière
Region 1 USA – Criterion Collection
DVD Comparisons
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1981 they were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious...
under the production banner of The Archers
Powell and Pressburger
The British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1981 they were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious...
. It stars Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey
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...
, Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
and Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook, born was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom.- Life :...
. The title derives from the satirical Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp
Colonel Blimp is a British cartoon character.The cartoonist David Low first drew Colonel Blimp for Lord Beaverbrook's London Evening Standard in the 1930s: pompous, irascible, jingoistic and stereotypically British...
comic strip by David Low but the story itself is original. The film is renowned for its Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
cinematography.
Plot
The film begins in 1943, the middle of the Second World WarWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey
Roger Livesey
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...
) is the leader of a Home Guard squad in a training exercise. He is "captured" in a Turkish bath by soldiers from the opposing side, led by the young lieutenant "Spud" Wilson. Wilson has struck pre-emptively, breaking established conventions of war, as he believes this is how the Germans fight. He ignores Candy's outraged protests that "War starts at midnight!" and they scuffle and fall into a bathing pool.
The film segues back forty years to 1902 when Candy was a young lieutenant, and begins an extended flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
starting with his days as a young and impetuous officer. The flashback lasts for most of the film following Candy's life, eventually leading back to the altercation in the Turkish bath.
Boer War
In 1902, Candy is an officer on leave from the Boer WarSecond Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, where he has been awarded the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
for gallantry. Through a friend, he receives a letter from Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...
), a woman he has never met who is working in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
as an English teacher. She complains that a German named Kaunitz is spreading anti-British propaganda about the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
, and she wants the British 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.
Candy and Edith go to a fashionable café, where he recognises Kaunitz as a former spy and double agent who had been captured in South Africa by his division. He confronts Kaunitz who, during their exchange, spits in his face. Provoked, Candy manages to inadvertently insult the entire Imperial German Army officer corps, creating a diplomatic incident. As a result, he is forced to fight a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
with a German officer chosen by lot: Theodor Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook
Anton Walbrook, born was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom.- Life :...
) – although the German privately disapproves of duelling. In order to avoid a diplomatic crisis, the duel is officially said to be over Edith's honour.
After the duel, Candy and Theo become friends while recuperating from their wounds in the same nursing home. Edith visits them both regularly and although it is implied that she has feelings for Clive, she becomes engaged to Theo. Candy is delighted and leaves for home, but soon realises to his consternation that he loves her himself.
The film then moves forward to the First World 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
Pickelhaube
The Pickelhaube , also "Pickelhelm," was a spiked helmet worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by German military, firefighters, and police...
labelled "Hun – Flanders" and dated 1918.
First World War
As a Brigadier GeneralBrigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
in the First World War, Candy believes that the Allies won the war because "right is might", 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's second role), at a convent where he is sent for dinner and is surprised by her striking 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 twenty-year 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 prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp in England after the Armistice
Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...
. Candy greets his friend as if nothing has changed, but is snubbed. Later, on his way back to Germany to be repatriated, Theo apologises and accepts an invitation to Clive's house. He remains sceptical of 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. Candy's wife dies between the world wars of an undisclosed cause. Candy is retired in 1935.
Second World War
In 1939, at an immigration office in wartime England, an older and sadder Theo relates to an official questioning him how his children had become Nazis and were estranged from him. Before the war, he had refused to move to England when his wife Edith wanted to; by the time he was ready, she had died. As with Barbara, the cause of her death is not revealed. Candy shows up in time to vouch for Theo and save him from internmentInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
.
After dinner, Candy reveals to Theo that he loved Edith and only realised it when it was too late. He admits that he never got over it, and shows Theo a portrait of his dead wife Barbara. Theo does not immediately see the similarity, as he and Edith had grown old together, and his memories are of an older Edith. Theo then meets Clive's driver, Angela "Johnny" Cannon (Kerr's third role), 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
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
to give a radio talk regarding the British Army's retreat from Dunkirk
Operation Dynamo
The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940, because the British, French and Belgian troops were...
. Candy plans to say that he would rather lose the war than win it using the methods employed by the Nazis – but this sentiment ensures his talk is cancelled at the last minute. Theo reads the speech beforehand, realises that this would happen, and urges his friend to accept the need to fight and win by whatever means are necessary, since the consequences of losing are so dire.
Now apparently irrelevant, Candy is sent back into retirement, but, at Theo's and Angela's vigorous suggestions, he turns his energy to the Home Guard, Britain's secondary line of defence against invasion. Another montage, this time taken from Picture Post
Picture Post
Picture Post was a prominent photojournalistic magazine published in the United Kingdom from 1938 to 1957. It is considered a pioneering example of photojournalism and was an immediate success, selling 1,700,000 copies a week after only two months...
dated September 19, 1942, illustrates how Candy's energy and connections are instrumental in helping to build up the Home Guard. His resolve does not waver even when his house is bombed in the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
(in which his batman-turned-butler is killed) 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.
The film has now come full circle. The brash young lieutenant who captures Candy is in fact Johnny's boyfriend. He had used her as an unwitting spy to learn about Candy's plans and location. When she discovers this, she tries to warn Candy, but is too late. Candy is held prisoner for a few hours and is humbled by the incident.
Theo and Johnny find Candy sitting in a park across the street from his old house. He recalls that when he had visited Germany against orders, he had been given a severe dressing down by his superior in the War Office. Afterwards, the man had invited him to dinner. He declined, but had often regretted doing so. He then orders Johnny to invite her boyfriend to dinner and "he'd better accept".
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 realises that "here is the lake and I still haven't changed". The film ends with Candy saluting the new guard as it passes by playing a patriotic song in his honour.
Cast
|
A. E. Matthews A.E. Matthews OBE was an English actor who played numerous character roles on the stage and in film for eight decades, and who became known for his longevity.-Biography:... as President of Tribunal Carl Jaffe Carl Jaffe was a German Jewish actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career took off.... as von Reumann Albert Lieven Albert Lieven was a German actor. He was born Albert Fritz Liévin in Hohenstein, East Prussia. He died in London, England. He was married four times, including to the actresses Susan Shaw and Valerie White.... as von Ritter Arthur Wontner Arthur Wontner was a British actor best known for playing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective Sherlock Holmes in five films from 1931 to 1937... as Embassy Counsellor Reginald Tate Reginald Tate was an English actor, veteran of many roles on stage, in film and on television. He is best remembered as the first actor to play the television science-fiction character Professor Bernard Quatermass, in the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment.-Early life:Reginald... as van Zijl Felix Aylmer Sir Felix Edward Aylmer Jones, OBE was an English stage actor who also appeared in the cinema and on television.-Early life and career:... as The Bishop |
Cast notes:
- Making their second appearance in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp were director Michael PowellMichael Powell (director)Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
's golden cocker spaniels, Erik and Spangle, who had previously appeared in Contraband (1940), and went on to be seen in the Powell and PressburgerPowell and PressburgerThe British film-making partnership of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, made a series of influential films in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1981 they were recognized for their contributions to British cinema with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, the most prestigious...
films I Know Where I'm Going!I Know Where I'm Going!I Know Where I'm Going! is a 1945 romance film by the British-based film-makers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey, and features Pamela Brown, Finlay Currie and Petula Clark in her fourth film appearance....
(1945) and A Matter of Life and Death, also known as Stairway to Heaven (1946).
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 MissingOne of Our Aircraft is Missing
One of Our Aircraft is Missing is a 1942 British war film, the fourth collaboration between the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the first film they made under the banner of The Archers...
, 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
David Lean
Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
(then an editor) who when removing the scene from the film, mentioned that the premise of the conversation was worthy of a film in its own right.
Powell wanted Wendy Hiller
Wendy Hiller
Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an Academy Award-winning English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took...
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
Ursula Jeans
Ursula Jean McMinn was a British actress on film, stage, and television.Ursula Jeans was born in Shimla, British India, to British parents, and brought up and educated in London. She was the youngest of three siblings...
; 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
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
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". After Ministry of Information and War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
officials had viewed a rough cut
Rough cut
In filmmaking, the rough cut is the second of three stages of offline editing. The rough cut is the first stage in which the film begins to resemble its final product...
, 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.
The film was shot in four months at Denham Film Studios
Denham Film Studios
Denham Film Studios were a British film production studio operating from 1936 to 1952.The studios were founded by Alexander Korda, on a 165 acre site near the village of Denham, Buckinghamshire. At the time it was the largest facility of its kind in the UK, but it was merged with Rank's Pinewood...
and on location in and around London, and at Denton Hall
Denton Hall, Wharfedale
Denton Hall is an English country house located to the north of the River Wharfe, at Denton between Otley and Ilkley in North Yorkshire, England, and set within a larger Denton estate of about , including a village, church, and landscaped gardens....
in West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
. 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.
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. One of the crucial changes made to the shortened versions was the removal of the film's flashback structure.In 1983, the original cut was restored for a re-release, much to Emeric Pressburger
Emeric Pressburger
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 multiple-award-winning partnership known as The Archers and produced a series of classic British films, notably 49th Parallel , The...
's delight. Pressburger, as affirmed by his grandson Kevin Macdonald
Kevin MacDonald (director)
Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director, best known for his films One Day in September, State of Play, The Last King of Scotland and Touching the Void.-Personal life:...
on a Carlton
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
Region 2 DVD featurette, considered Blimp the best of his and Powell's works.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp underwent a complete restoration similar to that performed on The Red Shoes. With fundraising spearheaded by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
and his longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker
Thelma Schoonmaker
Thelma Schoonmaker is an American film editor who has worked with director Martin Scorsese for over forty years. She has edited all of Scorsese's films since Raging Bull...
, the restoration work was completed by Robert Gitt (assisted by Barbara Whitehead) at the UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film and Television Archive is an internationally renowned visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds more than 220,000 film and television titles and 27 million feet of...
. The restored version premièred in New York on 6 November 2011 followed by a screening in London on 30 November.
Reception
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. It should be noted that sympathetic German characters had previously appeared in the films of Powell and Pressburger, for example The Spy in BlackThe Spy in Black
The Spy in Black is a 1939 British film, and the first collaboration between the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They were brought together by Alexander Korda to make the World War I spy thriller by Joseph Storer Clouston into a film...
and 49th Parallel
49th Parallel (film)
49th Parallel is the third film made by the British writer-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It was released in the United States as The Invaders. Despite the title, no scene in the movie is set at the 49th parallel, which forms much of the U.S.-Canadian border...
, which were also made during wartime.
Although the film is strongly pro-British, it is a satire on the British Army, especially its leadership. It suggests that Britain needs to "fight dirty" in the face of such an evil enemy as Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. 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). 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.
Other critics comment:
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:
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 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
Black Narcissus
Black Narcissus is a 1947 film by the British director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the novel of the same name by Rumer Godden...
, would become The Archers greatest legacy), the performances by the lead actors as well as for transforming, in Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
's words; "a blustering, pigheaded caricature into one of the most loved of all movie characters".
The film currently has a rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
Miscellany
- Michael Powell once said of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp that it is
- At other times he has also pointed out that the designer was German, and the leads were Austrian, Scottish and Welsh.
- David MametDavid MametDavid Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
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)."
- A close copy of the portrait of his wife Barbara shown by Candy to Kretschmar-Schuldorff when they meet at the start of the Second World War was used as a prop in the film The League of GentlemenThe League of Gentlemen (film)The League of Gentlemen is a 1960 British crime film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick and Richard Attenborough. It was based on the 1958 novel by John Boland and adapted by Bryan Forbes, who also starred in the film...
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 met Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
who was publishing instalments of The Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the BaskervillesThe Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an...
.
External links
. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).- BFI's Top Fifty (British) Films
- Synopsis and review at the British Film InstituteBritish Film InstituteThe British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
. - Criterion Collection essay by Ronald Haver
- Blimp material at the Powell & Pressburger Appreciation Society
DVD reviews
Region 2 UK – Carlton DVD
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
Region 2 France – Warner Home Vidéo
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
/ 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