The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp - Britain's "Citizen Kane"?

[ChristopherBanks]

Perhaps with a bit of "Ambersons" thrown in for good measure?

A grand episodic take on one man's life, told in flashbacks; a reflection on the coming of the attitudes of a new world, and the death of the age of chivalry; a main character that is, at times, cold, distant, impenetrable and impossible to relate to but yet still manages to illicit sympathy by the end.

Kudos to P&P for managing to have a strong lifelong bond between a British officer and a German one as a central tenet in a film made during World War II.

This one sure deserves a Criterion release on DVD, if there isn't one already.

What do others think?

[mteal]

No question, "Colonel Blimp" is a great film. I love most of the Powell and Pressburger films, though my favorite one is probably BLACK NARCISSUS. You're right, Colonel Blimp is comparable to Citizen Kane in it's use of a flashback structure to illustrate changing times, but it's a much more romantic and sentimental film, not nearly as dark and austere as Kane or the latter parts of Ambersons. Blimp was released in the 1980s as a Criterion LD, with Powell doing a commentary track (with Martin Scorsese I think). I can't imagine that it won't be a Criterion DVD as well.

[ChristopherBanks]

"Black Narcissus" is probably my pick as well, although I haven't yet seen "The Red Shoes" which is supposed to be another high point.

When I compared "Blimp" to "Kane", I was thinking more about the similarities between the character and his progression, as well as the story structure.

Kane deals with the rise and fall of a very American figure, full of old-world patriotism, and (this is why I also included "Ambersons" in the comparison) the Ambersons represent the leisurely pace and "properness" of a bygone era. Candy also embodies these qualities, only in a very *British* way. The sentimental, warm tone of the film befits his character as it is in the British nature to carry on regardless; the classic "stiff upper lip" mentality, just as the sombre tone of "Kane" and "Ambersons" provides a realistic American perspective and character study.

[mteal]

THE RED SHOES is also a great film. So, to a lesser extent, is A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (aka STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN).

It's been a long time since I've seen "Colonel Blimp", so I don't feel comfortable commenting on it too much, but it's interesting that Kane and Blimp cover roughly the same time period, a time when Britain was losing it's stature as the world's leading power and the U.S. was assuming it's. A passing of the baton of Kipling's "White Man's Burden"? It's enormously complicated, going all the way back to the Crusades and the notion of chivalry. Both Kane and Candy follow a chivalric ideal, but Candy is a soldier while Kane is a newspaper magnate whose "chivalric" wish to help the working man and the slum child is only a pretense to gain power. Kane is a much more dangerous figure then Candy.

Regarding the depiction of lifelong friendship between the British and German officers, Renior did a similar thing in THE GRAND ILLUSION with the romance between the French officer and the German peasant woman. A desperate plea to try and find some kind of common humanity, I suppose.

If there is a "British Citizen Kane", my vote would probably go to LAURENCE OF ARABIA, which I just had the pleasure of seeing again last week in all it's eye-popping, 70mm glory. The story of "Laurence" actually seems closer to Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS then to Kane, but there is the same sense of ambiguous and inscrutable motive among all these mysterious power figures.

[Welles Fan]

I seem to recall reading that "Blimp" is slated for a DVD release by Criterion. If they just remaster the version they did for laser, that will be fine with me. Colonel Blimp is another of those movies that belongs on the list of "the Greatest Movies You've Never Seen".

I agree that it ranks alongside Black Narcissus in terms of greatness, (and I also would give a slight nod to Black Narcissus). If you have the laserdisc, I highly recommend listening to the commentary by Powell (also Scorsese). In the last scene with Candy's wife, before it is announced that she has died, you can tell Powell is tearing up in that scene. Interesting that he was still moved by a scene from one of his movies from 40 or so years earlier. Of course, Candy is never quite as "Blimpish" as the film's title suggests. Although he is a VC honored soldier from the Victorian wars, he is not portrayed as other than a romantic figure who becomes stuck in a decidedly un-romantic time. There is so much that is interesting-his impetuous younger days when he was quick to fight a duel but lacked the courage to tell a woman he loved her; the long friendship with his one-time adversary and his marriage to a woman who is supposedly a "carbon copy" of the one that got away; and Kerr in the three distinct roles as the women in his life. I guess it is Kane-like in covering the same period, and like Kane, it is one of those movies that I can watch at any time even in succession.

I am always struck after seeing both the above mentioned films, by how great an actress Deborah Kerr was before she came to Hollywood. Too bad Hollywood always wanted to typecast her as prim and proper governess types and gave her that awful haircut. The scene in Black Narcissus, where she has the flashback during the Christmas carol singing blows me away every time I see it. It has more intensity and sensuousness than most of her Hollywood career.

I have never been terribly fond of The Red Shoes. I think it is certainly a good film, but it doesn't move me (though my wife loves it). I think the Walbrook/Leivesy/Kerr relationship in Blimp is far more interesting. But I love the color and Moira Shearer. I actually prefer Tales of Hoffman which is also beautigul in color and also has Moira Shearer.

I first saw A Matter of Life and Death at a local museum series (which also featured the under-rated A Canterbury Tale), and was struck by the boldness of the story and the style of the movie (and it features another fine performance by Roger Lievesy). P & P had the museum audience at their feet.

[ChristopherBanks]

I've just discovered I may have been cheated...I saw "Blimp" on video in a version that seemed a little shy of 2 1/2 hrs, yet I just read a review that said "Beware of any but the full 163min version"...are there butchered copies floating around? Some of the scenes did seem to finish quite abruptly, so much so that I thought Robert Wise had been flown over for the editing.

[Welles Fan]

Yep-both Colonel Blimp and Black Narcissus are notorious for the many cut versions that exist. For example, the American version of Black Narcissus cut all the scenes where Deborah Kerr had flashbacks to her pre-nun existence.

Incidentally-Blimp is slated for release on DVD 10-22-02 in Region 1. Don't know, CB, if it'll be released in your region, too (is it 4?). The DVD wil have the commentaries that were on the LD, along with a documentary and the original Blimp cartoons that (sort of) inspired the movie.

[ChristopherBanks]

No, Criterions never get released down here, but thank the lord for the internet. That one will definitely be on my list. It seems P&P have done quite well on Criterion, all of their key films seem to have been put out on DVD - there must be a fan working there.

Saw one of their more obscure titles recently at a festival, "Gone to Earth", which they did for David O Selznick. He recut it extensively for the US release, retitled it, reshot scenes, and funnily enough added an introductory narration by Joseph Cotten. Seen that one? Jennifer Jones' attempt at a Welsh accent ranks right up there with Russell Crowe's repeated attempts at American ones.

[Jeff Wilson]

I've liked everything I've seen by Powell (and Pressburger) though I Know Where I'm Going left me flat. A Matter of Life and Death is probably my favorite P&P film, but my favorite Powell film has to be Peeping Tom. The Detroit Film Theater screened a restored print of Powell's Edge of the World a couple years ago, and that was good film, with some beautifully filmed scenery. I also taped Pursuit of the Graf Spee off cable recently and need to watch that, which this thread reminded me of.

[Welles Fan]

CB: A few years ago, I read Powell's autobigraphy (it's in 2 volumes). I seem to remember that at that stage of their careers, the Archers were just looking for backing, and they did that "Gone to Earth" movie with Jennifer Jones Selznick to appease Selznick in the hope of doing something better. I've never seen it, but Powell himself was not too high on it either. It seems to have been made at a time when the Archers were not really "hitting the mark", as it was followed by the dreary "Elusive Pimpernel" with David Niven. Apparently, after "The Red Shoes", they never enjoyed as much control of their films as they did in those glory years of the 40s. i don't think their movies made very much money. BTW-I know some of the British websites like Blackstar and Benson's World have DVDs of some of their titles, like "A Matter of Life and Death" and "A Canterbury Tale". Benson's World ships free to me in the USA, and their prices are very good.

I think my favorite solo Powell effort is "The Thief of Bagdad" from 1940 with Sabu. In spite of cheezy effects, I love it. Sabu is absolutely charming and ingenuous as the thief, Conrad Veidt is great as the evil vizier, and Rex Ingram makes a great (and rather scary) genie. Also-the lead actress is a total hottie named June Duprez. Dunno what ever happened to her-the only other film of hers I know of is the great 1939 Korda version of "The Four Feathers".

I agree that "Peeping Tom" is a great movie, but man it really creeps me out. Even today, after more lurid movies like "Se7en", Peeping Tom is still creepy and scary and disturbing.

Jeff:-there is an interesting story about "A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven)" in one of the volumes of the autobiograpy. As David Niven was ill and near death (I think he had Lou Gehrig's Disease), Powell and Pressburger cabled the message "good luck on that stairway, old boy!" to him.

[ChristopherBanks]

Sorry, I know we're getting off-topic here but I have a question I've always wanted answered:

Why did P&P stop making films together? I take it the split must have been amicable since "Peeping Tom" still carries the Archers logo. ("Peeping Tom" is one of my top 20 favourite films, unlike "Psycho" it edges out showmanship in favour of severe psychological creepiness)

And, if their films didn't make very much money, how come they were able to make so many? And lavishly produced ones, at that? Shooting in colour must have been very expensive in the 40's, particularly as I imagine the British film industry wasn't turning over numbers anywhere near Hollywood's.

[Welles Fan]

Well, their films did not make much money in the USA, a big movie market because (at least in the case of Blimp and Narcissus), they were released in barely recognzable truncated form. THey had been successful in England, but were not making much personally from the films.

The beginning of P & P's "downfall" was ironically, The Red Shoes. J Arthur Rank absolutely hated the movie, could not understand it, and refused to give it a London premiere, but chose instead to put it in general release to keep from losing any more money on it (as he saw it). P & P knew it was a good film, and this drove them to sign a contract with Korda, and ended their independent status as producers and their association with Rank. I don't have the Criterion version of The Red Shoes, and it may be that the commentary on the disc (alas, not by Powell) explains the problems they had with it. Ironic that their most famous movie was thought to be an incomprehensible failure!

[LA]

It's great to read people mentioning Powell and Pressburger, I love their films.

CB asked: "Why did P&P stop making films together? I take it the split must have been amicable since "Peeping Tom" still carries the Archers logo. ("Peeping Tom" is one of my top 20 favourite films, unlike "Psycho" it edges out showmanship in favour of severe psychological creepiness)"

Agree about Peeping Tom . From all the accounts I've heard, P&P stopped making films together because they couldn't get the films made that they were both interested in. As far as I recall from Million-Dollar Movie, the second volume of Powell's autobiography, Pressburger had some ideas that Powell wasn't interested in, and vice versa, so that a film Pressburger wanted to make could get made, but Powell didn't want to make it, but a film they both wanted to make couldn't. It got to the point where (on returning to Rank, which they had previously left following it's takeover by John Davis, Rank's accountant) they had about three films on the schedule for the future, only one of which Powell was at all interested in. The split was amicable, and of course Pressburger later collaborated with Powell again on They're A Weird Mob , Powell's first Austrailian film and on Powell's last film (not counting the Return To The Edge Of The World documentary), The Boy Who Turned Yellow .

"And, if their films didn't make very much money, how come they were able to make so many? And lavishly produced ones, at that? Shooting in colour must have been very expensive in the 40's, particularly as I imagine the British film industry wasn't turning over numbers anywhere near Hollywood's."

Well, of course, it may depend on the definition of not making much money, to my knowledge one or two of their films were quite sucessful.
I think the seemingly lavish production was probably possible due, during most of their 40s period, to J. Arthur Rank's approach to film production: as far as I remember from Kevin MacDonald's Emeric Pressburger: The Life And Death Of A Screenwriter, Rank had an deal with them whereby "they'd make the pictures and he'd release them", effectively giving them a free hand (other groups had this kind of deal too, including Ronald Neame and David Lean's Cineguild, as part of the Indepedent Producers company formed by Rank, essentially an in-house indepedent company). This approach ended eventually though, due to large losses, and John Davis took over, at which point they moved to Korda's company. Most of the other Independent Producers member companies did the same, by all accounts. Rank had been quite a filmmaker's utopia though, while it lasted.

My 0.02 on P&P: Everything I've seen of theirs, I've loved. Powell alone is difficult, I haven't seen nearly enough of his. Peeping Tom of course is a unique masterpiece, disturbing, insightful, and haunting.
The Edge Of The World is beautiful, one of those rare films that evokes the feel of a place rather than simply documenting it.

[LA]

Welles Fan said: "The beginning of P & P's "downfall" was ironically, The Red Shoes. J Arthur Rank absolutely hated the movie, could not understand it, and refused to give it a London premiere, but chose instead to put it in general release to keep from losing any more money on it (as he saw it)."

How did it do in America? I had heard it was a suprise success there, but I may have been misinformed.

[Welles Fan]

It was released 2 years later in America (late 1951), by which time, P & P had already made The Small Back Room, Gone to Earth, The Elusive Pimpernel and Tales of Hoffman.