The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) may be the Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger masterpiece. I find it astounding that it was produced in the midst of a second world war by a country totally under siege since it is totally anti-war and, overlooked by the Leftist critics of the time, quite anti-Socialist. For the uninformed, the Col. Blimp character, who doesn’t appear in the film, was a cartoon caricature popular in the Strand magazine since Victorian times who represented, in typical dry British wit, the contempt that wars cannot be fought by rules or courtly gentlemen.
Roger Livesey is terrific as the stiff and slightly dense Clive Candy, but Anton Walbrook has the knockout role. About three-quarters of the way through the story he performs a lengthy speech, sitting down, about the futility of war and sacrifice that should have garnished him an Oscar. Deborah Kerr is just breath-taking in Technicolor; sadly, she became quite fragile in later years in body and mind, as was evident when some cretin reporter presumed upon her for a comment when Robert Mitchum died– they were perfect together in The Sundowners.
Blimp was reissued several times over the decades; it was initially released by UA here at just under two hours, and subsequent releases even yielded B&W prints. Years ago– long before Criterion was releasing these films– I picked up the full 163 minute color print on VHS which had been captured off a now-defunct cable station decades earlier and, until then, hadn’t been seen complete since.
I’m amazed that priorities being what they were in 1943, that Blimp was produced in costly Technicolor. We are glad it was, although under the whimsical surface there is a stark reality that probably would have been left to standard B&W had anyone but an eccentric pair like Powell & Pressburger– it’s really his film– had written and produced.
It’s a film that is too long to be screened at the library, and maybe a couple hundred might show up if it was ever shown at the Pickwick Theatre, but it’s a film you should definitely seek out and view in the best format available, preferably the aforementioned Criterion release.
~MCH