FILM CLUB - The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp

Powell & Pressburger Season - 1943 

On the surface the character Colonel Clive Candy is derived from David Low's cartoon strip from 1934, lampooning the British establishments blindness to the threat of Hitler. However, Colonel Blimp for Powell & Pressburger was more an extension of an old soldier who'd appeared in an earlier film - One of our Aircraft is Missing - who constantly refers back with nostalgia to the old way of fighting a war. Underneath the satire Powell and Pressburger humanise the situational mind set, even though its wit is bent on being more pokey and subversive.

Churchill was appalled they were even considering releasing The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp in the aftermath of an ignominious withdrawl from Europe, and a stalled plan a year away from the D Day landings, He tried to put a stop to it, but Arthur Rank insisted and the film became popular, because it did obtain such a wide distribution in the UK. 

It was severely re-edited for the US, essentially turning it into a linear narrative, by removing all the flashbacks and echoes to the past. It was not until the 1980's restoration that its full length and original editing was restored, along with digitising its deteriorating technicolour format.

Maybe for Churchill the character of Colonel Blimp did follow an uncomfortably similar parallel to his own self mythologised backstory. The central character Colonel Clive Candy's  ( Roger Livesey ) experience  of war, spans from the end of the Boar War, through the First World War, and ends with a Home Guard exercise during what was then still an ongoing war with Nazi Germany. Candy is a life long soldier, who has done nothing else but serve his country through the military. Though initially a bit of a rogue maverick, he settles into a life of dull respectability and conformity to a set viewpoint of war and his role in it. 

The film has multiple narrative strands running through it. At the beginning it shows us a British military that believes you fight a war fairly and is always appalled when other countries don't play fair too. They're always playing catch up. Blimp is the archetype of this particular mindset, often lauding that, though the German's played dirty, in the end we won. This viewpoint is slyly being satirised, but not without some affection too.

Because the Germans are spreading 'untrue' stories about there being British atrocities in South Africa ( some of these were actually true! )  He ends up going to Berlin and fighting a duel with Theo Kretschmar Schuldorff, ( Anton Walbrook ) over it. In the process he becomes Candy's life long friend. The changing nature of that friendship is a major thread throughout the movie. 

Theo, because he has to bare with the humiliation of his country being beaten in war, later accuses the British, that though they won the First World War they failed to learn anything from it. The most touching moments in this film are when Theo, once again, tells his old friend Candy exactly how things really are. That you can't ever expect the Nazi's to act according to the traditional playbook. He's had to leave Nazi Germany, having already lost his own children to a pernicious ideology. This time its not just a fight for territory but for the hearts and minds of Western democratic civilisation.

Another strand is unrequited love. Until Theo announces he is going to marry Edith Hunter ( Deborah Kerr ), Candy does not realise how much he was in love with her too. He goes out with her sister and other look a likes, eventually marrying one - Barbara, and in later scenes chooses a female driver Angela who looks like her too. All of them are played by Deborah Kerr. Its as though, even in love, he can't move on either. Edith has become this angelic ideal.

Both Livesey and Walbrook worked frequently with Powell and Pressburger and both give performances here that show them at the very top of their game. Walbrook in particular is so quietly mesmeric to watch, beautiful subtle acting, facial expressions, suggestive gestures, all telling of a man who has been broken and reforged himself, but not without some personal cost. 'The Truth' monologue in his immigration interview to be accepted as a refugee, is so heartbreaking. Starting as a wider angled shot of the whole room, it zooms in slowly on Walbrook's face, very closely monitoring its every suggestive flicker, and then when he's finished speaking zooms out to take to the same whole room stunned into silence. To have that happening all around you and hold your acting nerve is quite some feat. 

The character of Candy,  has much more broader cartoon like origins, and hence is a much harder part to play. Livesey manages to bring a touching humanity to the old bluffer over its three periods, and ages well. Candy is a well meaning kind person, a lot of fun to be around, even though he has these huge blind spots. Its only through his friendship with Theo, that he manages to grow any wiser. 

Though female characters in British movies of this period, can sometimes be a bit of a thankless role, here Deborah Kerr, brings immense skill and delineation to all her three characters, all of theme are feisty and assertive, though in entirely different ways.

I first saw this film in an art cinema during in the 1980's revival of interest in Powell & Pressburger.  You could say the whole idea of doing this series on The Archer's output, rests on my enduring enthusiasm for this one film. In this process I have discovered many other undiscovered beauties. I remember being completely blown away by Colonel Blimp at the time. It resonated with the tense contemporary atmosphere in the 80's surrounding The Falklands War, as the Churchill myth was being rolled out once again. 

Watching it again it is hard to fully take in all the various interweaving themes that it encompasses, certainly not in one viewing. In a career full of spectacular highlights, The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp is up there with the very best of Powell & Pressburger.

CARROT REVIEW - 8/8