The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
1943/UK
The Rank Organization/The Archers/Independent Producers
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Hoppy: They told me in Bloemfontein that they cut off your left leg.

Clive Candy: [Examines leg] Can’t have, old boy. I’d have known about it.[/box]

How Powell and Pressburger managed to put together this grand and opulent film in 1942 England boggles the mind.

This is the story, told in flashback from the perspective of 1942, of the life of career British Army Officer Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesy in a bravura performance) from his time as a young officer in the Boer War through his work for the Home Guard as a retired general.

As the film begins, Wynne-Candy is orchestrating war games for Home Guard recruits.  “War” is to begin at midnight.  The opposing “army” decides to mount a surprise attack many hours before midnight and captures Candy and several other older officers at their club.  They clearly think Candy is way behind the times.  He launches into the story of his life beginning with his youth when he was as impulsive as they.

On leave from the Boer War, Candy gets a letter from an English governess in Berlin complaining about the way the British military is being portrayed in the media by a German  army officer.  Although he is more or less ordered not to go, he uses his leave to visit Miss Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr in the first of her three roles in the film).  One way or another, he gets challenged to a duel.  His opponent is Officer Theo Krestchmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook).  While they are recovering from their wounds in a nursing home Candy and Theo become fast friends and Theo and Miss Hunter fall in love and marry.  Candy misses his own chance at romance with her.

We segue forward about 15 years and Candy is a Brigadier in WWI just as Armistice has been signed.  He glories that, despite the duplicity and barbarity of the Germans, British fair play has won out.  (This is a running thread throughout the film.)  On his way home for leave, Candy has dinner at a French convent and spots a young nurse (Deborah Kerr again) from afar who reminds him of Edith.  He can’t learn her name but does learn where she is from.  He goes to Yorkshire to locate and marry her.  He looks up Theo at an English prisoner-of-war camp.  Theo refuses to speak to him but later relents.  Candy and his kind extend him and Germany the hand of friendship.  Theo thinks they are fools.

Candy and his wife spend the intervening years serving in all the corners of the British Empire.  He is called out of retirement to active duty at the outbreak of WWII.  He handpicks a driver, “Johnny” (Kerr again), for her resemblance to his lost loves.  He reconnects with Theo who is now an “enemy alien” living in the homeland of his wife due to his disgust with the Nazis.  But Candy still believes in fair play in war and is now out of step with the times.  He is again retired but continues to be useful in the Home Guard.

Powell and Pressburger came into their own with this lavish color production.  Not only is it gorgeous to look at but interesting in its themes and very moving, especially as one looks back at one’s own life.  Powell and Pressburger compress time masterfully through various montage techniques.  Although this is very light on the propaganda, it is does emphasize the message that Britain must hit back at Germany with equivalent force and ruthlessness if it is to win the war.

The other theme is the cycle of life.  I love that Kerr plays all the women in Candy’s life.  How often do we fall in love with the same people in different guises?  Kerr, who was cast when Wendy Hiller could not take the part and was only 21,  performs like an old pro.  Walbrook is just fantastic as the very military but warm German.  This clocks in at over 2 1/2 hours.  There is never a dull moment.

Highly recommended.

Re-release trailer (the duel)