The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
By
Henry Coombs
Not what you expect.
9th December 1999
I'm not sure what you expect; but I'm pretty sure it isn't this.
We open in the early days of World War II with some motorcyclists speeding
through the English countryside to some jaunty music. (The score, by the
way, is a fine one - by Allan Gray, a composer I don't think I've heard
of in any other context.)
[He had studied under Schönberg and had composed for a few
U.F.A films in Berlin. He had only recently arrived in England, fleeing
from Nazi Germany when he "discovered" by P&P and used on
The Silver Fleet (1943),
The Volunteer (1943)
A Canterbury Tale (1944),
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
and A Matter of Life and Death (1946)]
Very little is explained about the motorcyclists'
quest and we don't get the full significance of the opening events until
the the film's conclusion, after we've gone back to the end of the Boer
War and seen events narrated from there. There's no sudden revelation at
the end: it just slowly dawns on us why the motorcycle chase was so very
important. I found, also, that the title preyed on my mind through most
of the film's running time. It's `The Life AND DEATH of Colonel Blimp'.
Why `death'?
[Good question. It's apparently meant to represent the death of Clive's
"Blimpish" attitude. But as the "Colonel Blimp" cartoon character was
only really known in the UK (it only appeared in a London Evening paper)
it's a mystery as to why they associated the character so strongly with
Blimp. It also led to all the trouble with Churchill]
It's a lovely, sad story with a pronounced moral, even though it isn't at
all clear, even on reflection, what the moral is. Does Clive Candy really
become out of date and out of touch? If so, when? There doesn't seem to
be any particular moment; or rather, there are many moments - he's a character
who always gives the impression of having only just ossified.
[The others (mainly Theo, the German) explain the moral by saying where
Clive is going wrong. But there's no reason why he should let that
affect him much. He does at least warm to the young man, Spud, at the
end]
There's a lot of humour beneath the sadness - I'm particularly fond of the
Battle of the Orchestra, which takes place late last century, where Candy
keeps bribing the musicians to play a piece by Johann Strauss, while a German
officer, who loathes the piece, offers fresh bribes to get them to stop.
The German officer is, of course, an omen. Strauss is much too merry for
the Germany that's to come.
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