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The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
DVD Review by David Stubbs
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1943 film The Life and Death of
Colonel Blimp was intended to bolster the propaganda effort. Colonel Blimp
was a cartoon character conceived to parody the hidebound, elder military
types whose attitudes towards war were irrelevant when it came to fighting
the Nazis, a point made in the first few minutes of the movie when a platoon
of young troops cheekily capture walrus-faced General Candy (Roger Livesey)
during a training exercise, oblivious to his splutterings that "war starts
at midnight!". Thereafter, Powell and Pressburger forge a more complex portrayal
of Candy, following his career over 40 years, from the Boer War through
World War I to the present-day (1943). There are strong, touching reminders
of Goodbye, Mr Chips in his relationship with a German officer, played by
Anton Walbrook, (a reflection, perhaps of Powell's own alliance with the
German Pressburger?), while Deborah Kerr recurs in three different roles,
reminding Candy of the lifelong love he has missed out on. By the end, Candy's
inability to recognise that the Nazis are not playing by his own, proper
military rules is reaffirmed but more sympathetically. No one could mistake
Powell and Pressburger's patriotic intentions here yet Winston Churchill
was sufficiently disconcerted by the film to try to have it banned. It wasn't--and
it proved a huge, deserved success.
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