On the 18th November 2023, I posted a review of the first in a series about The Art of Film on Sky Arts: The Unique Styles of Powell and Pressburger. I have now watched three of the films that were mentioned that were all shown on Sky Arts over the last few months. They all have something in common. But not just Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger who share the roles of producers, writers and directors. They are The Archers.
A black and white movie from 1945. I thought I Know Where I'm Going was the least successful of the three. Wendy Hiller plays Joan Webster, on her way to an island in the Hebrides to marry a much older but wealthier man. The film is about the journey, thwarted on many occasions by the weather. Stranded on the Isle of Mull she meets Torquil MacNeil played by Roger Livesey. A relationship develops between the two.
Far better is A Matter of Life and Death, also from 1945. A mixture of scenes in colour and black and white, depending on whether we are on earth or in heaven. David Niven plays Peter Carter, the captain and sole remaining occupant of a Lancaster bomber, badly damaged and making it's way home from a mission in WW2. He's in contact with June, a radio operator played by Kim Hunter. Somehow he survives the crash landing on the coast, or did he? He does meet June and they fall in love, much to the concern of the powers that be in heaven as he should be dead. All very surreal but always interesting. June finds Peter a doctor, and who should turn up but Roger Livesey. The scenes set in heaven are a treat which makes this an ambitious and original movie.
Is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp their masterpiece, or just a failed jumble. I thought The Archers had bitten off more than they could chew. It's all a bit of a jumble and far too long at two and a half hours. It has a lot of history on the net. It precedes the previous two films as it was made in 1943. One of the first films in glorious technicolour. A kind of comedy that follows the life of Clive Candy played by (you've guessed it, Roger Livesey) as he makes his way through the first world war and in the peace that followed. But it's the switches of time that destroys any real coherence to the plot.
From the start set in the second world war, it back tracks to 1902. Then Candy is off on an unauthorised mission to Berlin where he meets Edith Hunter played by Deborah Kerr. A set piece in a large nightclub involves the German army and brings Candy into contact with an officer Kaunitz played by Anton Walbrook. It is these three main characters who form the basis for what happens next.
However, suddenly we are in 1918 and this is where the film seemed to lose it's way. Clive marries someone who looks very like Edith. Finally we fast forward to 1939 so it's difficult to keep up. It is a light and witty movie but far too ambitious and episodic to make real sense. And why the wives of the two men should end up dead before them is silly. Deborah Kerr was far nicer than any of the men in her three roles. A failed masterpiece.
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