The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp

Starring: James McKechnie, Neville Mapp Director: Emeric Pressburger, Michael Powell Original UK Premiere: 1943 Dvd Release: 13th May, 2002 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Special Edition, Region 2 Encoding

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The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp is a film by the British -based director-writer team of Powell & Pressburger. The main character is named after the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip by David Low. The film begins with a British Home Guard exercise during the Second World War, where Major General Clive Wynne-Candy is outwitted by juniors unconcerned about breaking the rules. First countering propaganda in Berlin after serving in the Boer War, then as a Brigadier in the First World War & finally as a Major General at the start of the Second. The progressively ageing Candy is played by Roger Livesey, turning from a gentlemanly young officer into a reactionary old Colonel Blimp, angry & confused by modern warfare. Deborah Kerr plays three roles, first as his lost love, then his wife & then his driver & Anton Walbrook is his close friend & occasional enemy, the German officer Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff. the British code of fair play was meaningless when fighting the Nazis. The film was shot in four months at Denham Studios & on location in & around London.

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburgers 1943 film The Life & 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 during a training exercise, oblivious to his splutterings that war starts at midnight! Thereafter, Powell & Pressburger forge a more complex portrayal of Candy, following his career over 40 years, from the Boer War through World War I. There are strong, touching reminders of Goodbye, Mr Chips in his relationship with a German officer, played by Anton Walbrook, , while Deborah Kerr recurs in three different roles, reminding Candy of the lifelong love he has missed out on. By the end, Candys 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 & Pressburgers patriotic intentions here yet Winston Churchill was sufficiently disconcerted by the film to try to have it banned. It wasnt, & it proved a huge, deserved success. , David Stubbs

James McKechnie was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest & most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British & Commonwealth forces. He was approx. 28 years old & a Sergeant in the Scots Guards, British Army during the Crimean War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC. On 20 September 1854 at the Battle of the Alma, Crimea, when the shot & fire from the batteries just in front of the battalion threw it into momentary disorder, it was forced out of its formation, becoming something of a huge triangle, with one corner pointing towards the enemy. A captain was carrying the Queens Colour which had the pole smashed & 20 bullet holes through the silk. Sergeant McKechnie held up his revolver & dashed forward, rallying the men round the Colours. He was wounded in the action. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the The Guards Regimental Headquarters.

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