The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

1943
Approved
2h 43m

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

17K

YOUR RATING

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.

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Epic Drama Romance War

From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.From the Boer War through World War II, a soldier rises through the ranks in the British military.

Directors
- Michael Powell
- Emeric Pressburger
Writers
- Michael Powell
- Emeric Pressburger
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

17K

YOUR RATING

Directors
- Michael Powell
- Emeric Pressburger
Writers
- Michael Powell
- Emeric Pressburger
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations total

Trivia
Colonel Blimp was a British cartoon character in a then well-known strip. The producers decided to use the name for the movie.

Goofs
When the two dogs are let into the London house, one can be seen at the top of the stairs answering a call of nature.

Quotes
Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff: You know that, after the war, we had very bad years in Germany. We got poorer and poorer. Every day retired officers or schoolteachers were caught shoplifting. Money lost its value, the price of everything rose except of human beings. We read in the newspapers that the after-war years were bad everywhere, that crime was increasing and that honest citizens were having a hard job to put the gangsters in jail. Well in Germany, the gangsters finally succeeded in putting the honest citizens in jail.

Crazy credits
The lead actors' names are sewn onto a tapestry-like picture, written on scrolls. This opening credits' "needlework tapestry" was completed by the Royal College of Needlework.

Alternate versions
The original version (the one restored to Criterion Collection DVD and laserdisc) runs 163 minutes. When Winston Churchill expressed his vehement dislike for the film, the British distributor, Rank Films, cut it to 140 minutes. The film was chopped to pieces when it was imported to the United States in 1945, running around 120 minutes (in which the film's vital flashback structure is eliminated and the story is told from beginning to end). The film was further cut to 90 minutes and ran on public television often in the 1970s; for years, it was thought that this was the only extant version. In 1983, with the cooperation of the Archers, the film was restored to the full 163-minute length. The restored film retains the original flashback structure and many World War I scenes, including the appearance of a black soldier.

Connections
Featured in Arena: A Pretty British Affair (1981)

Soundtracks
Je suis Titania
(uncredited)
from "Mignon"
Music by Ambroise Thomas

User reviews137

Review

Featured review

Roger Livesey's greatest role

I'd forgotten what a good film this was until I watched it on DVD recently. 'The Archers' had such an impressive body of work even a gem can be temporarily out of mind - such was the case with Colonel Blimp while I was catching up with all their other work.

There seem to be three performances approaching greatness in this - first of course, that of Livesey as Clive Wynne-Candy throughout his long service as a soldier to old age and 'Blimpishness', a superb portrayal and very memorable; then Anton Walbrook - brilliant in all his scenes as the sympathetic German who finally becomes reconciled to 'his wife's country'; and finally, in three roles, Deborah Kerr, standing for Candy's ideal woman. There'd be one more film for the Archers before Kerr became established in Hollywood, and she is excellent in her trio of roles in this.

Special mention should go not only to P&P for their tremendous vision and energy, but also the great Jack Cardiff who put such wit and clarity in sequences such as the animal head shots. The film itself is one of Britain's best. I'm amazed to hear it was suppressed in its entirety for so many years, and glad it survived to become the masterpiece it surely is.