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

A wonderful, deeply moving film.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is one of the most deeply moving films I've ever seen. It's amazing how independent producers (the Archers--Powell & Pressburger) managed to put together a lavish Technicolor epic without government assistance in wartime England--but they did it. it contains one of the most subtle "why we fight" themes--to preserve the English (and, hopefully, American) sense of fair play exemplified by the title character. The emotional kicker is a scene which takes place in 1939 in a British police station, where the German (played by Anton Walbrook--a German refugee actor) calmly and drily narrates how and why he came to settle in England. Just the thought of the scene moves me to tears. It's a marvelous piece of acting. The narrative technique--the story contained in one, long flashback--was in vogue on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1940s--one can think of Sam Wood's Saratoga Trunk (Warner Brothers, 1943) as a good example--but the shift from 1942 to 1902 is accomplished by a very deft piece of editing. Colonel Blimp enters the pool of the Royal Automobile Club an old man, and emerges 40 years earlier! Colonel Blimp's true subtext is how civilization, friendship, and love survive times of chaos and barbarism (not to mention war) and, indeed, triumph by their survival. It is especially timely at the time of this writing (late March 2003).