The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp


"You laugh at my big belly but you don't know how I got it!
You laugh at my mustache but you don't know why I grew it!"

Major General Clive Wynne-Candy

A film whose protagonist is alive when the credits roll, is not a colonel, and is not surnamed "Blimp". Despite this triple deception, it is very good.

Opening in 1943 in the midst of World War Two, a group of enterprising British soldiers decide to launch planned war games early, contemptuous of the Home Guard's order that "the war starts at midnight" (they reason that the Germans wouldn't work like that). They capture the Home Guard's commander, Major General Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesy), while he's in the Turkish bath, and mock his protests and his fat belly. An enraged Candy segues into the story of his life. Flashing back 41 years to 1902, we see a young Clive Candy, newly returned from the Boer War and wearing his new Victoria Cross. A visit to Germany to refute anti-British propaganda leads to a meeting with Miss Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr) and a duel with Prussian officer Theodore Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). Over the next forty years, Clive and Theodore will meet several more times, including in World War I, and Clive will always be on the lookout for other women like his idol, Edith.

The film was released in 1943 in the United Kingdom, at the height of World War Two, and two years later in the United States (in heavily edited form). It has subsequently been considered one of the finest British films, and the first collaboration between writer-directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in their solo production company, The Archers. The duo would go on to make several more films, including The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. Also notable for being the breakout part for British actress Deborah Kerr, who was only 21 when the film was made.

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