This England

Daniel Johnson celebrates The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, the glorious wartime cinematic masterpiece by Powell and Pressburger that Churchill wanted to ban

WINSTON CHURCHILL GOT A GREAT MANY THINGS RIGHT, BUT ONE THAT HE GOT BADLY WRONGwas the 1943 Powell and Pressburger film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Before even having seen it, the then Prime Minister decided that it was pro-German (it isn’t), hostile to the war and/or to the British Army (it is neither), a satire on himself (also untrue) and, above all, unpatriotic. The last accusation is especially unjust: Blimp has a serious claim not only to be the best English film ever made but the best film about England. There is a story that Churchill barged into the West End theatre dressing room of Anton Walbrook, who plays the anti-Nazi refugee Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff in Blimp, and demanded to know what the film was supposed to mean.…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2024

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