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The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Year:

1945

Duration:

163 min

Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

IMDB rate:

8.1

Director:

Michael Powell

Awards:

3 wins

Details

Country: UK

Release Date: 1945-05-04

Filming Locations: 139 Park Lane, Mayfair, London, England, UK

Cast

Actor

Character

Patrick Macnee

James McKechnie

Spud Wilson

Neville Mapp

Stuffy Graves

Vincent Holman

Club Porter (1942)

Roger Livesey

Clive Candy

David Hutcheson

Hoppy

Spencer Trevor

Period Blimp

Roland Culver

Colonel Betteridge

James Knight

Club Porter (1902)

Deborah Kerr

Edith Hunter / Barbara Wynne / Johnny Cannon

Dennis Arundell

Café Orchestra Leader

David Ward

Kaunitz

Jan Van Loewen

Indignant Citizen

Valentine Dyall

von Schönborn

Carl Jaffe

von Reumann (as Carl Jaffé)

Albert Lieven

von Ritter

Eric Maturin

Colonel Goodhead

Frith Banbury

Baby-Face Fitzroy

Robert Harris

Embassy Secretary

Arthur Wontner

Embassy Counsellor

Theodore Zichy

Colonel Borg (as Count Zichy)

Anton Walbrook

Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff

Jane Millican

Nurse Erna

Ursula Jeans

Frau von Kalteneck

Phyllis Morris

Pebble

Muriel Aked

Aunt Margaret

John Laurie

Murdoch

Reginald Tate

van Zijl

W.H. Barrett

The Texan

Thomas Palmer

The Sergeant

Yvonne Andre

The Nun

Marjorie Gresley

The Matron

Felix Aylmer

The Bishop

Helen Debroy

Mrs.Wynne

Norman Pierce

Mr. Wynne

Harry Welchman

Major Davies

A.E. Matthews

President of Tribunal

Edward Cooper

B.B.C. Official

Joan Swinstead

Secretary

John Boxer

Soldier (uncredited)

Erik

Cocker Spaniel (1920) (uncredited)

Ian Fleming

Maj. Plumley (1902) (uncredited)

Desmond Jeans

Barman (uncredited)

Diana Marshall

Sybil Hopwell (uncredited)

Ferdy Mayne

Prussian Student (uncredited)

Pat McGrath

Cpl. Tommy Tucker (uncredited)

Ronald Millar

Sgt Hawkins (uncredited)

Charles Mortimer

Dr. Crowler at Duel (uncredited)

Pete Murray

Extra in Crowd at BBC Bunker (uncredited)

Peter Noble

Prisoner of War (uncredited)

Wally Patch

Sergeant Clearing Debris (uncredited)

Norris Smith

Napoleon Armstrong (1918) (uncredited)

Spangle

Cocker Spaniel (1920) (uncredited)

Waleen Tidy

Edith's Sister (uncredited)

John Varley

Soldier (uncredited)

George Woodbridge

Man with Debris Clearing Unit (uncredited)

Did you know?

Trivia

Michael Powell's golden cocker spaniels Erik and Spangle make their second appearance on film as Clive and Barbara return from their honeymoon.

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The filmmakers wanted Laurence Olivier to play Clive Candy, but he was prevented from being furloughed from the Navy by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who didn't want the film to be made. Churchill didn't want to bolster the production with an actor and star of Olivier's caliber, as he felt the movie was critical of a type of British patriot. Olivier was allowed to take a leave from the Navy to make a film about William Shakespeare's patriotic King Henry V in The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (1944). Roger Livesey was cast instead. A generation later he played Olivier's father, Billy Rice, in The Entertainer (1960), though he was actually less than a year older than Olivier.

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Early in the film, Clive Candy tells Col. Betteridge that he has been speaking with Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Betteridge, an avid fan, turns and quotes to his subordinate, Major Plumley: "Lovely evening, my dear Watson..." Plumley is played by Ian Fleming, who earlier portrayed Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour (1931), Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Rembrandt (1932), The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935), and Murder at the Baskervilles (1937). His Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Wontner, also appears in a small role later in the film.

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Goofs

The position of the two decks of cards on the card table changes from one position at the time the nurse picks up the table to move it to another when she sets it down.

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The notice Candy places in The Times about Murdoch's death states he died in a bombing raid in October, 1940. But when Candy is shown on the cover of Picture Post magazine sometime afterward, the magazine is dated September 21, 1940.

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Several times Candy says that during the Boer War he had had to hide out in a house in South Africa for seven months. But at the restaurant in Berlin he tells Edith he had hidden for seven weeks.

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Quotes

Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff: Do you remember, Clive, we used to say: "Our army is fighting for our homes, our women, and our children"? Now the women are fighting beside the men. The children are trained to shoot. What's left is the "home." But what is the "home" without women and children?

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Hoppy: I was awfully sorry to hear about your leg.

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Colonel Betteridge: Can't imagine anything more awful than to be a prisoner of war in England.

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