The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)

The Second World war and Boer war veteran Major Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey) finds himself in charge of a home guard unit under attack from a young ambitious lieutenant.

Wynne-Candy,now a rotund and seemingly blustery old duffer is outraged when the Lieutenant and his troops invade his London Club breaking all the rules of fair warfare.

The two men argue then wrestle each other and end up falling into a swimming pool. As Wynne Candy emerges from the pool he has now become a young man and his life in the military is told in a series of flashbacks.

Audacious and simply brilliant, Blimp is years ahead of its time in its structure and sentiments.

Although this is far from been an anti-war movie, it certainly isn't a drum beating, flag waving slice of propaganda.

Made at the height of the Second World War, Colonel Blimp is more of an attack on the British military system and its rather staid institutionalism's. Winston Churchill disliked the movie and made moves to get it banned because of the appearance of a sympathetic German although many historians note the resemblance between Blimp and Churchill himself.

Made in 1943, Blimp is now rightly considered a masterpiece of British Cinema, the acting is exemplary, Roger Livesey gives the performance of his life and Deborah Kerr is simply mesmerising.

A considerable legacy of Powell and Pressburger films, the colour cinematography leaves the viewer in awe and introduced the legendary Jack Cardiff as one of the camera operators.

Blimp is a lovely, sad romantic (and at times, very funny) movie that leaves more questions than answers, its complex and bold narrative is startling and is a triumph of deft editing.

The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp is one of the finest war movies ever, one of the best British movies of all time and quite possibly a contender for one of the best movies of all time.

Black Narcissus (1947)

The year is 1947 and in an India still months away from Independence, five Catholic Nuns travel to a remote location in the Himalayas to set up a school and dispensary for the locals.
Under the leadership of Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr), the nuns begin to face mounting difficulties and insurmountable obstacles. As the surroundings and atmosphere begins to play tricks with the sisters emotions, tensions rise and the Nuns begin to question their faith.
Thrown into this mix, English agent Mr Dean (David Farrar) suddenly finds himself the recipient of unwanted attention.

Erotically charged melodrama that is years ahead of its time, for a 1947 PG certificate movie, ( Original rating A) Black Narcissus pushes the boundaries of sexual tension trumping any movie made in this enlightened age.
Deborah Carr smolders as the Sister Superior, her austere and unyielding manner betraying her conflicting emotions, she is backed up by a stunning tour De force from Kathleen Byron
whose gradual descent into madness coincides with her loss of faith and sexual re-emergence.
Byron is Mister Hyde to Carr's Dr Jekyll.
The rest of the acting is a little stifled, Farrar plays the blunt Englishman with a dash of arrogance and aloofness while Sabu is basically a liability as the Young General.
Considered by many film critics to be one of the finest colour films ever, Narcissus is a challenging landscape of images (astonishing, considering must of the photography was created in a studio and the outdoor locations were shot in England).
The legendary Jack Cardiff's cinematography is simply breathtaking and leaves the viewer in awe.
Many stand-out scenes include the bell ringing, the Christmas concert and the confrontation between Sister Clodagh and a newly de-frocked Sister Ruth.

Unquestionably Micheal Powell and Emeric Pressburger are amongst the most innovative filmmakers of all time and in Black Narcissus they possibly created their masterpiece and arguably one of the best British films of all time.