A Matter of Life and Death [Stairway to Heaven] ***** (1946, David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring, Raymond Massey ) – Classic Movie Review 604

‘This is a story of two worlds the one we know and another which exists only in the mind of a young airman whose life and imagination have been violently shaped by war. Any resemblance to any other world known or unknown is purely coincidental.’

Writer-producer-director Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s extraordinary 1946 film A Matter of Life and Death [Stairway to Heaven] is their tenth collaboration together. A perfect and unique film to stun the eyes and amaze the mind, it was the first movie to be selected for a Royal Command Film Performance. The premiere on 1 November 1946 was held at the Empire cinema in London’s Leicester Square in the presence of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

David Niven is at his best as a World War Two pilot Peter Carter, who is forced to bale out without a parachute when his plane is shot down and believes he is speaking his last words to American radio-operating air controller June (Kim Hunter). In heaven, all is not well, as the number of admissions doesn’t tally, so celestial emissary Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) is sent to earth to reclaim the missing airman.

Hospital surgeon Doctor Reeves (Roger Livesey) is summoned to plead for his life before a heavenly court, while Abraham Farlan (played by Raymond Massey), an American from the US War of Independence era, argues for the prosecution. But is it all in pilot Peter Carter’s head as he lies anaesthetised for a life-saving brain operation?

Powell and Pressburger’s movie, a brilliant mixture of monochrome fantasy (for heaven) and Technicolor drama (for the reality, reversing audience expectations in the use of colour), is boldly conceived, imaginatively made and extraordinarily movingly acted. Jack Cardiff’s cinematography is an outstanding achievement.

The stairway to heaven sequence is particularly vivid and memorable – the escalator was constructed by the London Passenger Transport Board, taking over three months, with 106 steps, each 20ft wide – hence the American title Stairway to Heaven.

A Matter of Life and Death was made at the request of the British Ministry of Information, which hoped for a piece of Anglo-American propaganda. But in the event many Britons found it anti-British and unpatriotic at the time, a reaction Powell and Pressburger must have been familiar from after the reaction to The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

RAF war survivors played themselves in the heavenly court, alongside 72 real Red Cross nurses and 25 American WACs.

The New York Film Critics awarded it their 1946 Best Film prize, but otherwise it was shamefully neglected at awards time.

Richard Attenborough only has one line: ‘It’s heaven isn’t it?’ It is the film debut of Lois Maxwell (aka Miss Moneypenny). Niven and Massey died on the same day, 29 July 1983.

Also in the cast are Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron, , Bonar Colleano, Joan Maude, Edwin Max, Abraham Sofaer, Robert Atkins, Betty Porter, Bob Roberts, Tommy Duggan, Roger Snowdon, Robert Arden, Joan Verney, Wendy Thompson and Wally Patch.

A Matter of Life and Death [Stairway to Heaven] is directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, runs 104 minutes, is made by The Archers, is released by General Film Distributors, is written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is shot in monochrome and Technicolor by Jack Cardiff, is produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is scored by Allan Gray, and is designed by Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 604 derekwinnert.com