A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1945
Running Times: 104m
Length:
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: Technicolor/black and white
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Sound:

DIRECTION

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: The Archers / Independent Producers / J. Arthur Rank Films
Producers: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Assistant Producer: George Busby
Unit Manager: Robert C. Foord

SCRIPT
Script: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

DIRECTION
Assistant Director: Parry Jones Jr
2nd Assistant Director: Paul Kelly (uncredited)
3rd Assistant Director: Patrick Marsden (uncredited)
Continuity: Bunny Parsons (uncredited), Margaret Sibley (uncredited)
Assistant Continuity: Ainslie L'evine (uncredited)

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Jack Cardiff
Camera Operator: Geoffrey Unsworth
Assistant Camera: George Minassian (uncredited), Johnnie von Klotze (uncredited)
2nd Assistant Camera: Christopher Challis (uncredited)
Motorbike Shots: Michael Chorlton
Chief Electrician: William Wall
Clapper Loader: Dick Allport (uncredited)
Focus Puller: Eric Besche (uncredited)
Colour Control: Natalie Kalmus
Associate Colour Control: Joan Bridge
Portrait Stills: Fred Daniels
Stills: Eric Gray (uncredited)

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Reginald Mills
Liaison Editor: John Seabourne Jr
Assistant Editor: David Powell (uncredited)

MUSIC
Music: Allan Gray
Conductor: Walter Goehr
Assistant Musical Conductor: W.L. Williamson

SOUND
Sound Recordist: C.C. Stevens
Boom Operator: David Hildyard (uncredited)
Assistant Boom Operators: Michael Colomb (uncredited), G. Sanders (uncredited)
Sound Camera Operator: Harold Rowland (uncredited)
Dubbing Sound Camera: Peter Davies (uncredited)
Pre-Dubbing: John Dennis (uncredited)
Dubbing Crew: Desmond Dew (uncredited), Alan Whatley (uncredited)
Sound maintenance: Roy Day (uncredited)
Sound System: Western Electric Sound System

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: George Blackler
Hair: Ida Mills
Costume Designers: Hein Heckroth, Joseph Bato (uncredited)

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Technicolor Limited, William C. Andrews, Henry Harris, Douglas Woolsey, George Blackwell (uncredited)
Additional Effects: Percy Day

VISUAL EFFECTS
Special Photographic Effects: Stanley Grant (uncredited)
Back Projectionist: Jack Whitehead (uncredited)
Assistant Matte Artist: Peter Ellenshaw (uncredited)

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Alfred Junge
Assistant Art Directors: Arthur Lawson, Roger Ramsdell (uncredited)
Assistant Property Maker: Terry Morgan
Assistant Painter: Joseph Bato (uncredited)
Draughtsmen: William Hutchinson, William Kellner, Don Picton

OTHER CREW
Assistant to Michael Powell: Bill Paton (uncredited)
Table Tennis Advisor / Trainer: Alan Brook (uncredited)
Operating Theatre Technical Advisor: Bernard Kaplan (uncredited)

LOCATIONS
Locations: Saunton Sands, Devon, England, UK
Studio: Denham Studio, UK

CAST

David Niven (Peter Carter)
Kim Hunter (June)
Robert Coote (Bob)
Kathleen Byron (an angel)
Richard Attenborough (an English pilot)
Bonar Colleano (an American pilot)
Joan Maude (Chief Recorder)
Marius Goring (Conductor 71)
Roger Livesey (Dr Reeves)
Robert Atkins (the Vicar)
Bob Roberts (Dr Gaertler)
Edwin Max (Dr McEwen)
Betty Potter (Mrs Tucker)
Abraham Sofaer (the judge)
Raymond Massey (Abraham Farlan)

UNCREDITED CAST

Robert Arden (GI playing Bottom)
Tommy Duggan (American policeman)
John Longden (narrator)
Lois Maxwell (actress)
Wally Patch (ARP warden)
Roger Snowden (Irishman)
Wendy Thompson (nurse)
Joan Verney (girl)
John Huntley, Geoff van Rijssel (extras in celestial courtroom)

Air Force officer Peter Carter is returning home in a crippled bomber following an attack on German targets. After talking via radio to a young female American officer, June, he leaps from the bomber without a parachute. But in the thick fog that has settled over the English Channel, the Heavenly messenger sent to take him to the afterlife misses him and Carter survives. He meets and falls in love with June, but Heaven doesn't give up that easily and sends a French "Conductor" to persuade Carter to pass over with him. Naturally Carter refuses and it's up to a Heavenly court to decide whether he lives or dies...

One of the finest British films ever made, an enduring masterpiece that seems at first like rather a lightweight romantic fantasy but which has much to say on the state of post-war Anglo-American relations. The constant reminders of the horrors of war are subtle but underpin the romance to remarkable effect and, though it may not quite have smoothed over the strained relationships between the two great powers, it did cement the Powell/Pressburger team's position as the most inventive and influential of British film-makers. A first-rate cast and some amazing visuals are big bonuses.

UK
DVD Distributor: Carlton (37115 00033 - includes: interview with Jack Cardiff)

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Universal Pictures

Finland
Rating: K-16

Spain
Rating: T

UK
Rating: U

USA
Rating: PG (for thematic elements)
Cuts were required to remove shots of the naked shepherd boy that Carter meets in the sand dunes.

AWARDS

1948
Bodil Awards
Bedste ikke-amerikanske film (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger) - winner

1945
September
2: UK - filming begins

December
2: UK - filming ends

1946
November
1: UK - Royal Command Film Performance, The Empire, Leicester Square, London

December
25: USA - theatrical release in New York
30: UK - theatrical release

1947
January
23: USA - theatrical release in Los Angeles

March
Day Unknown: USA - theatrical release (wider release)

May
9: Finland - theatrical release

1955
August
1: Spain - theatrical release

1956
February
5: USA - television broadcast (on ABC)

1976
July
18: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1979
July
29: UK - television broadcast (on ITV)

1981
November
14: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1988
April
2: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1989
May
19: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

1990
March
10: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1993
November
30: UK - television broadcast (on BBC1)

1995
October
14: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

1997
April
12: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1998
September
14: UK - DVD release (Carlton (37115 00033))

1999
September
25: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

2000
March
24: UK - theatrical re-release

2008
October
1: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
2: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
3: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
4: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
5: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
6: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
7: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
8: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
9: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
10: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
11: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
12: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
13: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
14: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London
15: UK - shown at the BFI Southbank, London

The Greatest Adventure a Man Ever Lived!

Stairway to Heaven - US title
En sag om liv eller død - Danish title
Irrtum im Jenseits - German title
A vida o muerte - Spanish title
Kysymys elämästä ja kuolemasta - Finnish title
Une question de vie et de mort - Belgian title
Scala al paradiso - Italian title
Caso de Vida ou Morte - Portugese title

REMAKE
Robert Montgomery Presents: Stairway to Heaven (1951)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
Heaven (1987)
The Making of an Englishman (1995)
A Matter of Michael and Emeric (1977)
A Personal History of British Cinema by Stephen Frears (1994)
A Profile of Black Narcissus (2000)

PERIODICALS

Empire July 1999 p.130 (UK)
review (by Andrew Collins)

Powell, Pressburger and Others (London, UK: BFI (1978))
articles

Radio Times 25 September - 1 October 1999 pp.60, 64
review, credits

NEWSPAPERS

Diário de Notícias 22 April 1999 p.63 (Portugal)
review

Expresso, Antena 17 April 1999 (Portugal)
review (by Manuel Cintra Ferreira)

Expresso, Antena 24 April 1999 (Portugal)
review (by Manuel Cintra Ferreira)

New York Times 31 October 1999 p.AR30 (USA)
article (Resurrecting a cosmic fantasy of love and death by Bill Desowitz)

BOOKS

Arrows of Desire: The Films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger by Ian R. Christie, Martin Scorsese (UK: Faber and Faber)

A Matter Of Life And Death by Eric Warman (London, UK: World Film Publications (1946) - private publication issued only to members of cast and crew)

A Matter of Life and Death by Ian Christie (London, UK: BFI (March 2000))

afterlife, heaven, world war ii, angels, courts, camera obscura, doctors, surgery, aircraft, fog

Last Updated: 13 December, 2009