When it comes to great British film-makers, Powell and Pressburger are head and shoulders above the rest.
But the amazing creative partnership of The Archers (as director Michael Powell and writer Emeric Pressburger were nicknamed) hit the bull's-eye when they created the 1946 masterpiece - A Matter of Life and Death.
Set at the tail end of the Second World War, David Niven is Squadron Leader Peter Carter, who is limping back home in a badly damaged and burning Lancaster bomber after a mission. The rest of the crew has bailed out, or been killed, and the last remaining parachute has been shot up. With no chance of making it back to base, Carter's only option is to bail out to a certain death over the English Channel. He voices his final thoughts over the bomber's radio, and is overheard by American radio operator June (Kim Hunter) who spends his last few minutes trying to talk him out of jumping.
But Carter is in luck. Instead of certain death, he finds himself washed up on an English beach thanks to a traditional "English pea-souper" and lackadaisical Conductor 71 (Marius Goring), the guide sent from heaven to collect him".
Peter then meets June and falls in love, leading to a celestial legal battle in which Peter must win his chance to live.
In a twist from the Wizard of Oz convention, Powell and Pressburger filmed the heavenly scenes in black and white and the earthly scenes in "glorious Technicolor".
Archers' favourite Roger Livesey co-stars as Doctor Reeves after previously starring in P&P's other classic, The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp, while a very young Richard Attenborough even makes an appearance in one of the heaven scenes.
American distributors were concerned how the US market would react to a movie title containing the word 'Death', particularly in the wake of the Second World War, so the decision was made, despite protestations from the creators, to release the movie in America as Stairway to Heaven.
Powell and Pressburger had already made a name for themselves individually, then collaboratively with films including The Spy in Black (1939), Contraband (1940), 49th Parallel (1941), Colonel Blimp (1943) and A Canterbury Tale (1944) and they went on to make other classics including The Red Shoes in 1948, but they never managed to hit the heights of their 1946 fantasy masterpiece.
What do you think? Was A Matter of Life and Death Powell and Pressburger's best film? Share your thoughts below ...
Life's a beach ...
The other side
Stairway to Heaven
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