The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) review

The first time I watched this movie (I was back in college), I had the misfortune of seeing a severely edited version on VHS; what a different a restoration makes. This is a leisurely-paced depiction of forty years in the life of General Wynne-Candy (played magnificently by Roger Livesey, with the help of some great makeup) and how his life represents the "old guard" in British military thinking, "replaced" - to some extent - with a more modern way of fighting (particularly when dealing with the Nazi Menace). Casting Deborah Kerr as three different characters is actually a wonderful move, as it suggests subtly the way Wynne-Candy kept looking for the same exact "kind of" woman the rest of his life after losing the first Deborah Kerr to his long-time friend Theo (Anton Walbrook). As a picture, it doesn't really come into its own until Wynne-Candy and Theo first meet (and duel), forming the movie's central relationship (which irritated Churchill to no end; couldn't have a 'sympathetic German' in there during World War II, oh no).