I am not sure what factors dictated TCM's choice of Powell and Pressburger tomorrow, but I am not complaining about any eleven-hour block of programming which allows me access to The Spy in Black (1939), Contraband (1940), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Tales of Hoffmann (1951), and Night Ambush (1957), better known by its original, book-compliant title Ill Met by Moonlight. I've never seen the last of these. It was the last collaboration of Powell and Pressburger under the banner of the Archers; it's based on the kidnapping of General Heinrich Kreipe by the SOE in 1944, meaning it stars Dirk Bogarde as Patrick Leigh Fermor and I can assure you I find this just as confusing as you do. I've been curious about it for years and it has always been impressively obscure.1 No longer! Luckily, despite the change in title, it looks from the runtime as though it's the original British cut rather than the shortened American version. Otherwise I don't get to look for a blink-and-miss-it cameo from pre-Hammer, real-life SOE agent Christopher Lee. The first two films, meanwhile, give you a double feature of Valerie Hobson and Conrad Veidt, if you like that sort of thing, which I think everyone should.
I find it manifestly unreasonable that there are something like half a dozen arthouse theaters in this city and none of them has ever run a Powell and Pressburger retrospective, at least not since 2007 when I started caring. I think it is actually one of my life's goals to see A Canterbury Tale (1944) on a big screen. It's some of the most beautiful black-and-white photography I know. Also, time.
1. Speaking of obscure, how in God's name did I avoid noticing until now that Ralph Richardson starred as himself in a propaganda short by the Archers? I don't care if it's flag-waving, I'm really curious. He was a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm from 1939 to 1944. I'm just not sure his crash record was the sort of thing that would encourage recruitment. [edit] The protagonist is fictional, that's how. I admit I would have been entertained by the alternative.
I find it manifestly unreasonable that there are something like half a dozen arthouse theaters in this city and none of them has ever run a Powell and Pressburger retrospective, at least not since 2007 when I started caring. I think it is actually one of my life's goals to see A Canterbury Tale (1944) on a big screen. It's some of the most beautiful black-and-white photography I know. Also, time.
1. Speaking of obscure, how in God's name did I avoid noticing until now that Ralph Richardson starred as himself in a propaganda short by the Archers? I don't care if it's flag-waving, I'm really curious. He was a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm from 1939 to 1944. I'm just not sure his crash record was the sort of thing that would encourage recruitment. [edit] The protagonist is fictional, that's how. I admit I would have been entertained by the alternative.
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