A Matter Of Life And Death

• Cat.no: 37115 00033
• Cert: U
• Running time: 100 minutes
• Year: 1946
• Pressing: 1998
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 13 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Presented in Fullscreen
• 16:9-Enhanced: No
• Macrovision: No
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : Scene index, Cast/Crew Biographies, 10-minute Jack Cardiff interview

Director:

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Producer:

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Screenplay:

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Cast:

Peter Carter: David Niven (Casino Royale, Mutiny On The Bounty, Separate Tables)
June: Kim Hunter (The Kindred, Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, A Price Above Rubies, The Seventh Victim, Two Evil Eyes)
Dr. Reeves: Roger Livesey (The Drum, The League Of Gentlemen, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp)
Abraham Farlan: Raymond Massey (East Of Eden, How The West Was Won, Prisoner Of Zenda, Things To Come, TV: “Dr. Kildare”)
Conductor 71: Marius Goring (The Barefoot Contessa, Edward And Mrs Simpson, I Was Monty’s Double)

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A Matter Of Life And Death: It’s night over Europe, the night of 2nd May 1945. A crippled Lancaster Bomber struggles home across the English Channel, all crew dead save for the young pilot desperately scanning the radio for signs of life. His prayers are answered. June, a young radio operator, picks up his signal and in the final moments of the young flyer’s life, a special bond is formed.

The next morning, washed up on an English beach, Squadron Leader Peter Carter is alive. He finds June and the two fall in love. Somehow he survived. It’s a miracle…or is it? Peter Carter should have died that night, but a heavenly escort missed him in the fog above the channel and now he must face the celestial court of appeal for his right to live.

The picture quality is mostly perfect with the skin tones brought out in vibrant colour, plus black and white in the ‘heaven’ scenes. However, the picture isn’t the best to begin with and it seems to take nearly five minutes for things to settle down, partly in terms of artifacts and partly due to the print used, the beginning of which certainly isn’t perfect. Occasionally during the film some artifacts appear, most notably in scenes briefly involving smoke, but these are few and far between.

The film is presented in fullscreen as filmed and has a good average bitrate of 4.99Mb/s and is not enhanced for 16:9 televisions – this is not possible since it’s not in widescreen at all.

The mono sound (presented in Dolby Digital 1.0) is functional, but you didn’t expect an explosion-fest in this film did you?

On inserting the disc, a copyright logo is shown before the film begins. Then you can go back to the menu and select specific scenes or the biographies.

Overall, this is a very entertaining film with an interesting premise. It does have its strange moments when, unsurprisingly, at the point where Peter’s heavenly escorts arrive to take him back, June steps in ready to take his place, which negates the reason for him not dying in the first place, but will she be taken back for a life of eternity sitting on clouds, or wlil Peter be carted back to where he was destined to go originally ?

Of the principal cast members, only Kim Hunter (June) is still alive and continues to make her mark in modern cinema including the Clint Eastwood-directed, “Midnight in the Garden Of Good And Evil”.

I’m glad to see Carlton bringing a range of old films and TV drama to a new format so soon and in Dolby Digital, but like all their releases to date, why are there no subtitles and barely any chapters?

FILM                    : **** PICTURE QUALITY         : **** SOUND QUALITY           : ** EXTRAS                  : *** ——————————- OVERALL                 : *** Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.