Year: 2007

I first featured the late Deborah Kerr a year ago, in a scene from Michael Powell’s Black Narcissus. Prior to that, at age 21, Kerr appeared in Powell’s The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp. This is a movie you may not have even heard of, let alone ever seen.

Following a Michael Powell movie demands a lot of concentration; not because the stories aren’t told well, but because they’re so intelligently made, deliberately paced, and densely packed. I say this because I’m providing 15 minutes of scenes from Colonel Blimp, and I daresay you may consider them to be tough going, perhaps even boring. But if for no other reason than seeing a young and luminous Deborah Kerr, I think this is worth watching.

Kerr plays three different women of the same age, appearing at various points in time over a period of decades, while “Colonel Blimp” ages. I added transitions at the beginning and end of a scene, at 4:50 and 11:30, that may look like they’re in the original film, but they’re not. I let this scene play out because I want you to see Anton Walbrook’s impassioned speech against Nazism. Keep in mind this movie was made in England during World War 2, long before the outcome was certain, and Walbrook himself had escaped persecution in Nazi Germany for being homosexual.
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Here’s some more of From Here To Eternity — the first scene where Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster’s characters meet, and their rendezvous before the beach scene.

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This clip includes the famous scene with George (Superman) Reeves, that was highlighted in the movie Hollywoodland. At 6 feet, 1 inch, Burt Lancaster wasn’t a small man, so as you can see, Reeves was well built himself.

Deborah Kerr is gone. Kerr, one of the great beauties of all time in my opinion, was perhaps the most subtle and refined actress ever to gain wide acceptance in America.

Today, Kerr seems to be remembered more for From Here to Eternity than for The King And I; which is, I think, as it should be. Here are nine minutes from Eternity that I’ve spliced together. In subject matter, dialog, and presentation, this is truly outstanding adult material, in the proper sense of the term. It just doesn’t get any better than this, folks.
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I’m posting this solely for the purpose of posting something today. I’m busy reading the Schulz biography among other things and, yes, I know Colbert has his faux presidential bid, having first watched his pre-announcement on Wednesday’s Daily Show.