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All Scenes With "Conductor 71" In "A Matter Of Life And Death"
From JM: I first watched "A Matter Of Life And Death" as a child in the suburbs of New York City on a black-and-white TV set, so was unable to appreciate the color sequences at the time. I was particularly enamored of Goring's character, and in a lifetime of studying American film, I've rarely come across a similar character so well-drawn and vivid who was singular to a single movie - a dead French angel with an attitude, but also charming, every line a poem, every inflection perfectly executed. Like Ratso Rizzo in "Midnight Cowboy," this is a character you can only see in "A Matter Of Life And Death" and nowhere else, not in any film before or after, even after 74 years. Whenever Goring isn't on the screen in "A Matter Of Life And Death," you want him to come back. They say Edward G. Robinson had the same effect on audiences despite not being a "leading man" type. Or Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster. Or the Paramount Marx Brothers. It's a credit to the mastery of Goring but also to the scriptwriters, director and set designer. "A Matter Of Life And Death" is rightly on many film critics' list of "Top 100 Films Of All Time." I am also fascinated with the movie because my father was a bombardier in the 8th Air Corps, flying out of England. He went up 36 times, but fortunately did not share the same fate as Peter and his crew. Some other fun observations: Kim Hunter plays June, the American servicewoman with whom Peter falls in love. Hunter also played Zira in "Planet Of The Apes" and all the increasingly bad sequels. But I half expect her to scream "Cornelius!" when Peter signs off to jump out of his burning plane. Raymond Massey has a small but essential part in the movie as prosecutor, and it's one of his best, playing the role with the gravity and conviction he was known for, but also showing his heart with the line: "He really does love her." I find it strange and odd that the word "German" or "Nazi" never appears in the movie, start to finish. It does, after all, take place at the climax of WW2. Peter, when Conductor 71 first appears in the forest and messes with him by making his flask of liquor disappear, bangs the back of his head when he can't find the flask. I've never banged the back of my head when I've lost something! He is also in the woods with June, kissing her, hanging out, probably intending to eventually have sex with her there. But why is he in the woods? Shouldn't he go back to his unit? Wouldn't he want to immediately alert his mother and sisters that he isn't dead? Enjoy! *** From Wiki: Marius Goring (23 May 1912 – 30 September 1998) was an English stage and screen actor, best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, but particularly as Conductor 17 in A Matter of Life and Death. He also played Julian Craster in The Red Shoes,and also for the title role in the long-running TV drama series, The Expert. He regularly performed French and German roles, and was frequently cast in the latter because of his name, coupled with his red-gold hair and blue eyes. However, he explained that he was not of German descent in a 1965 interview, stating that "Goring is a completely English name."
