On November 1, 1946 the Royal family attended the very first Royal Film Performance. The film chosen was A Matter of Life and Death (released in the US under the title Stairway to Heaven), directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and starring David Niven (in his first film after being released from the Army), Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, and Raymond Massey. The event, which was held in aid of the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund, was held at the Empire Theatre in London.
Below is an article from Picturegoer (which I found here - there are also scans of the program) which described how the event came about and how the film was chosen:
First Royal Film performance ever to take place will be on Friday, November 1, at the Empire, Leicester square, in the presence of the King and Queen and the Princesses. It will be in aid of the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund.
This will be an historic event. For many years the stage and music hall have been honoured by Royal Command performances. Now the cinema receives equal recognition. As can be understood it was no easy task to choose a film for this occasion. A special viewing committee representing all sides of the industry saw all the films submitted by British and American producers. They were considered not only for their intrinsic merits but also in view of their suitability for this particular occasion.
Finally, the entrants were narrowed down to three.
These were Metro's The Green Years, which had very strong claims because of the nature of the story and its many British associations.
The Magic Bow, a story of Paganini with Stewart Granger and Phyllis Calvert in the leading parts, and Yehudi Menuhin responsible for the violin playing.
And A Matter of Life and Death, the Michael Powell - Emeric Pressburger picture starring David Niven, Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, and Kim Hunter.
After much careful consideration, the Viewing Committee decided on "A Matter of Life and Death". This is an honour to British films of which we can be justly proud. We don't mean to suggest that we can beat the Big Drum and crow about scoring over Hollywood. Far from it. We can be modestly happy that we are producing pictures which are worthy of a Royal Command performance.
Not everyone was pleased with the choice, however. The Daily Graphic said:
There will be widespread indignation at the choice for the first Royal Performance last night of a picture which might have been made specifically to appeal to Isolationist and anti-British sentiment in the United States. ...Ancient charges against British imperialism, which for the most part never had any real substance, are paraded here and no defense is offered. ... It is a pity that the film should cross the Atlantic carrying the cachet which comes from its Royal showing (The Other Side of the Moon: A Biography of David Niven. Sheridan Morley. Pages 136-137).
Kim Hunter recalled in a 2003 interview for the BBC:
Niv[en] had high hopes for the film, which took two months to shoot, was released in Britain amazingly quickly, in November, and was chosen to be the first Royal Command Film Performance, much to the fury of most of the British critics, who were almost unanimously condescending, though the Daily Telegraph said quite rightly that "David Niven has done nothing quite so good as his airman trembling on the brink of a nervous breakdown without lapsing into hysteria" (Niv: The Authorised Biography of David Niven. Graham Lord. Page 134).
Ray Milland, shown above meeting Princess Elizabeth with King George VI in the foreground, recalled the evening in his 1974 autobiography Wide-Eyed in Babylon:
It was to be the first big gala after five years of war, and London was girding for it. My invitation, when it came, was most impressive, all covered with seals and ribbons.
On the evening of the Command Performance itself, London put on the closest thing to a riot since the days of Titus Oates. In one interview I referred to it as the Battle of Leicester Square, and it was by that name that it was known for the rest of our stay (228).
The frenzied scene, as reported by this Australian Newspaper even included a quote by the King who remarked, "I thought at one time I was going to be a casualty myself. We arrived practically on two wheels."
In the video above, from the British Pathe, you can see King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother), as well as Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret. Movie Stars in attendance were Ray Milland with Kim Hunter, Reginald Gardiner, a brunette Dorothy Malone (talking to the princesses), Hunter and Pat O'Brien meeting the Queen Mother, Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh, John Mills, Malone walking with Stewart Granger, (I recognize the actress at 1:21 but don't know her name), Deborah Kerr meeting the Queen, Joan Bennett, Margaret Lockwood, and more.
An excerpt from a review by VARIETY:
Returning from a bomber expedition, Squadron-Leader David Niven is shot up. Last of the crew, minus a parachute, and believing the end is inevitable, before bailing out talks poetry and love over the radio to Kim Hunter, American WAC on nearby air station. Miraculously Niven falls into the sea, is washed ashore apparently unhurt, and by strange coincidence meets Kim. They fall desperately in love.
Meanwhile in the Other World there’s much bother. Owing to delinquency of Heavenly Conductor Marius Goring, Niven has failed to check in, and Goring is despatched to this world to persuade Niven to take his rightful place and balance the heavenly books.
The rest of the review isn't very flattering, complaining that "the striving to appear intellectual is much too apparent. Less desire to exhibit alleged learning, and more humanity would have resulted in a more popular offering."
There's a fantastic article about the film with some great behind-the-scenes photos on the Criterion website. I really liked the opening paragraph:
To love the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, among the most mischievous and inventive of all cinema poets, is to accept that there’s more to life than you’d previously imagined: more color, more humor, more ardor, more blissful confusion. In those terms, A Matter of Life and Death is the quintessential Powell-Pressburger movie. It’s a fantasy love story, imaginative to the point of being hallucinatory, one of the most out-there pictures of the last century.
Further in the article they share Powell's reaction to the Royal Event:
The occasion was so exciting that the film passed practically unnoticed.
I wonder what Princess Elizabeth, then 20 years old, thought of the religious aspects of the film. It's certainly a film to make you think. Click here to see a photo of the Royal Family leaving.
Lord, Graham. Niv: The Authorised Biography of David Niven. St. Martin's Press. 2003.
Milland, Ray. Wide-Eyed in Babylon; An Autobiography. William Morrow & Company, Inc. 1974.
Morley, Sheridan. The Other Side of the Moon: A Biography of David Niven. Magna Print Books. 1985.
How cool! I guess I never wondered if other countries had things like this in the past, like how the Presidents would ask for certain movies to get screened in the White House. Very interesting!
ReplyDeleteI was reading a bio on the Queen that mentioned it and it made me curious as to what other old movies we knew she had watched!
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