Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Peter Bradshaw

‘Engrossing and mysterious’: the Powell-Pressburger masterpiece that might have been

A Pimpernel-type hero … (L to r) Anthony Quinn as Viñolas and Gregory Peck as Manuel Artiguez in Behold a Pale Horse, 1964.
A Pimpernel-type hero … (L to r) Anthony Quinn as Viñolas and Gregory Peck as Manuel Artiguez in Behold a Pale Horse, 1964. Photograph: Album/Alamy

The Lumière festival in Lyon in south-east France – the home of 19th-century movie inventor-pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière – always serves up mouthwatering classic films on the big screen. This is true once again this year, with a retrospective season of works by Fred Zinnemann, famously the director of High Noon and From Here to Eternity.

In one of its most interesting films, the festival also provided what could be the last remaining underexamined footnote in the history of the great Powell/Pressburger partnership that gave us Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.