Made in England, on TCM

Two decades before Merchant and Ivory started collaborating, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were the first great hyphenated filmmaking duo. They wrote, directed, and produced some of the best British films of all time—and then they largely disappeared. However, Martin Scorsese and several of his contemporaries (notably including Francis Ford Coppola) re-popularized their films with cineastes. Of course, Scorsese knows everything about every classic movie ever produced, but he also knew Powell personally. Technically, David Hinton is the director, but Scorsese’s voice dominates as the on-camera presenter-host of Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, which airs again on TCM this Saturday.

Powell started in the film business working on silent productions helmed by Rex Ingram, whose epic style Scorsese identifies as a formative influence on the director. He honed his skills churning out B-movies, but finally gained prominence when he started collaborating with Pressburger, an exiled German screenwriter.

With 49^th Parallel, they immediately demonstrated their affinity for wartime “propaganda” films. Yet, they spent much of their accumulated good will on the controversially satiric The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp soon thereafter. The output from their partnership followed a yo-yo pattern of ups and downs. However, many of the “downs,” such as The Red Shoes, are now considered classics, while some of the “ups,” like The Battle of the River Plate (a.k.a. Pursuit of the Graf Spee), which were hits upon their initial release, have been overshadowed by their grand spectacles.

Tellingly, Hinton quotes a Puritanical review of from The Daily Worker, dismissing Powell’s late-career solo masterpiece Peeping Tom, huffing: “I was shocked to the core to find a director of his standing befouling the screen with such perverted nonsense.” Evidently, the Communist newspaper’s cinematic judgement holds up just as well as its ill-informed economic analysis.

Frankly, Scorsese fans will learn a great deal about his own work, as well as that of Powell and Pressburger, while watching Made in England. You might not immediately see the influence of Colonel Blimp on Raging Bull, but Scorsese explains how it shaped his approach to certain scenes. He also had a personal connection to Powell, who became a friend and mentor, especially after he married Scorsese’s career-long editor, Thelma Schoonmaker.

Fittingly, Powell & Pressburger’s brilliant use of color is reflected through the documentary. The behind-the-scenes look at Black Narcissus and its Ralph McQuarrie-esque matte paintings are especially revealing. Hinton and Scorsese undeniably leave viewers motivated to screen Powell and Pressburger’s classics, either for the first time or for yet another repeat viewing, which means they succeeded in their goal. Highly recommended as one of the better classic cinema documentaries of the year (considerably superior to the obvious comparison: Soucy’s Merchant Ivory), Made in England airs Saturday night (11/30) on TCM.