A Matter of Life and Death

"Neither Heaven nor Earth could keep them apart!"

Mar 1 1947 PG 1h 44m
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

When a young RAF pilot miraculously survives bailing out of his aeroplane without a parachute, he falls in love with an American radio operator. But the officials in the other world realise their mistake and dispatch an angel to collect him.

Plot

Returning to England from a bombing run in May 1945, pilot Peter Carter's plane is damaged and his parachute ripped to shreds. He has his crew bail out safely, but figures it is curtains for himself. He gets on the radio, and talks to June, a young American woman working for the U.S. Army Air Forces, and they are quite moved by each other's voices. Then he jumps, preferring this to burning up with his plane. He wakes up in the surf. It was his time to die, but there was a mix-up in heaven. They couldn't find him in all that fog. By the time his "Conductor" catches up with him twenty hours later, Peter and June have met and fallen in love. This changes everything, and since it happened through no fault of his own, Peter figures that heaven owes him a second chance. Heaven agrees to a trial to decide his fate.

Written by

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Directed by

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Production Countries

United Kingdom

Production Companies

The Archers

Languages

Français, English

Awards

1 win & 2 nominations

Scores
# of Votes
26,443
Average Rating
8 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA