Classic Matinee Triple Bill - 3-DVD Set ( Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death) / The Purple Plain / The One That Got Away )

Classic Matinee Triple Bill - 3-DVD Set (DVD) (*)

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Original Title: Stairway to Heaven (A Matter of Life and Death) / The Purple Plain / The One That Got Away
Screened, competed or awarded at:
BAFTA Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Australia ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
315 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
3-DVD Set
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1946 - 1957 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Robert Parrish
Roy Ward Baker

Written By:
Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
H.E. Bates
Eric Ambler
Howard Clewes
Kendal Burt

Actors:
David Niven ..... Peter Carter
Kim Hunter ..... June
Robert Coote ..... Bob
Kathleen Byron ..... An Angel
Richard Attenborough ..... An English Pilot
Bonar Colleano ..... An American Pilot (also as Bonor Colleano)
Joan Maude ..... Chief Recorder
Marius Goring ..... Conductor 71
Roger Livesey ..... Doctor Reeves
Robert Atkins ..... The Vicar
Bob Roberts ..... Dr. Gaertler
Edwin Max ..... Dr. Mc.Ewen
Betty Potter ..... Mrs. Tucker
Abraham Sofaer ..... The Judge
Raymond Massey ..... Abraham Farlan
Gregory Peck ..... Squadron Leader Bill Forrester
Win Min Than ..... Anna
Brenda De Banzie ..... Miss McNab
Bernard Lee ..... Dr. Harris
Maurice Denham ..... Blore
Lyndon Brook ..... Carrington
Anthony Bushell ..... Col Aldridge
Josephine Griffin ..... Mrs. Bill Forrester
Ram Gopal ..... Mr. Phang
Hardy Krüger ..... Franz Von Werra
Colin Gordon ..... Army Interrogator
Michael Goodliffe ..... R.A.F. Interrogator
Terence Alexander ..... R.A.F. Intelligence Officer
Jack Gwillim ..... Commandant, Grizedale
Andrew Faulds ..... Lieutenant, Grizedale
Julian Somers ..... Booking Clerk
Alec McCowen ..... Duty Officer, Hucknall
Harry Lockart ..... German Prisoner
Robert Crewdson ..... German Prisoner
George Mikell ..... German Prisoner
George Roubicek ..... German Prisoner
John Van Eyssen ..... German Prisoner
Frederick Jaeger ..... German Prisoner
Richard Marner ..... German Prisoner

Synopsis:

Stairway to Heaven / A Matter Of Life and Death (1946)
Squadron Leader Peter Carter is alone in a blazing plane. As he prepares himself for death he confides his innermost secrets to a radio operator. He survives and later meets the woman he spoke to and they fall in love. During a brain operation, he meets characters from another world, and his spirit is put on trial. The verdict will decide whether he will live or die.

The Purple Plain (1954)
Squadron Commander Forrester is on a transport flight when his plane crashes. He and his passenger, Blore, attempt to trek through the jungle to safety with their injured navigator. Forrester is stern and hard after the loss of his wife earlier in the war, but his heart is softened by the kindness of a beautiful Burmese girl.

The One That Got Away (1957)
This is the dramatic true story of Franz Von Werra, the only German prisoner-of-war in Britain to escape and return to his homeland. During the Battle of Britain, his plane is hit and it plunges down onto British soil. Even though the pilot is captured, he is extremely confident and focused on his plan: to escape and return home against all the odds.

Stairway to Heaven (1946)
Returning to England from a bombing run in May 1945, flyer 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 USAAF, 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 mixup in heaven. They couldn't find him in all that fog. By the time his 'Conductor' catches up with him 20 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.

The Purple Plain (1954)
After losing his bride in a Luftwaffe air raid, bomber pilot Forrester becomes a solitary killing machine, who doesn't care whether he dies. The reckless Canadian pilot is both admired and feared by the rest of his squadron in World War II Burma. The squadron physician is assigned to determine the embittered Bill Forrester's fitness for duty. To break through the nightmare-haunted man's wall of silence, the physician drives Forrester to visit an outpost of English-speaking refugees, which includes an alluring young Burmese woman.

The One That Got Away (1957)
Shot down over England, Cocky Oberleutenant Franz von Werra is interrogated by army intelligence. His dossier shows the boastful von Werra is a media hero in Germany for a daring dogfight over Britain in which he claims to have shot down several English planes and destroyed more on the ground. The British know the action never took place and the story is false, a lie by the egotistical flyer who craved the celebrity and acclaim the fabricated action gave him. Confronted with the truth, von Werra displays only bravado, claiming that he will escape within six months. He spends the rest of his captivity trying to do just that.

Stairway to Heaven (1946)
Returning from a bombing mission over Europe during World War II, Capt. Peter Carter is the only survivor aboard his heavily damaged Lancaster. He's ordered his crew to bail out but knows he's not going to make it as he cannot land the plane and his parachute isn't functional. He makes contact with an Allied radio operator, June and she is amazed at his resilience in the face of death. Miraculously, he wakes up on the beach with a headache and not much else. He meets June and they immediately fall in love. There has been a mistake however. He was supposed to die but was missed by the Heavenly messenger who was to collect him due to a particularly thick English fog. When the messenger calls on him to accompany him to the great beyond, he demands the opportunity to defend himself and argue that as a result of the mistake, he has now fallen in love and should be allowed to live out his life and remain on Earth.

The Purple Plain (1954)
Story of a pilot serving in Burma who has no wish to live. How he regains will enough to save both his own life and his navigator's after a jungle crash.

The One That Got Away (1957)
This is the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war to escape from imprisonment in Britain during the Second World War.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 02 October, 2012.