While the script itself has been sort of done in "Heaven Can Wait" and "Here Comes Mr. Jordan", this one is done better than either of those films. David Niven became a star with this film. It is easy to see why. This is a very good film.The film starts with Niven alone on a Lancaster Bomber on it's way down. With the exception of one dead person, everyone else has bailed out. Niven has not because he does not have a parachute. For some reason he gets a radio call from a woman who he tells his situation too and then he bails out rather than burning with the plane.Here this plot becomes more complicated as he meets the girl he fell in love with on the radio as he is still alive after jumping out. It seems he was supposed to die but because of the fog, he did not.This film uses black and white and technicolor to major advantages. It has some special effects that are amazing considering when the film was made. The supporting cast is great. It started filming on V-Jay day, and because of that the war sequences seem more real than many films.The script while not perfect, does a good job of balancing the story between Heaven and Earth. It doe it better than the other films I mentioned and gets rid of the hokey desire of the dead person to want to step into another persons shoes. It is stronger because it goes to the mode of airman Niven getting a trial to decide if he should come to heaven now (after their foggy mistake to end his live missed) or if he should stay on earth with his new found love.It works better, and that is simply why this is a great film.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger wrote and directed "A Matter of Life and Death," or "Stairway to Heaven," a fantasy in 1946 and starring David Niven, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring, Robert Coote, Richard Attenborough, Raymond Massey, and Roger Livesey.During and after the war, there were many films about angels, heaven, and spirits after death: "It's a Wonderful Life," "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," "The Bishop's Wife," "Heaven Can Wait" -- the loss of loved ones was part of the collective unconscious. "A Matter of Life and Death" concerns a flyer, Peter Carter (Niven) who is about to die -- his plane and parachute are damaged. He is able to contact someone on the radio, June (Hunter), an American working for the USAAF. She wants to help him, but there's nothing she can do. He has accepted his fate and just wants to hear her comforting voice. If it's possible to fall in love with such a brief contact, they do.Carter jumps out of the plane rather than burn up. He wakes up - still alive. Because of the fog, the "Conductor" from the beyond couldn't find him when it was his time to go. The Conductor does find him 20 hours later. By then, Peter and June have met and know that they are in love. He doesn't want to die, he wants to stay on earth.Carter decides that what happened was through no fault of his own, and he should have a second chance. He is told that he can appeal his case.Was this a dream as a result of brain damage suffered by Carter, for which he later has surgery? Or did he really go to trial in heaven? It's left ambiguous, though some have interpreted it one way or the other.Whether it's a dream or not, it's a beautiful film by the two masters, and beautifully acted. David Niven, always charming and relaxed, is a sympathetic character, as is Hunter, who gives a lovely performance. This film perhaps gave Marius Goring his best role, as the flamboyant Frenchman, the Conductor, though he mainly played character roles effectively. One of the striking things about the film, besides the 5000 extras(!) are all of the young men in uniform pouring into heaven. We only see the reception area, so we don't know what happens after that. It is a sobering sight, and one that didn't surprise any audiences in light of World War II.I love most of Powell-Pressburger films, The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus being my favorites, but this one is up there, too.

One always wonders what the worst picture was that they ever saw. I must say that this shall rank at practically the very top.The concept is absolutely asinine when a pilot survives a jump from a burning plane and due to the English fog, he is able to land safely and coincidentally meet the girl who had taken his distress signal and immediate love between the two resulting.He begins to have hallucinations and a neurologist recommends immediate surgery. The forces above realizing that he was "supposed" to die send a French messenger to persuade him to give in. The messenger is a dandy or complete fop no matter what you can say. He almost brings a comic relief to this misery.Then, there is the trial above where Raymond Massey is the prosecution attorney, a hater of the British for having died at Lexington in 1775. Famous people from the past don't get to be Niven's defense and he chooses his faithful doctor, who conveniently dies in a motorcycle accident.This is absolute pure hog wash.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are the team behind "The Red Shoes", "Black Narcissus". "The Tales of Hoffman", "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp", and this masterwork. They're famous filmmakers for many reasons, one of those reasons including how they used Technicolor in a lot of their films. In this film, both Technicolor and black and white are used. Any scene shot in Technicolor takes place in the real world, any black and white scene takes place in the afterlife.The film is very clever in it's portrayal of the afterlife, and has a lot of fun with the idea. It is creative and very fascinating to watch, and these sequences are the best parts of the whole movie!The rest of the film is quite wonderful, as well. It is clever, romantic, dramatic, and full of twists and turns in an already creative and incredible storyline.Not only is the execution and intelligence of this film amazing, but, on a technical level it is, without a doubt, one of the most technically amazing films of all time. The Powell Pressburger team experiment with using dutch angles, freeze frames, and plenty of other wonderful special effects, including a shot from behind a human eye as it closes.The film is great on every level. It is clever and creative, romantic and heartwarming, beautiful and visually stunning, and just, overall, a really great film!