In this pioneering collaboration between Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, and their longtime cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, a dashing young World War II airman (David Niven) chats up—then bares his soul to—a beautiful radio operator (Kim Hunter) even as his plane dives to earth. The movie takes a turn from Technicolor wartime melodrama into a meditation on the worth of a life and the righteousness of a death, and those are weighed in a chilly, monochrome heaven and in an operating room where surgeons work to save the pilot’s damaged brain. Featuring indelible supporting performances by Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Robert Coote, Marius Goring, and Richard Attenborough.