STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN David Niven, Kim Hunter (1946, Columbia Tri-Star, PG, $19.95) This new-to-video postwar gem from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes) is like a British riff on Here Comes Mr. Jordan. An English airman (Niven) falls for a Wac (Hunter), then misses his date with an angel by jumping from a burning plane. He must defend his right to keep living before a heavenly court that sees the romance as a transatlantic misalliance. Mingling a crisp monochrome cosmos with a gorgeously Technicolor earth, Stairway (released in Britain as A Matter of Life and Death) looks great, and its erudite whimsy transfers beautifully. A

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