MovieChat Forums > The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1944) Discussion > Candy's full name?

Candy's full name?

posted 14 years ago by ant_sushi
5 replies | jump to latest

I've just seen it again and now I'm confused about Clive Candy's complete name... I thought at the beginning he had a double-barreled surname. Maybe that was at the *very* beginning, ie the war starts at midnight prelude, but I thought he had a hyphenated name when he went to Germany.

Later he marries the textile mill owner's daughter and adds her name to his? I understand that is the custom sometimes when there isn't a male heir but would it really have occurred in this instance? The family he married into might have been wealthy but they were not uh, of the landed class.

[–] Steve Crook 14 years ago

He was just Clive Candy when he went to Berlin. But that's part of the flashback (most of the film is a flashback) and before he met Barbara. He's Clive Wynne-Candy at the start and at the end of the film

When Clive & Barbara get back after their honeymoon, the letter from the Prisoner of War Committee giving news about Theo is addressed to General Candy
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u304/SteveCrook/Blimp.jpg

The invitations in the album are also addressed to General (or Brigadier) Candy.
But after Barbara dies he is known as Wynne-Candy - in memory of Barbara

Steve

[–] ant_sushi 14 years ago

Thanks for the explanation.

I think if the film were being made today, that sort of thing (name change as a tribute) would be somehow be emphasized. Here it's pretty subtle. Interesting.

[–] Steve Crook 14 years ago

Powell & Pressburger never bothered to explain every little detail in their films. They assume a reasonably intelligent audience and expect people to work it out for themselves (or ask someone)

Note how quite a few of their films have quite long passages that aren't in English. But they never subtitled any of it

Steve

[–] whereismikeyfl 10 years ago

This is not a little detail. I do not think I have ever heard of a man taking his wife's name until maybe the 1990s or 1980s at the earliest.

This is such an unusual action that to gloss over it without is extremely odd--and frankly confusing. P&P can be elliptical at times, but they are rarely confusing.

Unless this was something that actually did happen in Britain? Did men in the 1920s and 30s add their wife's name to their own.

[–] Steve Crook 10 years ago

Does her ever use the hyphenated name until after Barbara's death?

Steve