A Matter of Life and Death (film) A Matter of Life and Death (film) A Matter of Life and Death is a 1946 British fantasy-romance film written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and set in England during the Second World War. The film stars David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter and Marius Goring. The film was originally released in the United States under the title Stairway to Heaven, which derived from the film's most prominent special effect: a broad escalator linking Earth to the afterlife. The decision to film the scenes of the Other World in black and white added to
A Matter of Life and Death (album) Legacy" being considered. According to Gers, "sometimes a title will just leap out at you as the obvious choice, but it didn't this time for some reason", so the band decided on "A Matter of Life and Death", which, according to McBrain, was amongst "two or three ideas which we were kicking around". Neither Gers or McBrain can remember who came up with the title, which they state was thought up by either Harris, Rod Smallwood (the band's manager) or "Drew" (an engineer at Sarm West Studios). The album cover was created by Tim Bradstreet, an American artist, best known