The classic British wartime satire The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp has been restored to its original 163-minute Technicolor glory thanks in part to funding from the HFPA.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1943 epic tale of a British Army officer stirred up a firestorm of controversy at the time, with the War Department refusing to cooperate, Prime Minister Winston Churchill opposing its release and the negative being severely cut for showing in the  US and subsequently developing mold.

But thanks to Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, to which the HFPA contributes a sizable donation every year, and other charitable organizations, the Academy Film Archive has digitally restored the movie, which has its West Coast premiere at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The movie stars Roger Livesey as a blustery old army veteran who is leading the Home Guard, with Deborah Kerr as the woman he loved and Anton Walbrook as a German officer who married her.

Scorsese’s three-time Oscar-winning editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, who was married to Michael Powell from 1984 to his death in 1990, was the supervising consultant along with Scorsese on the project.