Michael Powell was introduced to film relatively late in life, and feeling dissatisfied with what British films had to offer, he took his primary influences from American and German films. Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian emigre who was educated in the German film industry before fleeing from the threat of the Nazi party. These two men of diverse backgrounds would successfully collaborate on 16 films over a period of fifteen years, most often with their identities united as the Archers.

The Archers' collaboration began during World War II, where they attempted to identify the causes for which thousands were dying. Following the war, their focus was on art and why it was worth dying for. The results were such classics as Black Narcissus, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, and The Tales of Hoffman.

The Archers' popularity waned in the mid fifties when the two men seemed to lack focus. Never popular with British critics, they ended their career with a pair of mediocre films that seemed to be shadows of their previous successes.