Philip's older age, sophistication, low self-regard and self-deprecation, self-consciousness about his club-foot, and his obsessive introspection made his relationship with Mildred impossible and doomed from the start." BackgroundThe Red Shoes(1948, UK) is a beautiful and sensitive post-war film - the 10th collaboration from the masterful and respected British directing/producing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (who also scripted the original screenplay), who called themselves The Archers.The two lovers never consummate their romantic involvement by sexual relations (at least on-screen) in the bedroom.I can make them all go away." After a reckless car-chase almost ending in disaster, he saved her from dropping off a steep cliff while hanging from her car, and she agreed to talk to him about his proposal, without a "decent interval" before love-making.Politely, he picks up her string-tied parcels, his second-in-command sidekick Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine) offers to carry them, and then Pike takes her arm o assist her across the street.