Editing Michael Powell (section)

===Meeting Emeric Pressburger===
[[File:P+P BluePlaque.jpg|thumb|upright|[[English Heritage]] [[blue plaque]] at [[Dorset House, Marylebone|Dorset House]] in [[Marylebone]], central London]]
The original script of ''The Spy in Black'' followed the book quite closely, but was too verbose and did not have a good role for either Veidt or Hobson. Korda called a meeting where he introduced a diminutive man, saying, "Well now, I have asked Emeric to read the script, and he has things to say to us."<ref name="ALIM" />

Powell then went on to record (in ''A Life in Movies'') how:
<blockquote>Emeric produced a very small piece of rolled-up paper, and addressed the meeting. I listened spellbound. Since talkies took over the movies, I had worked with some good writers, but I had never met anything like this. In the silent days, the top [American] screenwriters were technicians rather than dramatists ... the European cinema remained highly literate and each country, conscious of its separate culture and literature, strove to outdo the other. All this was changed by the talkies. America, with its enormous wealth and enthusiasm and its technical resources, waved the big stick. ... The European film no longer existed. ... Only the great German film business was prepared to fight the American monopoly, and Dr. Goebbels soon put a stop to that in 1933. But the day that Emeric walked out of his flat, leaving the key in the door to save the storm-troopers the trouble of breaking it down, was the worst day's work that the clever doctor ever did for his country's reputation, as he was soon to find out. As I said, I listened spellbound to this small Hungarian wizard, as Emeric unfolded his notes, until they were at least six inches long. He had stood Storer Clouston's plot on its head and completely restructured the film.<ref name="ALIM" /></blockquote>

They both soon recognised that although they were total opposites in background and personality, they had a common attitude to film-making and that they could work very well together. After making two more films together, ''[[Contraband (1940 film)|Contraband]]'' (1940) and ''[[49th Parallel (film)|49th Parallel]]'' (1941), with separate credits, the pair decided to form a partnership and to sign their films jointly as "Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger."<ref name="ALIM" />