SPITFIRE / THE FIRST OF THE FEW (1942)

You could say that only Winston Churchill’s defiant pep-talk speeches and RAF ‘Spitfire’ missions kept Britain from going under before Pearl Harbor reset WWII (eventually) in the Allies favor.  Those little Spitfire airplane fighters, and their pilots, are what Churchill was referring to when he said ’Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’  On screen as part of the war effort, it’s a no more than adequate bio-pic of Reginald J. Mitchell, who designed them and managed to have them built by the thousands in spite of his premature death in 1937.  A brilliant, quietly stubborn absent-minded pipe-smoker here, Mitchell had an unblemished record of success in aircraft design, perfect material for patriotic hagiography.  And Leslie Howard, in his last role before being lost when his plane was shot down, is the perfect man to play him.  (He also directed this and one more film.)  Alongside David Niven, test pilot/BFF who tells of his friend in flashback after a successful sortie against the latest wave of German bombers, the film suffers a bit from 1940s technical standards as well as inevitable wartime budget restrictions, but it hardly matters.  Coupled with our knowledge of Howard’s death, the film, which happily grows stronger as it goes along, especially in some uncomfortable scenes set in pre-war Germany, becomes almost unbearably touching as Mitchell keeps his spirit & fight up while his health fails.  No doubt, largely memorable from extra-cinematic circumstances, but memorable nonetheless.  Even more so whenever William Walton’s vivid score makes the scene.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  In some late closeups of a gaunt, sickly Mitchell, his health suffering from overwork and heart disease, Howard looks strikingly like Shaun Evans, tv’s Endeavor in the INSPECTOR MORSE prequel.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  For a change, the American title (SPITFIRE) is an improvement.

DOUBLE-BILL:  For a truly great Great-Britain-Wakes-Up-To-The-German-Threat pic, there’s Powell and Pressburger’s THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP/’43.