BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

blanche-2 Leslie Howard's last film was one that he starred in, produced, and directed, in England called The First of the Few; in the U.S. called Spitfire. The British title relates to Winston Churchill's words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."It is the story of R.J. Mitchell, who designed the Spitfire, a plane which helped win the Battle of Britain.The Spitfire had several advantages. It was difficult to shoot down since the planes flew higher and faster than what the Germans had. Also, it was easy for the Spitfire to refuel since they were on home ground, whereas the Germans had to return to Germany to refuel. In part, it was designed by Mitchell due to his concern that the British military could not stand up to the German military. Mitchell's brilliance was in combining elements that had been invented earlier to make one fabulous plane. He had some false starts, but he ultimately succeeded. In 1931, his design, S.6B, won the Scheider Trophy Competition and started things off. The plane later broke the world speed record.We don't learn too much about Mitchell himself. He was dedicated to his work to the point of exhaustion, so it's doubtful he had a hot social life. Unlike Howard's upper class, even-tempered Mitchell, the real Mitchell was athletic, lower class, and easily angered. Howard made his acting choices deliberately as Mitchell's family spent a lot of time on the set.Howard costars with David Niven as his pilot, who provided some lighter moments. And if you like that sort of thing, there is a lot of aerial footage.Mitchell died of rectal cancer in 1937 at the age of 42, so he didn't see all of his plane's success. Howard died in 1943 on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines/BOAC Flight 777, which was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe as the plane flew from Lisbon to the UK. He was 50.This is a strong propaganda film, well acted and well directed. It was filmed at an active fighter station, Ibsley, and the extras were real Battle of Britain fliers, and the film also showed the real people working on the plane.Anyone interested in Mitchell, his son wrote two books: R.J. Mitchell: World Famous Aircraft Designer, and R.J.Mitchell: Schooldays to Spitfire.As an aside, because this was a propaganda film, Niven was released from his MGM contract in exchange for distribution rights. When Samuel Goldwyn saw the film, he realized Niven was in a supporting role and re-edited the movie, cutting 40 minutes.This is a similar story to what happened to Tyrone Power when MGM borrowed him for Marie Antoinette. When Zanuck saw that Power played a supporting role, he never lent him out again, and Power was offered some huge films as in 1939 he moved into the top 10 box office stars. I think Niven was luckier, though he and Goldwyn fought for years.

mklmjdrake One of the good ones! Very simple biopic that inspires and entertains. Great cast with David Niven and Leslie Howard (who also produced and directed). It will probably never end up on a 100-best list of films of all time. But it does not fail to deliver heart, spirit and all around good feelings. It is a reminder of nationalism which seems to have disappeared in this country. It was made in the days when it was not offensive to be proud of your country and the men and women who helped make it great. It is a reminder of the evil men in our world history and those who fought against them.The studio sets are almost comical... you can hear the echo in the sound recording! The special effects are not special at all. The dialogue is even corny in some scenes. But none of that matters because the story is more important. It's a story of a man and his love of country and his disdain for tyranny. His perseverance is inspirational. His example is uncommon. And the support of his wife is just as stirring. RJ Mitchell is the spit and fire!

Maddyclassicfilms Directed by Leslie Howard(who also played Mitchell)The First Of The Few tells his story from an idea he had one day watching the birds to the planes flying in the war.Made in 1942 a year after the Spifires helped win The Battle of Britain this is an uplifting film,made I imagine for the sole purpose of building troop morale. R.J Mitchell(Leslie Howard)is a plane designer who's designs were deemed too revolutionary for the time.Along with his old friend Geoffrey Crisp(David Niven)who was a pilot in the First World War he sets out to build the plane.Geoffrey backs him up 100 percent and is the test pilot for Mitchell's aircraft.However tragedy is just around the corner when (after working flat out without sleeping or eating)Mitchell feels unwell and consults a Dr who tells him if he does not stop he will die in just a year.Will Mitchell ignore the advice or heed it?well if you've read about him you will know,if you don't know the story then watch this wonderful film.David and Leslie have a great chemistry and play their parts well,in this brilliant film about an important part of British history.

Scaramouche2004 One of my biggest loves in this world is the Spitfire fighter aeroplane. A wonder of aviation and an engineering masterpiece, its speed and versatility, (not to mention the brave boys who flew them) were the sole reason why Britain remained in the fight and fought of the foul invasion force throughout the dark days of 1940.Although now old and obsolete, no other aeroplane has as much right or privilege to fly over our green and pleasant land.Here the Spitfire is given top billing in a biopic of it's creator R.J. Mitchell.The great Leslie Howard plays the genius designer, in what was to be his last 'appearance' before the camera. Mitchell was an aircraft designer of noted repute having invented several of the Supermarine seaplanes which secured the Schneider Trophy for Britain throughout the 1920's and 1930's.He was one of the few people in Britain to have heard the snarls and threats of Nazi Germany and was an open campaigner for rearmament, a policy not at all popular with the British Government of the time. Yet despite opposition he fought against not only the bureaucrats but a serious and life-threatening illness to design and build, what has been regarded since as the greatest fighter aircraft of all time, in preparation for a war he knew was coming and a crisis the rest of Britain chose to ignore.David Niven plays Geoffrey Crisp, Mitchells friend and test pilot, who's affable and likable performance is hampered slightly from the fact that his character is completely fictional. Geoffrey Crisp, whoever he was, was never a Schneider trophy winner for Britain.The true facts for anyone interested are that H.C.Biard won the title for us in 1922, followed by S.N.Webster, H.R.D.Waghorn and J.N.Boothman in 1927, 1929 and 1931 respectively, the last three flying Mitchell's Spitfire forerunners the Supermarine S5, S6 and S6B.Also Geoffrey Crisp was not the test pilot of the very first Spitfire. That high honour goes to Joseph 'Mutt' Summers, who took off from Eastliegh airport on 5th March 1936. Summers became the chief test pilot for Vickers and was also the man who dropped the very first life size prototype of the bouncing bomb over Chesil Beach, Weymouth in 1943.This is a great movie, and one which makes all Englishmen grateful and proud, but with all historic based movie stories, there is always something that has been changed, omitted or hushed up, especially in a film made during the war at the height of it's 'keep mum' propaganda battle.Enjoy it like I did, but if there are any R.A.F or aviation buffs out there and would like to know more about the Spitfire and it's history, the glory of the air racing days of the 20's and 30's or just more factual information about the great man himself, then I suggest you visit www.rjmitchell-spitfire.co.uk