Having a few days off work I decided to put the dvd of this classic film on to watch. Frankly it needs some restoration, the print the dvd comes from is rather deteriorated – but I digress.
A fine bit of propaganda it is, stirling performances from Niven and Howard – but how much of it is true and how much theatrical invention? Did Mitchell ever meet Messerschmitt as portrayed in the film?
I thought I might ask you chaps for observations…. tally ho!
By: Dave Homewood - 14th September 2010 at 14:03
I think it’s high time the real story was portrayed in a new version, without all the made up story, and with realistic characters. It makes a mockery of history as far as I’m concerned, and could be done better. I’m amazed with all the interest in the Spitfire even these days in Britain that it has not yet been done.
By: KG51 - 13th September 2010 at 23:44
Ah, Wiki. Should have thought of that.
Obviously Howard’s performance was so good the Luftwaffe had no choice but to shoot him down.
Achtung Jude Law!
By: topgun regect - 13th September 2010 at 18:47
From Wiki
Mitchell’s exact illness is not mentioned. He had rectal cancer and had a colostomy in 1933. However the film gave many people the impression that he contracted tuberculosis as a consequence of an immune system weakened by overwork.
Mitchell did not work himself to death on the Spitfire. He did, however, continue to work despite the pain of his illness, tweaking and perfecting the Spitfire design up until his death. Designer Joe Smith had taken over the primary design work by the time of the first flight of the Spitfire prototype.
Mitchell did not visit Germany and so never met Willy Messerschmitt. The film shows that the trip convinced him to design the Spitfire.
Geoffrey Crisp is a fictional character based on an amalgam of Vickers’s test pilots, Jeffrey Quill (also an RAF veteran) and “Mutt” Summers. Quill actually flies a Spitfire in the film, and had tested the Spitfire in battle, shooting down three aircraft while on temporary assignment to the RAF.
However, the film contains precious footage that would be otherwise be lost to posterity:
Film footage of the Supermarine S.4 in taking off from Southampton Water, and in flight, which is now available nowhere else. The film also includes footage of many real-life Battle of Britain fighter pilots in the opening and closing scenes. RAF fighter pilots such as Tony Bartley and Brian Kingcombe (with pipe) have cameo roles in the scenes at the dispersal, and are seen discussing their flights before take off and after landing with David Niven.
Martin
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September 13, 2010 at 4:42 pm