Actually, there are a great number of similarities between Gibson and Morgan, the Dam Busters and Memphis Belle – as I discovered when myself and Dr Harry Friedman wrote a certain 536-page book – for which we were vilified by many. Flypast, for example, when they reviewed it called it ‘tosh’ despite the thirty years of research that went into it!
The similarities are many and varied – everything from Morgan flying his 25th mission on the same day as Operation Chastise took place 17th May 1943 – to both stories featuring a black dog – a black labrador in the case of The Dam Busters called Nigger and a little black scotty dog called Stuka with the Memphis Belle.
Three years after our book came out, I am convinced that it all comes down to public perception and peoples ‘comfort bubbles’. Prove to them by use of primary source documentation that what they believe as ‘the truth’ is nothing more than a myth, and many feel hurt – not by what they once knew, but by what they now know. The ‘villians’ as they see it are not those who misled them first time around – no matter how innoccently – but those who years later then dispelled the myths!
Paul Brickhill’s book came out in 1951, and the film was released in 1955 – that’s over 60 years for each work to become icons and embed themselves in the public’s psyche. It’s the same with Memphis Belle. In 1943 the American media machine hit top gear promoting the aircraft and crew in what was really the first and enormous war-bond tour, then in 1944 William Wylers movie came out and was shown in cinemas everywhere. All four works were, using today’s terminology, ‘blockbusters’ and all four works remained ‘untouched’ for a great number of years. Eric Coate’s march became also became iconic – so much that it almost became THE soundtrack to the RAF.
The public – even knowledgable ones – became happy with what they thought they knew from the four sources. The Dam Busters, Guy Gibson Mickey Martin et all became enshrined in a sterile bubble of knowledge. Richard Todd became the voice of Guy Gibson, just as Michael Redgrave became the voice of Barnes Wallis. I have a recording of Barnes Wallis talking about 617 and having played it to a number of people, they refuse to believe who it is!
It’s the same with Bob Morgan and Memphis Belle – the 1944 movie was, by and large factually correct, but subject to wartime security. Wyler was originally ordered to make a ten minute ‘short’ – it was originally going to be called ‘Phyllis was a Fortress – but events evolved into the 43-minute film we know today. The few fragments of Morgan’s voice that did appear in the film became that southern drawl that was imitated by many in the immediate post war years to represent any wartime pilot.
The difference between The Dam Busters is that the Memphis Belle ‘remake’ happened in 1990, while the Dam Busters one has yet to happen. In fact, the 1990 Putnam/Wyler movie is not a remake, but a different fictionalised story. To their dubious credit, Putnam, Wyler and Caton-Jones never claimed it was historically accurate. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the only cross-overs between the two films is the aircraft name applied to a B-17 that was based in England. In fact for the longest of time it was not even going to be called that, it was going to be named Southern Belle!
I was involved in the build-up to the 1990 movie made by Enigma Productions, and there was great expectation that here was going to be produced a film that would show the bravery and terrible grandeur of what happened back in 1943. If anyone does not believe me, check back through the magazines of the day – No one ‘attacked’ what was being planned – everyone was looking forward to it. Perhaps expectation was too high, perhaps the media led everyone to believe that the movie was going to be something it was not.
Then the movie appeared – and got panned. Bob Morgan is said to have said after the premier – and I paraphase him – ‘…if everything in that movie had happened to us on a single mission, I would’ve died of heart failure!’
Here, I think is the heart of the problem with any Dan Buster re-make or re-work. I will state here and now, I love the 1955 movie and all attached to it. The mood, the music, the acting, the style – all is so incredibly iconic. Yes, the ‘effects’ could be done a lot better nowadays, yes, the bomb could and would look a whole lot different. Maybe it would look better if filmed in colour…
But I am sure that ‘those who think they know’ would react badly to having the myths and legends corrected – to having their ‘comfort bubbles’ so cruelly burst. They would react badly to anything that shows that their heroes who they have become so used to having their heads in the sky actually have feet of clay – even if it is more ‘historically accurate’. There would be – just as there are now here – endless letters and posts made regarding the ‘sacrilege of the attack’ on an iconic film – meanwhile the public at large will go and see what may or may not be a good movie!
I think we need to separate facts from fiction. Know what we know – both then and now – about all the real characters, aircraft and locations but remember at all times to keep them apart from events created in Hollywood, Pinewood or wherever!
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