The First of the Few [Spitfire] **** (1942, Leslie Howard, David Niven, Rosamund John) – Classic Movie Review 9384

Lots of exciting aerial sequences, a good dash of sentiment and an appropriately stiff-lipped script help to make Leslie Howard’s 1942 black and white wartime tribute The First of the Few [Spitfire] a thoroughly affecting and effective drama.

An ideally cast and totally committed Howard produces, directs and stars in this distinguished World War Two propaganda biopic about the English aeronautical engineer and aircraft designer Reginald Joseph Mitchell, the deviser and designer of the Spitfire fighter plane.

William Walton’s famous stirring music score is one of the film’s highlights, along with the playing of Howard as R J Mitchell, Rosamund John as his wife Diana and David Niven as his friend and test pilot Geoffrey Crisp.

It is Howard’s last screen appearance: tragically he was shot down and killed while on a flying mission in 1943.

Also in the cast are Roland Culver, David Horne, Anne Firth, Derrick de Marney, Bernard Miles, J H Roberts, Rosalyn Boulter, Herbert Cameron, Toni Edgar-Bruce, Gordon McLeod, George Skillan, Erik Freund, Fritz Wendhausen and Patricia Medina.

It is written by Anatole de Grunwald (screenplay), Miles Malleson (screenplay), Henry C James (original story) and Katherine [Kay] Strueby (original story).

Muir Mathieson is the musical director, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

The First of the Few [Spitfire] is directed by Leslie Howard, runs 118 minutes, is made by British Aviation Pictures, is released by General Film Distributors (GFD) (1942) (UK) and RKO Radio Pictures (1943) (US), is written by Anatole de Grunwald (screenplay), Miles Malleson (screenplay), Henry C James (original story) and Katherine [Kay] Strueby (original story), is shot in black and white by Georges Périnal, is produced by Leslie Howard, George King (uncredited), Adrian Brunel (production consultant) and John Stafford (uncredited), is scored by William Walton and designed by Paul Sheriff.

It is made at D&P Studios, Denham Studios, Denham, Buckinghamshire, England; at Ibsley in Hampshire, and at Polperro, Cornwall, England.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9384

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