The First of the Few

The development of the Spitfire fighter plane by the Royal Air Force is considered a crucial factor in winning the Battle of Britain in that crisis year of 1941. It could fly faster and higher than the best German fighters and of course being right at home base it had the advantage of being able to instantly refuel. Unless a German pilot could shoot one down, a tie was always to the defenders because the German eventually had to return home for fuel.

Though he didn't live to see it, credit for the design of the Spitfire and a share of winning the Battle of Britain goes to Reginald J. Mitchell who had been dead four years before the Battle of Britain. This film is a tribute to him as realized by Producer/Director/Star Leslie Howard.

The problem one encounters in biographical films of this sort occurs when the subject lead colorless lives. We don't get that much of Mitchell here I suspect because outside of designing aircraft he probably was a pretty dull fellow. But Howard and David Niven who played his friend and test pilot are capable players and there's enough aerial footage to satisfy any buff.

Howard's seminal moment in the film occurs when he goes to Germany to view their nascent airplane industry and realizes just who is the target of all these new warplanes. He comes back and through sheer persistence and conviction persuades the Air Ministry and the Baldwin government to start the development of a better fighter plane.

Curiously enough the American aviator hero Charles Lindbergh got the same treatment from the Germans and came back to America with a message of defeatism. Interesting the different reactions when aviation people start talking shop.

Had Leslie Howard not died ironically enough a battlefield casualty as the airliner he was on shot down in 1943 in the Bay of Biscay, The First of the Few might have been the beginning of a great career behind the camera. Probably would have extended into British television as well as the cinema.

Still this film is a fine farewell and a tribute to two British patriots, Leslie Howard and Reginald J. Mitchell.

and probably on a par with the "Miniver" pictures. Covers not only the Supermarine/Merlin work but the glider designs that the Germans used for airframe research before openly dumping the Versailles treaty.

(Note: I don't use the term "propaganda" in a demeaning sense here; it's just that I consider any ideological product that gets government backing to be propaganda, and this work fits the definition.)

Fine acting, acceptable plot movement for what is considered now a melodramatic period, historic moment - this film deserves multiple viewings.

While sometimes a bit melodramatic, "Spitfire" (or "The First of the Few") is a good historical-based drama that follows the development of the Spitfire airplane that was so important to Britain in World War II. Most of the film concerns the work that went into the plane, but there are also a few aerial scenes. The historical story is interesting and significant, and was even more so at the time that the film was made. It moves rather slowly at times, but is carried by the two fine stars in the lead roles.

Leslie Howard works well as Mitchell, the designer of the plane. His dreaminess seems appropriate for a man who created an effective new invention by looking beyond the ways that things had been done in the past. David Niven is particularly good as the pilot who tests the plane and invests his own time and career to see that Mitchell's invention gets a chance. Niven also narrates the story. Those two help make up for some slow stretches in the plot. At times things also seem a bit exaggerated, but then it was a time when daily events were filled with melodrama.

This would be a good film to watch for anyone with an interest in historical or war films.

This film was released in the USA within two weeks of Leslie Howard's death in June 1943. The plane Howard was flying in was shot down over the Bay of Biscay.

Leslie Howard produced and directed this biography of R.J. Mitchell as well as starring in the film. This biography is also part propaganda and part documentary as Howard shows us Britain's advances in aviation going into World War II.

The cast is quite good, with David Niven as Crisp especially solid. Rosamund John plays the ever-patient wife. Also good are Roland Culver as Commander Bride, Toni Edgar-Bruce as Lady Houston, Anne Firth as Harper, Derrick De Marney as Jefferson, and Howard's daughter, Leslie Ruth Howard, in her only film appearance as Nurse Kennedy.

This film is hugely important because it is Leslie Howard's final film appearance but also because it documents the development of the famous Spitfire, without which Britain might have fallen to Germany.

This is a wonderful film.

This film could be unique in that the aircrew "extras" in the film who "Scrambled" during the Battle of Britain scenes were all pilots who had actually flown in the Battle of Britain.

I know this because at the end of 1941 I was stationed at 61 (Spitfire) Operational Training Unit at Heston (now part of Heathrow airport) and was billeted in Meadow Way Heston. My roommate was a Flight Sergeant I Hutchinson who was on "rest" from operational flying as the Maintenance Wing test pilot and was one of the "extras" in the film.

My recollection is that he had to be up at crack of dawn and was seldom free before about 2200 hours. On the other hand, his base was the Savoy Hotel!

To be a Flight Sergeant in 1941 meant you had been an airman pilot for quite some time and consequently had a lot of experience. I see from the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour that, thankfully, F Sgt Hutchinson survived the war.

He gave me my one and only flight in a single engined monoplane - a Miles Master - and I still recall that experience with great pleasure.

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