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"Angels One-Five" would make a wonderful double-feature along with the 1969 classic "The Battle of Britain". While both films have to do with the same battle and the same time period, they both approach it from completely different ways. "Angels" is a personal film--showing one particular unit and especially one brand-new pilot to the group. On the other hand, "The Battle of Britain" tries to do the impossible--encapsulate the entirety of the battle in one film! Plus, "The Battle of Britain" is a stunning film because of its amazing aerial sequences--whereas those in "Angels" are not particularly good, though this really isn't the focus of the film--it's more on people.

Baird is a new pilot arriving in a replacement fighter plane. However, due to an accident (which really isn't his fault), he gets in hot water with his immediate supervisor. Then, after shooting down his first plane, he gets in hot water with the base commander! Can Baird manage to pull it all together and make himself useful or will he crash and burn (literally)? The film does a nice job of capturing the look and feel of the war from the point of view of Baird and he's a nice sympathetic character. While you don't learn much about how Britain prevailed, it is a nice portrait of one particular brave but inexperienced man--something rarely seen in war films. Very enjoyable and I actually have little to criticize--it was a top-notch production aside from the air sequences.

By the way, if you are an aviation nut like myself, you'll notice that the planes in both movies are completely different--mostly because of the supply of planes available to both productions at that particular time (one film borrowed planes from the Portuguese air force and the other from the Spanish--which were both still flying WWII vintage planes at the time the films were made). For example, in "The Battle of Britain", the only German bombers shown are HE-111s and British are mostly shown flying Spitfires (though many other types of planes were used in the battles). However, "Angels" shows the Brits flying Hurricanes (which is more realistic, as more of these were used during that time than the more modern Spitfires) and you see other German bombers (such as a Ju-88). So, you not only see the war from a different perspective, but entire different aircraft as well!

One of a slew of World War II dramas that appeared from British studios at the beginning of the Fifties, ANGELS ONE-FIVE centers on the brief career of T. B. ("Septic") Baird (John Gregson), who joins the Pimpernel Squadron as a tyro pilot, shoots down a German plane but breaks Air Force protocol as a result, but ends up bravely sacrificing his life in an aerial dog-fight against impossible odds.

George More O'Ferrall's docu-drama makes some important points about the virtues of teamwork. Led by Peter Moon (Michael Denison), the squadron works as a unit, each member sacrificing personal gain for maximum efficiency. On the ground they enjoy their fair share of joshing - making fun of Baird's penchant for chess - but when called out to battle they set aside their jokes and dedicate themselves to the task in hand, even when they are exhausted. Anyone stepping out of line, such as the mechanic Wailes (Harold Goodwin) is sternly reprimanded.

At the head of the entire station stands "Tiger" Small (Jack Hawkins), someone who sets an example of dedication to his men. But he is not without his frailties - during a German raid he rushes to a machine- gun and fires on enemy planes, thereby sacrificing his role as leader. On the other hand he possesses sufficient humanity to understand the importance of leisure-time, which is why we see him supping beer in the officers' mess and trying to make the newbie Baird feel at home.

The film reflects the class and gender attitudes of its time, with the largely upper-middle class pilots and the forelock-touching working-classes (Harry Fowler, Victor Maddern) supporting them. The women have largely passive roles, especially Nadine Clinton (Dulcie Gray), whose husband Barrie (Cyril Raymond) controls operations during any raids. Her role is simply to look after the house and provide moral succor where necessary. Other women fulfill more significant roles, especially in the Operations Room, but they remain subservient to Clinton and his male superiors.

Some of the lines in Derek Twist's script might seem rather archaic today - especially the determination to preserve stiff upper lips even under the most extreme pressure. On the other hand we cannot deny the cast and director's sincerity of purpose to recreate a time during the Battle of Britain when the Royal Air Force were heavily outnumbered yet still managed to protect the country from obliteration by the Luftwaffe. Nothing was ever easy for them; and they did manage to maintain morale even under the most extreme circumstances.

The film's final shot says it all - a view of the ruined Operations Room in the middle of an airfield pockmarked by bomb-craters. Despite the heavy attack, everyone followed Prime Minister Winston Churchill's dictum to keep going on despite every attempt to prevent them.

Angels One Five covers a lot of the same ground as the more lavishly produced Battle Of Britain. But the same story about just a very few defending the realm and so many owing their freedom and their very existence to this relatively small bunch of men and women. One thing I do have to point out is that the contribution made by the women working in the operation center.

Jack Hawkins is a stern and resolute commander of a coastal Royal Air Force Base. He's got some strict standards of behavior, the strictest being for himself. The bulk of the film is concerning the arrival of a new pilot who doesn't near and endear himself to Hawkins by crashing a a new Hurricane fighter that he was ferrying to the base. John Gregson plays the new man and Hawkins assigns him to the operations center, the better for him to see a whole picture of their situation before flying.

Gregson in his own way is stiff and formal, memorizing a whole book of regulations. But that's hardly a substitute for experience and common sense.

Some aerial combat situations, but mostly this movie is about the day to life on the base and the attacks there on. In the best stiff upper lip tradition they follow what Horatio Nelson said about England expects every man (and woman) to do his duty.

And so they did and rather gloriously.

John Gregson is quickly christened "Septic" as he (sort of) arrives a Royal Air Force airfield at the height of the Battle of Britain. Everyone there is knackered - exhausted by the war, weary, tired and scared. They are led by the motivating "Tiger" (a decent effort from Jack Hawkins) who has long since mastered the carrot/stick approach to his flyers who are often little more than boys straight out of school or university. "Septic" is keen - but will he remain so? Can he remain so? People are dying all around him! It's actually quite a complex drama this. Some fine aerial photography and some familiar music help to illustrate just how perilous these men's daily lives were. The infrastructure that supported not just the pilots but their logistics and co-ordinating teams is also exposed in a way that cinema rarely tended to do - we realise a great deal more about just how the cogs and wheels interacted to makes the defence of the country against a determined - and outnumbering - foe was essential. A solid cast of British screen talent are in support - notably a rather stronger role for Michael Denison and, of course, you cannot have him without Dulcie Gray. The conclusion isn't what we'd expect, nor probably what we'd wanted either - but that adds a little authenticity to this well strung together wartime drama that is well worth a watch.

I'm watching this right after the terrorist attacks on London. Immediately, the Brits snapped back to this period, the so-called Battle of Britain where a few outnumbered airmen held off the bad guys. They've since forgotten that the bad guys were the Germans (not the Nazis), but they'll never, ever forget the unifying experience of the battle.

Since Hitler discovered the phenomenon, nations have defined themselves through film.

This movie is one of the best examples. Sure, there's some military stuff here... and there's war on. But this centers on the nature of the people and there's not much aerial battle that we see. The point is to trot out all the personalities and characteristics that define what it means to be British.

We've got pluck, we've got steadfastness, we've got earnestness and innocence, some kindly but firm officers who tie the whole thing together and then there's the rowdy humor.

Thin stuff when you think of it, but enough to build a nation.

Ted's Evaluation: 2 of 3 -- Has some interesting elements

A British war film; A story about workers at a British air base who find themselves in the thick of the action as their pilots engage incoming German planes during the summer of 1940. This is a film based on the book "What Are Your Angels Now?" by Pelham Groom. Charm and humour in the face of an overwhelming Luftwaffe helped keep a lighter mood for its limited staging - the operations room of a Kent fighter station during World War II. The symbols of the warfare - the runways and planes and the air battles - invariably stir a thrill in the audience, and the cast perform magnificently. As an aside, "Angels One Five" refers to RAF radio procedure indicating the altitude of a radar contact at 15,000 feet.

I don't know why I can't stop watching this film. It certainly has its moments of high "corn," although the British have never been as dedicated to the requisite happy ending as American filmmakers, which is again the case with this one. I think it's the peek into life at an English aerodrome during World War Two that keeps me coming back again and again to view this picture. In my opinion ANGELS ONE FIVE is a kind of mini war classic.

The story of life at an RAF base in Kent with focus on a young, cocky pilot (Gregson), the CO - The Tiger played by Jack Hawkins and Squadron Leader Michael Dennison.

Very stiff upper lip stuff this - everyone is called Bingo Biffo or Jacko and says Tally Ho a lot, with every pilot seemingly fresh from Eton. It's fun enough and the last 20 minutes are quite exciting plus it does quite nicely reflect the action of war linked in with ordinary life.

Typical fare for post-war British cinema-goers - stiff upper lips versus the might of the Nazi war machine.

Told over a few short weeks in 1940, the plot follows Pilot Officer 'Septic' Baird (John Gregson) as a fledgling Hurricane pilot posted to an operational squadron during the Battle of Britain. 'Septic' struggles stoically in the face of his boisterous comrades, an earnest would-be girlfriend and impossible numbers of enemy raiders. The Station Commander (Jack Hawkins) puts a human face on the RAF hierarchy, burdened by the knowledge that the fate of the nation really does depend on the skill of his young pilots. 'The few' eventually grasp victory but it doesn't come cheap.

Admittedly wooden by today's standards but, through films like this, a whole generation built up their Saturday afternoon understanding of the RAF's 'finest hour'.

Just watched this film again, really good fun. I've recently bought a WW2 computer Flight Simulator called IL-2 and afterwards I just had to go flying and shoot down some bally Huns, Tally Ho!

Shame there are no memorable quotes listed as this film has lots. My favourite is just after the Ops bunker takes a direct hit, the roof has fallen in and there is concrete dust everywhere. People slowly start dusting themselves off, one of the WAAF's (Foster) timidly comes up to SqLdr Clinton and offers him a cup of tea.

Foster: Tea sir ? It's a bit gritty, sir...

SqLdr Clinton: (looks at the tea in amazement for 5 seconds) Foster, that's an inspiration ! Remind me to have you promoted.

Classic.

Any film that contains such immortal lines as " They've really caught us with both pairs of trousers at the cleaners this time!" definitely deserves a 10.

Angels One Five is a low budget rip roaring Britain at war films focusing on the air force and the Battle of Britain.

TB 'Septic' Baird (John Gregson) brings in a new plane to the base and promptly crashes it. He then gets involved on a aerial dogfight which we see very little off, more hear the radio transmissions.

The squadron is commanded by the stern 'Tiger' Small (Jack Hawkins), who is trying to shape his unit as a team but also understand their frailties.

There is nothing much to say about this film apart from I kept thinking it was made in 1942 and surprised to learn that it was actually made in 1952. It looks like a propaganda film made during the war.

It is full of stiff upper lip types, subservient working class men and the women are passive such as the radio ops room were full of women's reaction shots. The film was rather dull that celebrates a war that had finished only a few years earlier.

The only thing of interest was to see familiar television faces in this film such as Peter Jones, Harry Fowler, Sam Kydd, Dulcie Gray, Russell Hunter etc as well as the line from an officious warden telling someone not to put a light out at the end of the runway and if they need to put on a red light.

I first saw this film over 40 years ago, as a young boy and was absolutely enthralled by it. I always watch it whenever the opportunity arises, and I still find it a very moving film.

By modern standards the special effects are not up to much, but the film cleverly gets around this by centering much of the action in the operations room, which helps to build up the tension and adds to the sense of desperation.

Touching little scenes, such as hanging out the light on landing, when the rest of the house has been reduced to a pile of rubble, help to capture the spirit of a nation which simply refused to be beaten.

The ending of the film is also very memorable, when the young pilot,who was is as keen as mustard and raring to get into the scrap, is very quickly shot down and killed. It serves to remind us that most of "the few" who lost their lives were indeed very young men.

Overall - a very good film.

Angels One-Five is a story of the trials and tribulations of life on an RAF base during World War II. Some great scenes of Hurricanes on the ground, taking off, in the air and landing.

The Film is shot at RAF Neethley which I understand is actually RAF Kenley in real life. Some of the flying scenes look distinctly home-made however the story is powerful enough to forgive the shortcomings of the 1950s special effects department.

Lovely 1950s English accents and light hearted events go towards making this film quaint in style but the harsh reality of war is impressed upon the viewer making it a poignant but enjoyable experience.

I love this film and I return to it again and again and thoroughly enjoy it every time.

Highly recommended.

An excellent performance by Gregson but dominated by the charismatic Jack Hawkins.

Brings a tear to my eye every time I watch it.

Excellent theme music.

This is a mildly interesting, low budget version of The Battle of Britain. But the fact that it doesn't include any real air action is a huge letdown. The filmmakers borrowed about six Hurricanes from the Portuguese air force, marked them up as British, and filmed them flying past the camera in various ways, taxiing and landing. That's about the extent of real footage for air action. The rest is done with studio shots of men in canopies. Well, not quite all. It's hard to understand why the producers couldn't get footage of air battles, apart from one shot of a half dozen contrails across the sky. Unimpressive. Especially noticeable was the lack of footage of German aircraft. In its place they used some truly embarrassing makeshift replacements, the very worst of which was a drawing of a handful of bombers from below with one fake bomb animated as falling from one of them--truly laughable. And it was used not once, but twice. A couple of models of Messerschmidts on wires were used to show German fighters coming in to attack, and a rather pitiful attempt was made at special effects to depict the downing of German aircraft, seen from the cockpit of British fighters. For a film whose very title indicates battles in the air, it is all very disappointing. The story is workable, if uninspired, leaving just the workings of the air defence system as the main interest in the film. The jaunty dialogue among flyers who in real life would be scared out of their wits was annoying.

My first negative review on IMDb - prompted by strong disagreement with the positive reviews "Angels One Five" has on here.

I found this to be the worst written British war film I've ever seen - a sophomoric, by-the-numbers "Way to the Stars" rip-off. There's nothing compelling or original about it. The airmen come across as gratingly camp airHEADS. And the film singularly fails to convey either of the portentous bookending Churchill quotations.

For propaganda/entertainment purposes, I'd recommend real classics of the genre like "The First of the Few", "The Way to the Stars", "The Dam Busters" or even so-so flicks like "Reach for the Sky" and "Battle of Britain". A disappointing waste of time and talent which is of historical interest/value only.