London Can Take It!

A tribute to the courage and resiliency of Britons during the darkest days of the London Blitz.

What is amusing about this is the number of different ways it can looked at. On the face of it, it is showing the proud people of England and how they are able to stay strong during the onslaught of the war.

But it can also appear as an example of learned helplessness. This is probably not accurate, but at times it seems to give the impression of a people that have just accepted their fate.

How did the English compare to the French, or even the Germans? This short is said to have a "neutral" narrator, and perhaps it does. Would a neutral narrator in France or Germany present their people the same way? Who does not want to present their people as proud and resilient?

London Can Take It! (1940)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

WW2 era short talks about how the people of London prepare for a possible attack by the Nazis. This is a pretty interesting short that shows up the people train themselves and in some cases plan to fight back. There's nothing too special here but it's still interesting for the time.

You have several viewing options for this one including it being shown on TCM countless times a year and Warner has also released it in their James Cagney Collection.

Interesting look at how Londoners managed to keep to their workaday routine despite daily bombings at night from the Gerrys during World War II.

Quentin Reynolds narrates the short documentary which shows Londoners eager to get home from work before the nightly air raids started, ready to go to air raid shelters where they spent the night until the bombings were over.

Meantime, above ground, firemen, air raid wardens and policemen coped with the bombings with searchlights and blazing gunnery in what Reynolds calls "a symphony of war".

The all clear signal would come at 6:00 a.m. and people would go outside to view the damage of structures struck during the raids. We're given a glimpse of the Queen Mother walking among the common folk and providing the much needed morale.

Five centuries of labor would be destroyed in five seconds, says the narrator, but the people of Great Britain remained determined, courageous and confident in the face of the enemy. Quentin Reynolds sums it up: "They cannot kill the spirt and courage of the people of London."

Summing up: Good propaganda film probably did a lot for the morale of Americans and Europeans at the time of release.

This film got the USA into WWII???? Sheesh! That will be news to my Uncle who was serving in Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Nevada when the Japanese attacked. All these years he and the rest of the USA were pretty sure it was that surprise attack that got us into the war...not some short documentary. I suppose that the year before it may have helped us get more material to Great Britain and gear up the war time economy but it did not get us into the war one second earlier than the Japanese. It was however a very good short film showing the resolve of a nation mostly in the city of London having to deal with the nightly bombings. It was honest enough to show that Britain was also each night bombing Germany. The UK continued their night bombing until the end of the war. It was just as if not more devastating than that which the Luftwaffe poured on London.

It was said that the most important fact of world history during the last century was that the United States of America and the United Kingdom spoke a common language. If so that is the underlying reason why this short subject narrated by war correspondent Quentin Reynolds resonated with the American public.

With funny accents these people are just like us and we could imagine, New York, Chicago, etc. the subject of nightly bombing raids and the fire department on 24/7. The title borrowed from Winston Churchill was the voice of defiance telling Mr. Hitler and Mr. Goering to do their utmost worst.

Although the royal family could have left, the King and Queen chose to stay in London, in Buckingham Palace and the place was hit a few times. It was calculated and courageous decision showing their subjects that their rulers were undergoing the same hardship they were. Footage of George VI and Elizabeth visiting and inspecting London were tremendous morale boosters.

A wonderful short subject about some bad times.