Narrator, host, and producer Derek Partridge had, at the age of 7, given up his seat to actor Leslie Howard for the ill-fated Flight 777.
The 2009 version was a work in progress rough cut running 105mins (22 mins longer than the 2016 version) It was shown in this form to an invited audience of 12 (including Leslie Howard's daughter) at the NFB in Toronto in September 2009. The film was briefly announced as screening on Turner Classic Movies in Dec of that year but was then deleted from the schedules. A few DVD-r copies of this survive but are not available for viewing.
Director Thomas Hamilton continued editing the film for several years. A new version, now titled "Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn" and running 89 mins was screened at Howard's former home in Dorking in Sept 2011, again to an invited audience. BBC South reported on the screening and interviewed Hamilton and narrator link=nm0664041]. However the funding to clear the film failed to materialize and this version has also never been screened again.
The film was in limbo until Feb 2014 when Independent Producer Monty Montgomery contacted Hamilton and offered to come on board as Executive Producer.
Under Montgomery's guidance the film underwent a radical new edit with the addition of many archive interviews as well as further filming, extensive re-writing of the narration, much post-production enhancement and a specially commissioned music score. The end result is so distinct from Leslie Howard: A Quite Remarkable Life (2009) as to constitute a different film.
Director Thomas Hamilton continued editing the film for several years. A new version, now titled "Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn" and running 89 mins was screened at Howard's former home in Dorking in Sept 2011, again to an invited audience. BBC South reported on the screening and interviewed Hamilton and narrator link=nm0664041]. However the funding to clear the film failed to materialize and this version has also never been screened again.
The film was in limbo until Feb 2014 when Independent Producer Monty Montgomery contacted Hamilton and offered to come on board as Executive Producer.
Under Montgomery's guidance the film underwent a radical new edit with the addition of many archive interviews as well as further filming, extensive re-writing of the narration, much post-production enhancement and a specially commissioned music score. The end result is so distinct from Leslie Howard: A Quite Remarkable Life (2009) as to constitute a different film.
Derek Partridge, the narrator of the film, DID NOT give up his seat for Leslie Howard on the doomed flight from Lisbon to Bristol. The two boys who gave up their seats were George, 18, and William, 15, Cecil, sons of Cornelia Stuyvesant Vanderbilt. They had been attending school in Europe.