FORGOTTEN GEM? The First of the Few (1942)

                “The First of the Few” is a biopic about the man who designed the Spitfire fighter plane.  It was produced and directed by Leslie Howard.  He plays R.J. Mitchell and this was his last role as the airliner he was flying in was shot down one year later.  The movie costars David Niven who was loaned by Samuel Goldwyn in exchange for American distribution rights.  When Goldwyn learned that Niven was not the lead, he angrily cut 40 minutes from the American release.  The movie was renamed “Spitfire” in America (which, if you think about it, is a better title).

                The movie opens during the Battle of Britain in 1940.  A narrator explains the expansion of Germany accompanied by black spreading across the map of Europe.  Quotes by Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering illicit boos from the audience.  A group of real RAF fighter pilots is waiting to be scrambled.  Squadron Leader Quentin Crisp (Niven) shows up to raise the acting level and initiate a flashback.  In 1922 Mitchell has the idea for a radical new plane.  Crisp comes on board as the test pilot.  The plane will use the secrets of the birds with no struts or wires.  Only Crisp and Mitchell’s supportive wife think he’s on to something.  A series of air races chronicles the development of the plane and leads us to the question:  Did people actually spectate at these races?  In 1933, he goes to Germany.  At a party with German military officials, Mitchell is told that the Germans are violating the Versailles Treaty and suck on it.  The arrogance of Willi Messerchmitt motivates Mitchell to create a fighter plane that will be able to compete with the Germans.  This being a biopic, there has to be a wrench thrown in.  Mitchell is diagnosed with some disease and told he can either take some time off and live or save England and die.  Guess which he chooses?

                “The First of the Few” is your standard 1940s biopic.  Mitchell is a saint and his wife is the stereotypical supportive spouse.  There are no villains other than the entire nation of Germany.  The movie is definitely propaganda, but it’s not the gag-inducing kind.  Speaking of gags, the movie is very British especially in its humor.  All of which is provided by Crisp as a ladies’ man and a wise-cracker.  It is likely the movie would be pretty boring without his character.  The acting is fine by Howard and Niven, but the rest of the cast is average.  Most of the film takes place on sound stages so it has an artificial look to it.  The cinematography and music are meh.  The movie does take off in the test flight scene and the dogfight at the end.  The movie finishes strong.

                The movie is generally accurate, but simplifies and sanitizes things.  (Try to imagine Howard as a boss from hell, which is what Mitchell actually was.)   He was a brilliant aircraft designer who developed twenty four aircraft from 1920-1936.  Much of the effort was part of competition in air races like the Schneider Cup.  The biggest bit of artistic license is the meeting with Messerchmitt.  In reality, Mitchell never visited Germany.  The Crisp character is fictional, but a composite of two test pilots named Jeffrey Quill and “Mutt” Summers.  Summers was the pilot who tested the plane in battle and shot down three German planes.  The real Summers flew a Spitfire in the film.  The movie implies that Mitchell died of tuberculosis, but he had rectal cancer and worked through the pain.  His work did not hasten his death.  The movie also dramatically has him dying right after the first test flight when he actually died fifteen months after the prototype was first flown.  In a more trivial note, Mitchell did not name the plane and felt the name was silly when he learned what the RAF wanted to call it.

                In conclusion, this is a must-see if you are British.  It’s probably the law.  If you are American, you should see it if you are a war movie buff.  Bucket list – check.

GRADE  =  B-  

CRACKER? Dark Blue World (2001)

                “Dark Blue World” was a recent participant in my Best Dogfighting Movie Tournament.  It was the representative from Czechoslovakia.  Directed by Jan Sverak, it was at the time the most expensive Czech movie ever made.  That was partly because it cost $10,000 per hour to rent Spitfires.  It was well received by audiences and critics.  The movie pays homage to Czech pilots who escaped from their country when it fell to the Nazis.  Many went to Great Britain and played a role in the Battle of Britain.  Those that returned to their native land after the war were confronted with a communist system.  Some were imprisoned as potential freedom fighters.

                The movie sets up its flash back format with Franta (Ondrej Vetchy) in a forced labor camp in 1950.  He remembers back to 1939 when he was a pilot in the Czech air force.  When the German army invades, he and his friend Karel (Krystof Hadek) escape to England.  They are accepted into the RAF, but have to go through retraining that is frustrating for men who are itching for some payback.  The training includes practicing formation flying on bikes!  After three months of chafing, they get their chance.  They bounce some Heinkel bombers and get into a dogfight with some Me109s.  Later, Karel gets shot down, bales out and meets a British bird named Susan (Tara Fitzgerald) whose husband is MIA.  He makes the mistake of introducing her to his BFF Franta.  Franta and Susan don’t want to hurt Karel, but the heart wants what the heart wants.  Plus this is a movie, after all.  Nothing like a love triangle in a war movie. 

                From the moment the movie transitions to the break-up of the friendship, it devolves.  There are some silly plot developments leading to the inevitable culling of one member of the trio.  We know who it won’t be because the movie intercuts with Franta’s trials in the labor camp.  How he gets there is unpredictable, thankfully.  Unless you care to dwell on this being a modern war movie.

Karel and Franta before a woman came into their lives

                I don’t want to discourage the Czechs from making more war movies, but “Dark Blue World” is disappointingly overrated.  The plot is simplistic.  It’s your typical love triangle set in war.  This tired trope is modernized with the cynicism of the Vietnam War era.  The acting is blah.  Vetchy and Hadek may be Czechoslovakia’s answer to Clooney and Hanks, but they seem average to me.  The nonlinear format works fine although it does take some suspense out of the “who will survive?” nature of the film.  Also the labor camp scenes do not deliver what they imply will happen.

the real star of the film

                The movie does have some fairly neat aerial combat.  Some of it was borrowed from the “Battle of Britain” movie.  There is a nifty scene where they strafe a train.  There is a dogfight while defending a crippled bomber.  Quality over quantity as the film has only a total of seven minutes of actual dogfighting.  Certainly not enough to overcome the romantic subplot.  The movie does a fair job commemorating the Czech pilots who served in the Battle of Britain.  And the terrible mistreatment of some after the war.  The frustrating transition to combat in the battle is realistic, as is the high mortality rate once they were given a chance.  I had never seen the use of bicycles to teach tactics, but the movie has them learning the “finger four” formation long before the RAF adopted it.

                Will it crack my 100 Best War Movie list?  No. It gets credit for sincerity, but it is just not memorable.

GRADE =  C-