...from United Artists, producer Alexander Korda, and directors Michael Powell, Brian Desmond Hurst, & Adrian Brunel. After a short introduction on peacetime British life, the film gives a Cliff Notes breakdown on the lead-up to Great Britain's entry into WW2. Then there are two lengthy sections, one dealing with British RAF bombing runs over Germany, and the other detailing British defenses against German air raids. This is all interspersed with fictional vignettes meant to illustrate the effect on citizens' lives, with Ralph Richardson and Merle Oberon as the "typical English couple". Also featuring June Duprez, Robert Douglas, Anthony Bushell, Brian Worth, Bernard Miles, Torin Thatcher, and Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth I.
This was hastily put together by Korda, with less than a month between the idea for the movie and it's release to cinemas. That speed shows in a jumbled, scattershot narrative, heavy on the patriotic rhetoric but light on any other aspect. The bits with Richardson and Oberon are the most useless, although their presence added to the movie's appeal at the time, I'm sure. Powell directed the bombing run section, and it seems like a trial run for his later One of Our Aircraft is Missing. The footage of Robson as Queen Elizabeth is lifted from Korda's Fire Over England.
This was hastily put together by Korda, with less than a month between the idea for the movie and it's release to cinemas. That speed shows in a jumbled, scattershot narrative, heavy on the patriotic rhetoric but light on any other aspect. The bits with Richardson and Oberon are the most useless, although their presence added to the movie's appeal at the time, I'm sure. Powell directed the bombing run section, and it seems like a trial run for his later One of Our Aircraft is Missing. The footage of Robson as Queen Elizabeth is lifted from Korda's Fire Over England.