12 Apr The Lion Has Wings
(1939) British film producer Alexander Korda made a deal with Winston Churchill that on the day war was declared Korda would begin to make an anti-Nazi propaganda film. It would, he promised, be ready in one month.
Shooting took 12 days. The Lion Has Wings was showing in the theaters in eight weeks. (from the TCM article.)
News reels, stock footage and film shot at RAF bases were used. The movie has a documentary feel … the actors seemed to be an afterthought.
Coming out when it did, before the U.S. was in the fight, it was a glimpse into the future for American audiences. New York Times reviewer called it an “interesting, informative and thrilling show.”
I noticed several areas where it was obvious that the story line included just what the British would want the world (including the Nazis) to know. Director Michael Powell remembered in later years that it “was an outrageous piece of propaganda, full of half-truths and half-lies, with some stagy episodes which were rather embarrassing and with actual facts which were highly distorted.”
So what. It worked. Copies of the film were shipped to 60 countries. The British government was now convinced that filmmakers could be a great asset to the war effort.
The Lion Has Wings [VHS] at amazon.com
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