The First of the Few (1942 Leslie Howard)

The story of R.J. Mitchell, the inventor of the Spitfire is - I'm afraid to say - rather boring. And I'm not sure it's the fault of the writers, Miles Malleson (who has a cameo) and Anatole de Grunwald (from a story by henry James and Katherine Strueby). Because in essence - how do you make the design of an aircraft exciting? Certainly not in the drafting or model-making phase. The speed races are dull also. So are attempts to get funding. He may have helped win the war, or at least not lose it, and actually that's the exciting story (which even The Battle of Britain couldn't get right).

With Leslie Howard (who was shot down in a passenger plane from Lisbon by German fighters in 1943) are David Niven, Rosamund John and Roland Culver.

Credit for 'lighting expert' Georges Périnal, operator Jack Hildyard. The opening is quite memorable as to an overlaid map of Europe the countries one by one turn black leaving the UK alone - but even that is undermined by a rather overuse of the overlaid image which also occurs later.