THE LION HAS WINGS

UK, 1939, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez, Robert Douglas, Anthony Bushell, Derrick de Marney.
Directed by Michael Powell, Brian Desmond Hurst, Adrian Brunel.

The Lion Has Wings is a contribution by Sir Alexander Korda to British morale at the outbreak of World War II. It is a London Films production with all the finesse that Korda's organisation could bring to a film.

The film is mainly documentary. It has three directors including the celebrated Michael Powell, as well as Brian Desmond Hurst and Adrian Brunel. Merle Oberon, Ralph Richardson and other contemporary British stars appear very briefly.

While there is a very slight thread of narrative, focusing on Officer Richardson and his wife who becomes a nurse, Oberon, the film is mainly documentary.

The film goes back to Britain in the '30s and contrasts the free British lifestyle with that developing in Hitler's Germany. Editing highlights the contrast. The film also focuses on the attempts for peace during the '30s as well as Hitler's dramatic taking over of the countries surrounding Germany. It builds up to Chamberlain's Munich visit as well as his announcement of the state of war between Britain and Germany on 3 September 1939.

In the meantime, the film focuses on Britain's industry, its readiness for war, its development of tanks, guns, ammunition. It also highlights the move into the air - with long sequences of a British air show and moving into World War II and the description of missions over Germany. The film is particularly well made, anticipating so many of the war films as well as those of the post-war period which reflected on Britain's experience.

The film is very positive in tone, appropriately aggressive as well as morale-boosting. In fact, while it is dated in terms of the war effort, it is still an interesting documentary on Britain's image of itself in 1939, as well as its estimate of how ready it was for war and the attitude that Britain took into the war.

(Just for morale-boosting purposes, there is a flashback to Queen Elizabeth I, played again by Flora Robson, and the threat of the Armada.)

The film shows the strength of British documentary-making in the '30s. It also highlights Alexander Korda's contribution to the developing British cinema of the '30s and '40s.