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Site created 12/15/97.
page created: 7/23/08
 Back to The Longest Day... NOTE: The scans below are the property of Robert Siegel and The Digital Bits, and may not be reposted without permission. Copyright of the images belongs to the respective studios. In addition, please note that all the information contained within the text is taken from ORIGINAL studio press materials, which may contain some errors. |
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Battle of Britain
Film appreciation by Robert Siegel of The Digital Bits There appear to be just as many opinions regarding the most decisive battles of history as there are historians. But almost all, it seems, are agreed that one of the most decisive was the battle known as The Blitz, which is the subject of United Artists's Battle of Britain by MGM/UA Home Video, which has now been made available on Blu-ray Disc. [Continued below...] |
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From the fantastic world of James Bond whom he helped introduce to the world's movie audiences, Producer Harry Saltzman steps into the living history of our times with the story of one of the most crucial battles in history. The battle was the famous struggle in the skies of Britain between the RAF and the Luftwaffe which lasted from August to October of 1940. It was this three-month battle which prompted Winston Churchill to make his famous statement "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." The ground battles Saltzman waged to preserve the integrity of the film were called at the time unequal in movie history. High ranking officers of both the RAF and the Luftwaffe who fought the real battle were commissioned by Saltzman to re-fight it exactly as they did more than a quarter-century before, and according to knowledgeable witnesses, they did. Teams of military, political and civil researchers spent months studying official documents on both sides to separate legend from reality. Some of the extras hired for the film were part of the real battle and had to be replaced because the re-enactment was too difficult for them to live through, though most were, from the start, most willing to be involved. [Continued below...] |
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 Publicity shots of the cast taken by United Artists to promote the film's release. |
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The factual background of Battle of Britain is based mainly on Derek Wood and Derek Dempster's authoritative history of the battle The Narrow Margin with a gripping storyline running through it from the pen of James Kennaway, noted for his Tunes of Glory. Wilfred Greaterex collaborated. Guy Hamilton, known for his direction of the Bond classic Goldfinger, directed the film. More than a hundred aircraft of the types which took part in the battle were assembled for the picture's battle sequences by agents sent throughout the world to hunt for them by Saltzman for a year prior to production. Those included authentic Spitfires, Hurricanes, Messerchmitts and Heinkels, all in perfect flying condition and piloted in the film by members
of the Spanish air force since most of the sky fighting and landing field sequences were shot in the vicinity of Seville. There is, however, considerable footage of dog-fighting over London and northern France and studio sequences made in London. To put this on film Saltzman appointed Freddie Young director of photography, mainly for his famous handling of Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago, both of which won him Academy Awards. Earmarked with a budget of $13 million dollars, the film was by far the most ambitious project ever produced by Saltzman. Some of the planes unavailable to add to the film that were in the actual battle were Junkers 88 bombers and Dornier 17 bombers, of which searches were made but none were found that were in working order. [Continued below...] |
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Who better than the outstanding RAF ace during the epic Battle of Britain to act as technical advisor to the young men flying the planes? His name is Ginger Lacey and he is credited with downing twenty-eight German planes during the actual battle. He was shot down nine times. Lacey was one of a dozen British veterans of The Blitz to make the re-enactment as real as possible. An equal number of surviving German flyers were also employed. Lacey remained with the RAF until 1967 after thirty years of service, leaving to become a director of an aircraft firm. He was quoted on the set as saying that one of the toughest assignments on the set was to get some of the young actors to get proper 1940 haircuts. It is those youngsters who make up most of the supporting cast of the film. Very few knew of Edward Fox, Nicholas Pennell, James Cosmo or Miles Hoyle, who play the young pilots who were rushed out of prep schools and office apprenticeships to face the enemy. The original pilots were required to fly 150 hours before being trusted with flying planes. But as they were being brought down over England and the distant German air bases, this was cut to, in some instances, less than 15 hours of training. [Continued below...] |
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 Original UA artists' concept artwork for advertising the film. |
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A few interesting notes: During the war, nothing would have pleased Britain's Wing Commander Robert Stanford-Tuck more than to get his hands around the neck of General Adolf Galland, his German counterpart. But during filming of Battle of Britain, the two polished off a scotch and soda together while working as technical advisors for the film. The two, it was claimed by production people, got along famously and had much to discuss. Another interesting note is that while the final score was composed by Ron Goodwin, originally William Walton was hired, but his score was rejected. Heavy argument was made over whether to add sound effects to the battle-in-the-air sequence. It came down to the head of United Artists and the director to finally make the rare decision to do the scene with only the musical score without any other effects added to the soundtrack. Also, in the book on the making of the film, it is noted that more aircraft fire was used for the movie than in the actual battle, taking into account re-takes of many of the scenes. This turned out to be a much high expense than was figured in the original budget. One of the most important persons around the locations was actually the weather forecaster, hired as an expert to the director. The producers and director had to know far in advance of filming of the battle and flying scenes as accurately as possible the type of weather they would encounter. So the meteorological office in London sent one of its best dopesters out to the flying fields around Seville, Spain. As it turned out, while the weather in the area was usually prone to rain, most of the shooting schedule provided for fine weather so there were not many delays in production. [Continued below...] |
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Battle of Britain did well at the U.S. boxoffice but ended up losing money for United Artists worldwide. The film had its opening in New York followed by a gala event in Hollywood in which most of the star-studded cast was present.
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