Ships with Wings

Summary

Ships with Wings is a 1941 British war film directed by Sergei Nolbandov and starring John Clements, Leslie Banks and Jane Baxter.[1] The film is set during the Battle of Greece (1940-1941). It depicts military aviation.

Ships with Wings
Directed bySergei Nolbandov
Written by
Produced byMichael Balcon
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byRobert Hamer
Music byGeoffrey Wright
Production
company
Distributed by
Release date
November 1941
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot edit

During the Second World War, pilot Lieutenant Dick Stacey is expelled from the British Fleet Air Arm for imprudence, but later has the opportunity to redeem himself when he takes part in the fight against the Germans in Greece.

Cast edit

Production edit

The film was made by Ealing Studios, but filmed at Fountain Studios in Wembley Park, north-west London.[2]

Release edit

The film premiered in November 1941 and went on general release in January 1942.[3] It was a commercial success and was the second most popular film in British cinemas that month behind It Started with Eve.[4] The sinking of the Ark Royal, on which a number of scenes were set and shot, in November 1941 added a sense of topicality to the film. Ark Royal portrays the fictional HMS Invincible - a name not used for a Royal Navy aircraft carrier until the 1970s. The most recent ship named HMS Invincible until then was a battlecruiser sunk at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Critical reception edit

The film received an overwhelmingly positive reception from the popular press on its release.[5] However, it came under attack from a number of intellectuals for what they considered its lack of realism while the Prime Minister Winston Churchill objected because of the large number of British casualties shown in the film which he considered bad for morale.[6] The producer Michael Balcon was disturbed by these criticisms and commenced a shift in Ealing’s production away from such films towards what were considered more realistic portrayals in an attempt to counter this perceived lack of authenticity. However, except for Dead of Night, Ealing's films for the remainder of the war failed to enjoy the same commercial success as the earlier "unrealistic" war films and were eclipsed at the box office by the Gainsborough melodramas.[7]

References edit

  1. ^ BFI | Film & TV Database | SHIPS WITH WINGS (1941)
  2. ^ team, Code8. "On screen - WEMBLEY PARK". Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Aldgate & Richards p.316
  4. ^ Aldgate & Richards p.324
  5. ^ Aldgate & Richards p.317
  6. ^ Aldgate & Richards p.319
  7. ^ Aldgate & Richards p.327

Bibliography edit

  • Aldgate, Anthony & Richards, Jeffrey. Britain Can Take It: British Cinema in the Second World War. I.B. Tauris, 2007.

External links edit

  • Ships with Wings at IMDb  
  • "Ships With Wings (1941)". Model Ships in the Cinema (Blog). 19 January 2016. - Discussion of the special effects techniques used in the film.