Ships With Wings [DVD]

Very good DVD with actual footage from WW2 Fleet Air Arm carrier action.
Excellent footage of Fairey Swordfish and Fulmar aircraft. Good story line of how the British fought the Italians - on the lines of Taranto but day light raids.

This film features the 1940 Fleet Air Arm aircraft and doctrines and allows you to see how the FAA intended to use the Fairey Fulmar fighter, Blackburn Skua "dive" bomber [shallow-dive actually - Churchill's WWI-vintage "technical air advisors" had advised him that dive bombing was "impossible" (even though the Germans, Americans, and Japanese were obviously doing it) so they weren't allowed to actually "dive" when attacking] , and Fairey Swordfish torpedo planes in a semi-fictional strike against the Italians. The cast is good, the story is good but typical for a WW2 film and highlights the FAA "getting respect" from the traditional battleship admirals. Also featured is the H.M.S. Ark Royal, Junkers F.13 passenger plane ("the grandmother of all the Junkers") and some not-so-well modelled Italian planes (Breda BR.88, Fiat G.50, etc).

"Ships with Wings" an Ealing Studios fictional warfilm and is made in close cooperation with the Admiraltyand War Office advice for public morale; copyright 1941 a black and white film made just under 3years into WWll.

It opens with a Captain & and an Admiral at a launch for an aircraft carrier and the reparte between them. The Admiral is sceptical and the Captain enthusiastic, seeing the potential of aircraft at sea, hence title of the film. Well structured dialogue and informative of an argument contemporeanous to the time, over where the budget got spent. 3million for an aircraft carrier! Wow inflation ...sure the RN would like a bill these days that small.

It is a somewhat 'suspend belief' on the overall storyline, but it is only the peg to hang some fine model making and film footage of real ships; a morale boosting movie for the wartime audience and some great one-liners.

A carefully crafted story for and of its time; patriotic theme music and some short and light singing performances seamlessly slotted in with relevance to the scenes with John Clements as Lt Stacey and Ann Todd as an actress dating Lt. Stacey who is a Fleet Air Arm pilot.

Gentle properganda for the purpose of national confidence building in the fight against the enemy laying out the new aircraft carrier benefits, along with indications of duty and selfless courage. Not over done and the writers sensitively give a balance of what would be acceptable and comforting to the audiences, who by that time in 1941 would be effected personally by the casualities and death toll of the war and would be in no mood to swallow glazed patriotism.

Even the moral example of the 'best pilot' Lt Stacey who is court martialled for disobeying orders and cowardice is drummed out of RN. (War is serious and so is the Senior Service - not about dare devils)Then the storyline begins, he ends up flying a 1 plane route in the med for a Greek owner, the germans invade the island and naturally, both ex Lt Stracey and the greek owner do their duty for their country and the allies. (Watch out for the very moving speech of resistance the greek makes to the Germans).

Great model shots of the Italian and German base planes and the dam which the RN have to destroy. Great ship and flying film footage mixed in with set and model shots - rather slick for the technology and time.

A wonderfully crafted film that is a lesson in model making for film and splicing of film footage expert craftsmanship. It is obviously a piece of mass media history and social history of film making, as the spec for the writers must have in wartime read something like:

Good storyline
good dialogue with wit
glamour
love interest
Best foot forward for the RN
morale booster for the nation
moral sensibility of wartime duty
respectful acknowledgement of the fallen and the audience who have lost
someone who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Wonderful bookmarker for how times and manners have changed and not for the better.