Ships with Wings

Last updated

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

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.

Contents

Plot

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

Production

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

Release

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

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]

Related Research Articles

Five ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Ark Royal:

Seven ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Invincible.

<i>Passport to Pimlico</i> 1949 film directed by Henry Cornelius

Passport to Pimlico is a 1949 British comedy film made by Ealing Studios and starring Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford and Hermione Baddeley. It was directed by Henry Cornelius and written by T. E. B. Clarke. The story concerns the unearthing of treasure and documents that lead to a small part of Pimlico to be declared a legal part of the House of Burgundy, and therefore exempt from the post-war rationing or other bureaucratic restrictions active in Britain at the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Naval Air Service</span> Aerial warfare arm of the British Royal Navy (1914-18)

The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force (RAF), the world's first independent air force.

<i>Sink the Bismarck!</i> 1960 British film

Sink the Bismarck! is a 1960 black-and-white CinemaScope British war film based on the 1959 book The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck by C. S. Forester. It stars Kenneth More and Dana Wynter and was directed by Lewis Gilbert. To date, it is the only film made that deals directly with the operations, chase and sinking of the battleship Bismarck by the Royal Navy during the Second World War. Although war films were common in the 1960s, Sink the Bismarck! was seen as something of an anomaly, with much of its time devoted to the "unsung back-room planners as much as on the combatants themselves". Its historical accuracy, in particular, met with much praise despite a number of inconsistencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Esmonde</span> Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander(1909–1942)

Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde, was a distinguished Irish pilot in the Fleet Air Arm who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy awarded to members of Commonwealth forces. Esmonde earned this award while in command of a torpedo bomber squadron in the Second World War - in an action known as Operation Fuller, the 'Channel Dash’.

HMS <i>Amethyst</i> (F116) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Amethyst was a modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Linthouse, Govan, Scotland on 25 March 1942, launched on 7 May 1943 and commissioned on 2 November 1943, with the pennant number U16. After the Second World War she was modified and redesignated as a frigate, and renumbered F116.

<i>The Cruel Sea</i> (1953 film) 1953 film by Charles Frend

The Cruel Sea is a 1953 British war film based on the novel of the same title by Nicholas Monsarrat. The film starred Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott, Stanley Baker, Liam Redmond, Virginia McKenna and Moira Lister. The movie was made by Ealing Studios seven years after the end of the Second World War, and was directed by Charles Frend and produced by Leslie Norman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Black (Royal Navy officer)</span> Royal Navy Admiral (1932–2015)

Admiral Sir John Jeremy Black,, known as Jeremy Black or J. J. Black, was a senior Royal Navy officer. He commanded the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible during the Falklands War, and later served as Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command from 1989 until his retirement in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Clements (actor)</span> British actor

Sir John Selby Clements, CBE was a British actor and producer who worked in theatre, television and film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Pollock (Royal Navy officer)</span>

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Michael Patrick Pollock, was a senior officer in the Royal Navy who rose to become First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in the early 1970s. In the Second World War, he was an officer on ships tasked with protecting convoys in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and was gunnery officer on the cruiser HMS Norfolk when she fought the German battleship Scharnhorst during the Battle of North Cape. He later commanded the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, and hosted Ian Smith on HMS Tiger. In retirement, he held the position of King of Arms of the Order of the Bath and Gloucester King of Arms, with responsibility for heraldry in Wales.

<i>Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst</i> 1957 British film

Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst (1957) is a British war film that tells the story of the British sloop HMS Amethyst caught up in the Chinese Civil War and involved in the 1949 Yangtze Incident. Directed by Michael Anderson, it stars Richard Todd, William Hartnell, and Akim Tamiroff.

<i>Whisky Galore!</i> (1949 film) 1949 film by Alexander Mackendrick

Whisky Galore! is a 1949 British comedy film produced by Ealing Studios, starring Basil Radford, Bruce Seton, Joan Greenwood and Gordon Jackson. It was the directorial debut of Alexander Mackendrick; the screenplay was by Compton Mackenzie, an adaptation of his 1947 novel Whisky Galore, and Angus MacPhail. The story—based on a true event, the running aground of the SS Politician—concerns a shipwreck off a fictional Scottish island, the inhabitants of which have run out of whisky because of wartime rationing. The islanders find out the ship is carrying 50,000 cases of whisky, some of which they salvage, against the opposition of the local Customs and Excise men.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">807 Naval Air Squadron</span> Military unit

807 Naval Air Squadron was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy.

<i>Convoy</i> (1940 film) 1940 film by Pen Tennyson

Convoy is a 1940 British war film, produced by Ealing Studios, directed by Pen Tennyson and starring Clive Brook, John Clements and Edward Chapman. Convoy was Tennyson's last film before he was killed in an aircraft crash, while serving in the Royal Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedric Holland</span>

Cedric Swinton Holland CB was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the First and Second World Wars, rising to the rank of vice-admiral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Charles Saxton, 1st Baronet</span> Royal Navy officer (1732–1808)

Sir Charles Saxton, 1st Baronet was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of captain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Hibbert</span> English actor (1922–1969)

Geoffrey Hibbert was an English stage, film and television actor.

References

  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