Spitfire

Leslie Howard, who also produced and directed here, made his last screen appearance in this above-average biography with a strong propaganda message. Howard plays R.J. Mitchell, who designed the Spitfire fighter plane, the weapon that would foil Hitler's plans to invade England by air. The film opens as a squadron of fighter pilots sits at a base, awaiting the next wave of German planes. Squadron leader Geoffrey Crisp (David Niven) begins to tell the men about his close friend Mitchell, the designer of their craft, and the details of the origin of the Spitfire are related in a lengthy flashback that makes up most of the film's running time. This was Howard's last f...