MOVIE · 1939
The Lion Has Wings
DocumentaryDramaWar76 min
The outbreak of World War II frames this British propaganda film, which mixes documentary footage with staged scenes to present the Royal Air Force as the country’s shield against Nazi attack. Ralph Richardson and Merle Oberon appear in the dramatized passages, while newsreel-style material and public figures including Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler place it squarely in 1939. The contrast is direct: rural English calm and civilian routine on one side, militarized Germany and looming air war on the other, all assembled as an early portrait of Britain preparing for conflict.
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