The First Of The Few (UK-import)
The story of R.J. Mitchell (Leslie Howard), the man who designed the Spitfire. Told in flashback by Mitchell's philandering test pilot, Jeffrey Quill (David Niven), the film follows Mitchell as he attempts to persuade Whitehall to sponsor the project and struggles to overcome the technical problems on a plane which was to become one of the Allies' most valuable assets during the Second World War. Leslie Howard, the star and director, was later to be shot down and killed when his plane was attacked by the Luftwaffe. This was his last film.