In 1939, while working on the wildly popular fantasy epic The Thief of Bagdad, émigré producer Alexander Korda, along with Michael Powell {one-half of the estimable directing team of Powell and Pressburger}, Brian Desmond Hurst and Adrian Brunel, directed a propaganda film called The Lion Has Wings. The film contained an unlikely mix of G.P.O. Film Unitdocumentary footage, maudlin storytelling, and anti-German sentiment.The story revolved around an R.A.F. Bomber Command pilot {played byRalph Richardson}, who is called into service and undertakes a{supposedly} dangerous mission against German shipping on the Kielcanal. The film even ends with a squadron of Spitfires thwarting aLuftwaffe raid, an eerie premonition of the Battle of Britain, whichwas still months away.The Lion Has Wings serves topromote the R.A.F.`s prowess and to reassure the public about England`smilitary preparedness. Yet the film is remarkable as it was created inan incredible climate of collaboration between architects andfilmmakers. This is not surprising as it was Korda, after all, whoproduced the screen adaptation of H.G. Wells`s Things to Come {which like, The Thief of Bagdad, was directed by William Cameron Menzies} in 1936, and who hired László Moholy-Nagy to create the special effects for the film. Korda and Wells were also friends with other Bauhaus alumni, most notably Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius, who were residing in London at the time, both leaving for the United States shortly thereafter. Their haunt was Welles Coates`Lawn Road Flats, a constructivist fantasy of a building that would bethe temporary offices for Breuer, Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, as well as for M.A.R.S. members Maxwell Fry and Morton Shand.Propaganda in The Lion Has Wingshas an architectural bent. In fact, one could very well say that it isan instance where architectural modernism is mobilized for war. This isevident in the opening moments of the film. Following images of bucolicEnglish countrysides and busy cities, narrator E.V.H. Emmett describesEngland`s achievement in creating clean, well-lighted, sanitary, and{sometimes} leisurely environments. During this narrative {which soundslike a laundry-list of Athens Charterprinciples}, audiences would then see current examples of Englisharchitecture. Touted as pinnacles of English rationalism, these imagesserve to show that it is Britain, and not Germany, who is the worldleader in creating hygienic spaces.Two buildings share the limelight in the opening moments of The Lion Has Wings. The first is Maxwell Fry`s and Elizabeth Denby`s Kensal House.Built in 1937, Kensal House was one of the first attempts forre-housing urban slum dwellers under the strictures of the 1930Greenwood Act. The Lion Has Wingsfeatures different views of the project. In an aerial shot, thebuildings signature curved facade is clearly visible. In another, theclean, flat white walls shine brilliantly in sunlight.
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