Archives: Production

Ships with Wings is a 1941 British war film directed by Sergei Nolbandov and starring John Clements, Leslie Banks and Jane Baxter. During the Second World War the British fleet air arm fight the Germans in Greece. The film was made by Ealing Studios, but filmed at Fountain Studios in Wembley Park in northwest London.

The Black Sheep of Whitehall is a 1942 British black-and-white comedy war film, directed by Will Hay and Basil Dearden, and starring Will Hay, John Mills and Basil Sydney. It was produced by Michael Balcon and Ealing Studios.

The Big Blockade is a 1942 British black-and-white war propaganda film in the style of dramatised documentary. It is directed by Charles Frend and stars Will Hay, Leslie Banks, Michael Redgrave and John Mills. It was produced by Michael Balcon for Ealing Studios, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Warfare.

The Foreman Went to France (released in the USA as Somewhere in France ) is a 1942 British Second World War war film starring Clifford Evans, Tommy Trinder, Constance Cummings and Gordon Jackson. It was based on the real-life wartime exploits of Welsh munitions worker Melbourne Johns, who rescued machinery used to make guns for Spitfires and Hurricanes. It was an Ealing film made in 1941 with the support of the War Office and the Free French Forces. The script was by J.B.Priestley and reflects both optimism about an eventual victory and the sense that the post war world would have to be different from that of the 1930s. All of the ‘heroes’ are portrayed as ordinary people caught up in the war. The score was written by William Walton.

The Next of Kin, also known as Next of Kin, is a 1942 Second World War propaganda film produced by Ealing Studios. The film was originally commissioned by the British War Office as a training film to promote the government propaganda message that “Careless talk costs lives”. After being taken on by Ealing Studios, the project was expanded and given a successful commercial release. After the war and up until at least the mid 1960s, services in British Commonwealth countries continued to use The Next of Kin as part of security training.

The Goose Steps Out is a British comedy film released in 1942. This film starred, and was co-directed by, the British comedian Will Hay. He shared directorial credit with Basil Dearden. It was Dearden’s first film as a director. The film was a big box office hit in Britain, but not in the U.S., where audiences failed to respond to the humour of Hay’s pathetic, bumbling persona. The Goose Steps Out is also noted as the film debut of a young Peter Ustinov. The film’s title refers to the Nazis’ vigorous ceremonial marching, called “goose-stepping”. It was the last appearance for Charles Hawtrey in a Will Hay film as Hay dropped him for wanting a bigger role. It was also Hay’s last film on the subject of the Second World War.

Went the Day Well? is a 1942 British war film adapted from a story by Graham Greene and directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. It was produced by Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios and served as unofficial propaganda for the war effort. It tells of how an English village is taken over by Nazi paratroopers. It reflects the greatest potential nightmare of many Britons of the time, although the threat of German invasion had largely receded by that point. It includes the first significant role of Thora Hird’s career, and one of the last of C. V. France. The village location for some scenes was Turville in Buckinghamshire. In the film the village is named Bramley End and the entire incident is said to be called the Battle of Bramley End.

The council of Nine Men was a citizens board and a form of representational democracy in New Netherland. It replaced the previous councils, the Twelve Men and the Eight Men. Members of the council were elected in 1647, 1649, 1650 and 1652. On July 26, 1649, eleven current and former members of the board signed the Petition of the Commonality of New Netherland, which requested that the States General take action to encourage economic freedom and force local government like that in the Netherlands, removing the colony from the control of the Dutch West India Company. It became the basis for the municipal government when the city of New Amsterdam received its charter in 1653.