So much has been spoken and written about Prime Minister Winston Churchill. His life and legacy as a military hero and statesman have been chronicled in countless books, films and on television. However, one area of Churchill’s life which has not been as thoroughly examined is his close connections with the film industry. With his debut feature film, Churchill and the Movie Mogul (2019), documentarian John Fleet takes an in-depth look at this lesser-known aspect of the world leader’s life.
The titular movie mogul is producer/director Alexander Korda, with whom Churchill shared a long and fruitful partnership. The two were associated as far back as the early 1930s, when Korda hired Churchill as a ghostwriter and historian for his pictures. For the second time, Churchill had risen through the government ranks to become First Lord of Admiralty in 1939, just as England was entering the second World War. He and Korda devised a way to make their partnership help the war effort.
Churchill enlisted Korda to produce films that depicted Great Britain in an especially sympathetic and heroic light. They hoped these films would boost local moral and encourage a then resistant United States to join the fight against Nazi Germany. In turn, Churchill helped Korda by declaring the British film industry an essential war weapon.
This strategy did not start off well. Their first film of this kind, The Four Feathers (1939), was an adaptation of a 1902 novel by A.E.W. Mason about a British Officer’s journey from coward to hero during the Mahdist War between Egypt and Britain in 1899. The film was declared “propagandist” by some of the American press and even led to Korda appearing before an American Senate committee. Korda and his partnership with Churchill were saved by the film’s surprising success with the American public.
Other films of this “propagandist” kind included The Spy in Black (1939), The Lion Has Wings (1939) and 21 Days Together (1940).
Perhaps the most prestigious of the Churchill/Korda collaborations, and the only one which Korda directed as well as produced, was the historical epic Lady Hamilton (1941), released in the U.S. as That Hamilton Woman. It starred newlyweds Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier as the notorious courtesan Emma Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson, whose love affair created a scandal in the days leading up to the Napoleonic Wars. Churchill, now Prime Minister, ghostwrote several of the speeches for the Lord Nelson character himself. He would later call the film his personal favorite.
While these films were successful at boosting the local moral of Great Britain and did increase sympathy from the American public, they did not help with gaining support from the American government. Ultimately, it would be the attacks on Pearl Harbor that plunged the United States into the war.
This documentary is a combination of archival and new interview footage with a who’s who of British film, theatre and government. In addition to Churchill and Korda themselves, the priceless archival footage (some of which was newly discovered during John Fleet’s research for the documentary) includes such legends as Leigh, Olivier and Michael Powell. The new interviews are with noted modern figures of British entertainment and government including Stephen Fry, Lady Williams, Jonathan Rose and even reigning Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Originally produced for the BBC, Churchill and the Movie Mogul (2019) was a great success on British television and went on to be showcased at major events including the International Churchill Conference in Washington DC. The documentary shines new light on these two figures and their indispensable roles in film and world history.
It also offers a unique perspective on the power that film and storytelling can have on political climates, something relevant today.
By Jack Fields
