The "Phoney" War

[Leslie Howard by Fred Daniels,
National Portrait Gallery, c. 1942]

In the early days of WWII, Leslie Howard didn't have much to do. Even though Great Britain had declared war on Germany in early September, 1939, no real fighting began for months. Hitler was too busy invading and vanquishing Poland. Howard had planned to begin filming The Man Who Lost Himself as soon as he arrived in England in August, but due to
the declaration of war, RKO backed out of the deal.(1) No military branch would accept him; he was too old. Government officials told him that he was needed to produce propaganda films, but they wouldn't approve any of his ideas. They were too preoccupied ramping up for war—citing rationing, material and manpower shortages, and problems getting petrol. Howard was asked if he might take a liaison job akin to what Noël Coward was doing in Paris. But Howard was a filmmaker. That is what he knew and that is what he wanted to do.(1)

Howard considered making dramatized documentaries to be shown in America explaining why the United Kingdom had declared war. Great Britain would need supplies soon, not manpower, and after all the years Howard had spent in the United States, he knew that his American half-brothers would need some convincing that they weren't being asked to come on over. What Britain needed was tools for fighting a war. But Howard also knew that Americans didn't like backing losers and that if they had the idea that the Brits were about to be so much fodder under Hitler's boots, the U.S. wouldn't back them. After all, changing your industries over from making peace-time products to those of war would require a lot of work. Howard decided the best way to get Americans to see his side and agree to help was to appeal to their conscience and sense of fair play. He knew how much Americans hate a bully.

Howard wouldn't have to make anything up. In the early stages of the war he spent a lot of time with his friend Jonah Barrington, the radio correspondent of the Daily Express, listening to the short-wave radio broadcasts coming out of Poland. Howard could hear the desperation of Poles as they described the German Panzer armies advancing across the country. Howard continued to listen until the last Polish voice was silenced. But still he could get no agreement from government officials on anything he suggested. So Howard did what he knew. He began work on a new film, "Pimpernel" Smith, which he produced himself.(1)

In Search of My Father: A Portrait of Leslie Howard, by Ronald Howard, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1981 ISBN 0-312-41161-8

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