BS: Monument to Leslie Howard

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Will Fly
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 06:42 AM

Leslie Howard did an updated version of the Scarlet Pimpernel - a wartime film called Pimpernel Smith, in which he played a similar character, but this time getting people out of Nazi Germany. This may have contributed to the downing of the plane...

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 04:30 AM

..then I was thinking maybe Alanabit meant Lawrence Harvey...but he was Lithuanian, by way of South Africa!
Who said the global village was a modern idea!?
D

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 04:25 AM

James Mason was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire...
D

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: alanabit
Date: 21 Apr 09 - 02:14 AM

Sorry, my brain's going, I always thought he was born Hungarian. Turns out not to be true.

yours,

Peter T.


I wonder if you were thinking of James Mason, Peter?

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: 3refs
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:48 PM

Some people best serve in being in control of the business end of a gun, others just get in the freakin way, and others serve in other ways. I always thought that just because you didn't serve active duty, doesn't mean you didn't contribute somehow!

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:46 PM

Run Silent, Run Deep (Clark Gable) played on our local PBS station this weekend. I haven't watched a war movie in years. There's a lot more going on in this than a war, of course. (It also looked like every man who was ever a guest star on the long-running Perry Mason series was a crew member on that submarine.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:27 PM

Sorry, my brain's going, I always thought he was born Hungarian. Turns out not to be true.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:25 PM

One forgets that there were some people -- Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, James Stewart among others -- who risked their lives, while others -- Ronald Reagan, the beloved, etc., etc., president -- sat in Hollywood and on occasion made up their war records.

It is funny how a non-Englishman could have been the quintessential Englishman.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 06:11 PM

For years after seeing The Scarlet Pimpernel I thought HE was Merle Oberon and SHE was Leslie Howard...

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: SINSULL
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 12:26 PM

Of Human Bondage with Bette Davis.

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 12:18 PM

I didn't know about this, either, and he's always been one of my favs. ever since falling in love with him the first time I saw GWTW at eight years old. It is good they are putting up a monument.

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Genie
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 10:51 AM

In case the link 'breaks' (as they are wont to do), here's what the Toronto Sun said about Howard's WWII story.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2009/04/19/9161911-sun.html
News World
Monument to actor Howard
(AP) 4-19-09

MADRID -- ... Leslie Howard will be honoured as a war hero with a monument in Spain near where his plane was shot down by Nazi fighter pilots during the Second World War, a historical association said yesterday.

The ... sculpture will [bear] the names of those who died aboard the commercial flight from Portugal to Britain in 1943 ...    .

Association president Manuel Santiago Arenas Roca said the London-born Howard joined the Allies and campaigned hard against the Axis powers.

NEGATIVE IMPACT
... Germany's government at the time apparently was worried about the negative impact the high-profile actor-director's anti-Nazi publicity was having on its cause.

... KLM flight 777 ... was downed by a squadron of Junkers 88 fighter planes, said Ximena, who believes [Howard] had been on "a secret mission" to stop Spain joining Germany and Italy in combat.

Spain, under the power of fascist dictator Gen. Francisco Franco, had formed an alliance with Adolf Hitler's Nazi government, which based Luftwaffe warplanes on its soil.

CONTRIBUTION

The author said Howard's contribution to winning the war is in danger of being forgotten.
Most of the books relating to his untimely death were published in the 1950s, and the association wants to pay tribute to a man who put his fame and communication skills to work combatting Nazi propaganda.

...

Ximena said there was considerable evidence that Howard was targeted specifically, thus becoming a war hero.

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Teribus
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 10:18 AM

PS The series by the bye was "The Valiant Years" and it showed a clip of film showing Leslie Howard walking out over the tarmac - At first glance it would have been highly credible.

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Teribus
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 10:16 AM

Interesting link 3refs. When the incident was covered in the Second World War documentary series they stated that the reason the Civil aviation flight carrying Howard was shot down was because either a Nazi Agent or sympathiser noted a well dressed man wearing a Homburg hat and smoking a cigar was seen about to board the aircraft. The JU 88 long range fighters which were based in France not in Spain were launched because they thought from the description that the man could have been Churchill. I think the bit about Franco and Luftwaffe aircraft being based in Spain refers to the period of the "Condor Legion" during the Spanish Civil War.

Subject: RE: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 09:53 AM

IMDb page with his entry. I guess I never knew this (didn't think about it).

SRS

Subject: BS: Monument to Leslie Howard
From: 3refs
Date: 19 Apr 09 - 08:12 AM

Of all moviedom's heroes, one of my favourites was "The Scarlett Pimpernel".
http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2009/04/19/9161911-sun.html