"Conflict of Wings" was released in America as "Fuss over Feathers", but I will refer to it here by its original British title. It was not made by Ealing Studios, but it shares a theme with several of the classic Ealing comedies, notably "Whisky Galore", "Passport to Pimlico" and "The Titfield Thunderbolt", that of a small, tightly knit community taking on the forces of officialdom and authority. The community in this case is a small village on the Norfolk Broads whose inhabitants are horrified when they discover that the RAF want to use the nearby Island of Children as a firing range. The Island, which has never been farmed, is a patch of wild ground which is regarded as an unofficial bird reserve.
It is a general rule that whenever a British comedy deals with the subject of a small, tightly knit community taking on the forces of officialdom our sympathies will always lie with the local people; this is certainly the case in the three Ealing films mentioned above. "Conflict of Wings", however, is something of an exception because our sympathies are more divided. In 1954, less than a decade after the end of the war, it would have been difficult to portray the RAF as villains at a time when the British film industry was still making dramas like "The Dambusters" celebrating their role in the victory over Nazism. The RAF men we see in this film may fly modern jets like Vampires and Meteors rather than Spitfires and Lancasters, but they are still the decent, salt-of-the-earth types portrayed in wartime films. Britain may be at peace, but fighting is still taking place in other parts of the world, and we learn that the squadron shown here will soon be posted to Malaya.
The fight to save the Island is led by Joe Bates, the local landlord, and Harry Tilney, a hard-drinking ex-sailor. Some of the villagers, however, have divided loyalties, especially two local girls, Sally and Fanny, who both have boyfriends at the RAF base. Both, however, also have reasons to support the protest; Fanny is Joe's daughter and Sally is a bird lover whose pet seagull Perdita plays an important role in the plot. (Contrary to what one reviewer writes, I think that the name was supposed to be "Perdita", Latin for "lost", rather than "Perditor", "destroyer"). As in "Passport to Pimlico" a lot of the plot discovers on the discovery of an ancient document, in this case a grant of the Island by Henry VIII to a local abbey for assistance in putting down Kett's Rebellion.
Although the film is supposedly a comedy, the ending left me with a distinctly uneasy feeling. Realising that the supposed grant by Henry VIII cuts little ice with the authorities, the villagers decide that the only way to stop the development from going ahead is to stage a mass trespass on the Island on the very day that bombing is scheduled to begin. Low cloud and the breaking of a field telephone line mean that their presence goes undetected until the pilot of the leading aircraft spots them at the last moment, thus averting a massacre. At this moment my sympathies were wholeheartedly with the airmen. For all my own love of birds and nature, I could not sympathise with a bunch of protesters whose irresponsible actions brought them so close to disaster.
The photography of the Norfolk countryside is attractive and the acting is adequate, even if there are no outstanding performances. It is, however, ever to see why "Conflict of Wings" is little remembered today and has not achieved the fame of the great Ealing comedies. Halliwell's Film & Video Guide described it as "generally pleasant but without much bite", and I wouldn't dissent from that opinion. 6/10
A goof. The island could not have been given to the abbey by Henry VIII as a reward for helping to suppress Kett's rebellion. That rebellion took place in 1549, two years after Henry's death and during the reign of his son Edward VI. By this time all abbeys in England had been suppressed under the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
It is a general rule that whenever a British comedy deals with the subject of a small, tightly knit community taking on the forces of officialdom our sympathies will always lie with the local people; this is certainly the case in the three Ealing films mentioned above. "Conflict of Wings", however, is something of an exception because our sympathies are more divided. In 1954, less than a decade after the end of the war, it would have been difficult to portray the RAF as villains at a time when the British film industry was still making dramas like "The Dambusters" celebrating their role in the victory over Nazism. The RAF men we see in this film may fly modern jets like Vampires and Meteors rather than Spitfires and Lancasters, but they are still the decent, salt-of-the-earth types portrayed in wartime films. Britain may be at peace, but fighting is still taking place in other parts of the world, and we learn that the squadron shown here will soon be posted to Malaya.
The fight to save the Island is led by Joe Bates, the local landlord, and Harry Tilney, a hard-drinking ex-sailor. Some of the villagers, however, have divided loyalties, especially two local girls, Sally and Fanny, who both have boyfriends at the RAF base. Both, however, also have reasons to support the protest; Fanny is Joe's daughter and Sally is a bird lover whose pet seagull Perdita plays an important role in the plot. (Contrary to what one reviewer writes, I think that the name was supposed to be "Perdita", Latin for "lost", rather than "Perditor", "destroyer"). As in "Passport to Pimlico" a lot of the plot discovers on the discovery of an ancient document, in this case a grant of the Island by Henry VIII to a local abbey for assistance in putting down Kett's Rebellion.
Although the film is supposedly a comedy, the ending left me with a distinctly uneasy feeling. Realising that the supposed grant by Henry VIII cuts little ice with the authorities, the villagers decide that the only way to stop the development from going ahead is to stage a mass trespass on the Island on the very day that bombing is scheduled to begin. Low cloud and the breaking of a field telephone line mean that their presence goes undetected until the pilot of the leading aircraft spots them at the last moment, thus averting a massacre. At this moment my sympathies were wholeheartedly with the airmen. For all my own love of birds and nature, I could not sympathise with a bunch of protesters whose irresponsible actions brought them so close to disaster.
The photography of the Norfolk countryside is attractive and the acting is adequate, even if there are no outstanding performances. It is, however, ever to see why "Conflict of Wings" is little remembered today and has not achieved the fame of the great Ealing comedies. Halliwell's Film & Video Guide described it as "generally pleasant but without much bite", and I wouldn't dissent from that opinion. 6/10
A goof. The island could not have been given to the abbey by Henry VIII as a reward for helping to suppress Kett's rebellion. That rebellion took place in 1549, two years after Henry's death and during the reign of his son Edward VI. By this time all abbeys in England had been suppressed under the Dissolution of the Monasteries.