William Walton composed the impressive Elgerian music for “The First of the Few (1942, U.K.)“. Leslie Howard directed and starred in the film, as (somewhat fabricated) R. J. Mitchell, the creator of Supermarine Spitfire, one of the most resilient fighter planes during WWII. The engine sound in the film is so realistic that you could almost feel the hot exhaust from the nozzles.
In “Stukas (1943, Germany)”, directed by Karl Ritter, dive bombers create shrieking, menacing noise, accentuating the furious velocity of attack. This unnerving noise is the sound of the infamous “Jericho Trumpet”, a wailing siren device mounted on the Junkers Ju 87 (“Stukas”). The historians said that purpose of this devilish siren was to intimidate ground enemies as the aircraft engaged dive bombing. This ‘trumpet’ symbolizes the velocity and intensity of Blitzkrieg of the Third Reich during the early stage of the war.
The aircraft droning noise in Aerograd reminded me of this particularly effective scene from “The North Star (1943, U.S.A.)”, a black sheep of Hollywood propaganda directed by Lewis Milestone. Samuel Goldwyn produced this well-known war film about an Ukrainian village under attack by Nazis, to promote “neighborly” feeling toward the Communist Nation of the Allies.
