London Can Take It! is a 1940 documentary short film (10 minutes) directed by Humphrey Jennings and Harry Watt.
It is a British propaganda film about the Blitz
, the German night bombing campaign against London in fall 1940. The short begins with Londoners getting off work and heading for air raid shelters. Night falls, and sure enough, the Luftwaffe comes over London again. Searchlights light the skies, anti-aircraft guns fire, and firemen race around trying to keep fires under control. Come the morning, and the city goes about its day, the people of London going back to work.
Tropes:
- The Cameo: King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) are briefly shown walking around some bomb damage. Whether or not it's Buckingham Palace damage from the bombing of September 13, 1940 isn't made clear.
- Documentary: A Nazi bombing raid on London and its after effects.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Supposedly 16 hours or so, given that the film starts with quitting time in the evening, portrays a German bombing raid, and then shows the damage the next morning.
- "London, England" Syndrome: Well naturally you have to show Parliament and Big Ben tolling 8 pm to demonstrate that night has fallen and the Germans are coming.
- Narrator: American magazine correspondent Quentin Reynolds provides dry narration.
- Present Tense Narrative: The idea is to portray a single evening in London during the Blitz. As part of that concept, the narration is in present tense."The dusk is deepening. Listening crews are posted all the way from the coast to London, to pick up the drone of the German planes."
- Stiff Upper Lip: What the film is attempting to demonstrate. One man is shown playing darts in a bomb shelter as bombs fall outside.
- This Is Reality: It is! As an anti-aircraft gun fires, Reynolds says "These are not Hollywood sound effects."
- Title Drop: The short ends with a shot of the famous Richard the Lionheart statue and Westminster, with the statue damaged and glass knocked out of the window behind.note . As the camera shows damage to the statue the narration says bombing "cannot kill the unconquerable spirit and courage of the people of London. London can take it."
