Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn

After watching this film, I had two initial reactions....that Leslie Howard was not the same brave and wonderful man I thought he had been AND that the filmmakers were amazingly frank and honest about him...something rare in documentaries.

This documentary has been in a sort of limbo for some time....and I assume it was either from lack of funds or difficulty procuring rights to some of the film clips. Either way, it's also interesting because the interviews generally look very recent but were actually filmed decades ago.

As I mentioned above, the film left me feeling a bit disappointed to learn more about Howard....but that is NOT a terrible thing as the film also was very honest. It did not gloss over the fact that he was a horrid husband and serial adulterer. And, unlike many accounts that claim his death was due to him being on some secret mission, it was, in fact, most likely had little to do with him or any sort of propaganda mission. I really appreciated this, as too often films about celebrities are not a warts and all production but are intended only to celebrate the good deeds of the man...not the good and bad. Well worth seeing and rather unusual in style.