The First of the Few
Synopsis
This 1942 fictionalized biopic chronicles the true story of how two of the most remarkable men in aviation history - visionary Spitfire designer R.J. Mitchell and his test pilot Geoffrey Crisp - designed a streamlined monoplane that led to the development of the Spitfire.
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 22
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
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Cast & Crew
22 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Leslie Howard
as R.J. Mitchell
David Niven
as Geoffrey Crisp
Rosamund John
as Diana Mitchell
Roland Culver
as Commander Bride
Anne Firth
as Miss Harper
David Horne
as Mr. Higgins
J H Roberts
as Sir Robert McLean
Derrick De Marney
as Squadron Leader Jefferson
Rosalyn Boulter
as Mabel Lovesay
Herbert Cameron
as MacPherson
Toni Edgar Bruce
as Lady Houston
Gordon Mcleod
as Major Buchan
Supporting cast
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Where to watch
Live · bot-verified- The Criterion ChannelStream
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