The film shows Christmas 1940, in the middle of the Blitz. Christmas traditions are depicted in juxtaposition with a wartime backdrop: Christmas trees are dug up for air raid shelters; housewives buy food for the Christmas dinner; theatres stage pantomime productions; schoolchildren produce handmade Christmas cards. People are shown celebrating Christmas while sheltering in the London Underground, accompanied by a carol sung by the choir of King's College, Cambridge.[1]
Christmas Under Fire was produced by the Crown Film Unit of the Ministry of Information, commissioned as a sequel to London Can Take It.[2] It was designed primarily for distribution in America and, in order to increase the film's appeal to an American audience, Quentin Reynolds from the magazine Collier's Weekly was chosen as the film's narrator;[3] Reynolds had previously written and narrated two other British propaganda films, London Can Take It and London's Reply to Germany's False Claims.[4]
The film was produced in the context of The Blitz, the series of German bombing raids on British cities that began in September 1940. A central message of the film is that "life goes on", with Christmas traditions continuing despite disruption caused by bombing. In order to encourage the support of the American population, the film was designed to shake the complacency of neutral America,[2] while depicting the resilience, determination and defiance of British civilians. One window cleaner, for example, is shown putting up a poster stating: "Business As Usual: if you've got no windows, we'll clean your chimneys".[3]
Release and reception
As well as being released in Britain,[4] the film was distributed in America by Warner Brothers, whose income from distributing the film was donated to the Spitfire Fund, which was used to help RAF construction of Spitfire aircraft.[5]
