• Home
  • News
  • Top Picks
    • Movies & Films: Top 25
    • Documentaries: Top 25
    • Films For Students: Top 10
    • Music Videos: Top 10
  • Categories
    • Film
    • Documentary
    • Shorts
    • Blog
    • Calendar
    • Links
    • About

Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World

Libertarian Movies, Films & Documentaries

Leslie Howard: Libertarian Film Hero

Leslie Howard — born April 3rd, 1893 — is probably best-known to audiences for his memorable role as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. But he also chose to star in, and in some cases produced and directed, several early films of libertarian interest. Two of these films were important in the effort to defeat Nazi Germany and to save its victims.

Howard’s first libertarian film was The Scarlet Pimpernel, in which he portrays an English gentleman who, under the guise of being a useless dandy, secretly risks all to save innocent lives from the guillotine of the French Revolution. Amidst this carnage enters our hero, snatching the innocent from the blood-soaked jaws of the state. Under the code-name of the “Scarlet Pimpernel,” he and his band outwit the French authorities, rescue the doomed, and transport them to safety in England. Though made in 1934 and now nearly a hundred years old, this film still remarkably entertaining and despite a dozen film adaptations of this novel having been made since, Howard’s performance is still considered the definitive portrayal.

Just a few years later in 1941, there were rumors of death camps in Germany. Howard reprised his earlier role into Pimpernel Smith, essentially the same as that of The Scarlet Pimpernel but updated to the Nazi era, the hero being a British professor of classics and archaeology who rescues the condemned from Nazi concentration camps. Leslie Howard — himself the son of an Hungarian Jew —  was the driving force that made this film happen. He produced, directed, and starred in it, and it’s one of those times when you can say a film had an important real-life effect. Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who is credited with saving thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, is said to have been inspired by the character of Pimpernel Smith.

And lastly, in 1942, Leslie Howard made Spitfire, a tribute to aircraft designer R.J. Mitchell, the inventor of the Spitfire fighter plane. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of the formidable Spitfire to modern freedom. The Nazi assault on England was planned to take just six weeks but instead dragged on for a year before being called off, thanks in part to Britain’s plucky Spitfires. That precious year gave the U.S. time to begin building the war machine that would ultimately spoil Axis plans for world conquest. Dramatized here is the less well-known account of how the Spitfire was designed and to some degree financed by private individuals worried about German militarism, long before government woke up to the danger. It’s a tribute both to Mitchell and to private initiative, and was an important boost to the morale of beleaguered wartime Britain.

In 1943, Leslie Howard traveled to Portugal and died when his plane was shot down by German aircraft. It’s a pity his career didn’t go on longer, but in the moment when the peoples of the free world needed heroes to inspire them, he gave us some terrific and memorable ones — heroes who are still, by their undying example for all who care to see them, fighting the good fight for liberty.

Links

IMDB
Wikipedia

Biography: Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email

Related

Featured Post

Government Bureaucracy Sketch: Jameson Notodofilmfest

An excellent short film from the Jameson Notodofilmfest, a Spanish short film festival, on what it’s like to deal with government bureaucracy. [3 min] Topics: Anti-Regulation … Continue Reading

how jack became black

How Jack Became Black | Film Review

A father forced by the public school system to categorize his multiracial children by "primary race" explores the silliness of racial identity. [ How Jack Became Black credits: Dir: Eli Steele/ 96 min/ Documentary/ Equality & Law, Individualism/ 2018] "Eli Steele's storytelling has the authenticity … Continue Reading

The Man in the White Suit

The Man in the White Suit (1951)

WINNER: TOP 25 LIBERTARIAN FILMS A research scientist invents a fabric both indestructible and stainproof, but manufacturing interests and unions try to prevent its production. [ The Man in the White Suit credits: Dir: Alexander MacKendrick/ Alec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker/ 81 min/ Comedy/ … Continue Reading

Themes

Abuse of power American revolution Anti-draft Anti-regulation Anti-slavery Anti-socialism Anti-taxation Anti-war Ayn Rand Corrupt government Creator as hero Democide Econ 101 Eminent domain Equality & law Escape from socialism Freedom of speech Free press as hero Government as bigot Government as torturer Government enforced morality Government healthcare Government schools Incompetent government Individualism John Stossel Law & liberty Legalize Drugs Libertarian heroes Libertarianism 101 Power corrupts Power worship Pro-capitalism Pro-immigration Propaganda Psychiatric coercion Resistance to tyranny Right to secede Search & seizure Second amendment Sexual liberty Social tolerance Unions & monopolies Voluntarism Working for government

Genres/Categories

Action-Adventure Animated Biography Blog Comedy Documentary Drama Family Featured Film Foreign History Horror Music-Dance Netflix News Romance SciFi-Fantasy Shorts Thriller Upcoming Western

About Miss Liberty

This site is a collection of films and documentaries of particular interest to libertarians (and those interested in libertarianism). It began as a book, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, where many of the recommended films were first reviewed. The current collection has grown to now more than double the number in that original list, and it’s growing still.

  • RSS

© 2025 Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World. All Rights Reserved