Editing The Dam Busters (film) (section)

==Production==
Anderson made the choice to shoot the film in black and white to allow the integration of original footage of the bomb trials, to boast a "gritty" documentary-style reality.

The flight sequences of the film were shot using real [[Avro Lancaster]] bombers supplied by the RAF. The aircraft, four of the final production B.VIIs, had to be taken out of storage and specially modified by removing the mid-upper [[gun turret]]s to mimic 617 Squadron's special aircraft, and cost £130 per hour to run, which amounted to a tenth of the film's costs. A number of [[Avro Lincoln]] bombers were also used as "set dressing".<ref>Garbettt and Goulding 1971, pp. 142–143.</ref> (An American cut was made more dramatic by depicting an aircraft flying into a hill and exploding. This version used [[stock footage]] from [[Warner Bros.]] of a [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress]], not a Lancaster.)

The German anti-aircraft personnel were played by the 247 (Ulster) LAA Regiment, part of the [[3rd (Ulster) Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery]], and was filmed at [[Stiffkey]] in north Norfolk.<ref>''Belfast Telegraph'' Monday 3 May 1954, page 5</ref>

[[Weybridge railway station]] was filmed for scenes, as Wallis had lived nearby.<ref>''Market Harborough Advertiser'' Thursday 6 October 1955, page 5</ref>

Filming began at Scampton on Tuesday 27 April 1954 for ten days.<ref>''Lincolnshire Echo'' Tuesday 27 April 1954, page 6</ref>

The [[Upper Derwent Valley]] in [[Derbyshire]] (the test area for the real raids) doubled as the [[Ruhr (river)|Ruhr valley]] for the film.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sykesssillysite.co.uk/p15_dambusters.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522042805/http://www.sykesssillysite.co.uk/p15_dambusters.htm |archive-date=2018-05-22  | title=Derwent Dam – 617 Dambusters, ladybower dam}}</ref> The scene where the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] coast is crossed was filmed between [[Boston, Lincolnshire|Boston]], [[Lincolnshire]], and [[King's Lynn]], [[Norfolk]], and other coastal scenes near [[Skegness]].

Filming at [[Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire|Gibraltar Point]] began on Wednesday 21 April 1954, for four days. Appearing as an extra, on the beach, as an Air Commodore was Mr E Taylor, a teacher from [[Skegness Grammar School]]. Mr Taylor had been an intelligence officer at [[RAF Woodhall Spa]]. Other extras came from the Skegness Players.<ref>''Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph'' Thursday 22 April 1954, page 5</ref><ref>''Skegness News'' Wednesday 28 April 1954, page 3</ref><ref>''Skegness Standard'' Wednesday 28 April 1954, page 5</ref><ref>''Gainsborough Evening News'' Tuesday 17 August 1954, page 6</ref>

The scene where they fly along a canal was filmed on the Dutch river (local nickname for the canal) on the way to Goole which is on the M62 to Hull. As the planes turn across country you can see Goole fully as they turn. This was used as the area around Goole is perfectly flat. Additional aerial footage was shot above [[Windermere]], in the [[Lake District]].
[[Image:Avro 683 Lancaster B.VII NX671 Baginton 19.06.54.jpg|thumb|right|An Avro Lancaster B.VII modified for the film with cut-out bomb bay and mock bouncing bomb demonstrating to a crowd at [[Coventry Airport]] in 1954]]

While [[RAF Scampton]], where the real raid launched, was used for some scenes, the principal airfield used for ground location shooting was [[RAF Hemswell]], a few miles north and still an operational RAF station at the time of filming. Guy Gibson had been based at Hemswell in his final posting and the airfield had been an operational Avro Lancaster base during the war. At the time filming took place it was then home to [[No. 109 Squadron RAF|No. 109 Squadron]] and [[No. 139 Squadron RAF]], which were both operating [[English Electric Canberra]]s on electronic countermeasures and nuclear air sampling missions over hydrogen bomb test sites in the Pacific and Australia. However, part of the RAF's fleet of ageing Avro Lincolns had been mothballed at Hemswell prior to being broken up and several of these static aircraft appeared in background shots during filming, doubling for additional No 617 Squadron Lancasters. The station headquarters building still stands on what is now an industrial estate and is named Gibson House. The four wartime hangars also still stand, little changed in external appearance since the war.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bcar.org.uk/hemswell-history.php|title=Hemswell Airfield History – BCAR.org.uk|website=bcar.org.uk}}</ref>

The former operations briefing room at Scampton, where scenes were filmed, was now the NCO mess. On the set, a survivor of the raid, David Shannon, said 'I think altogether, too much has been made of this raid. To us, it was just another operation'<ref>''Daily News'' Friday 4 June 1954, page 4</ref>

Serving RAF pilots from both squadrons based at Hemswell took turns flying the Lancasters during filming and found the close formation and low level flying around [[Derwentwater]] and Windermere exhilarating and a welcome change from their normal high level solo Canberra sorties. While filming on one of the first days with the Lancasters, a Lancaster's tail wheel caught the roof of a nearby hanger, to the chagrin of a control tower officer. The Mosquito in the film was flown by Flying Officer Leslie Brown of Verena Terrace in Perth; he had been at Dunkirk with the [[51st (Highland) Division]], then joined the RAF and was shot down in north Africa, being an Italian prisoner of war for three years.<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Tuesday 18 May 1954, page 5</ref> Two of the Lancaster pilots were Fl Lt KP Souter and Flt Lt WD Caldwell.<ref>''Lincolnshire Echo'' Tuesday 20 April 1954, page 1</ref>

Three of the four Lancaster bombers used in the film had also appeared in the [[Dirk Bogarde]] film ''[[Appointment in London]]'' two years earlier.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045513/ " 'Appointment in London' (film)".] ''imdb.com'', 2009. Retrieved: 4 December 2009.</ref>

The theatre scene showing the spotlights was filmed at the [[Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith)|Lyric Theatre Hammersmith]].  The dance troupe was ''[[The Television Toppers]]'', on loan for one day filming, under contract from the BBC. The singer was June Powell,<ref>{{cite web|last=Forster|first=Charles|date=4 October 2017|title=Television Toppers under the spotlight|url=https://dambustersblog.com/2017/10/04/television-toppers-under-the-spotlight/|access-date=15 January 2020|website=Dambusters Blog}}</ref> she sings the 1942 song "Sing Everybody Sing" by John P Long.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dambustersblog.com/2016/02/01/sing-everybody-weve-found-the-song/|title=Sing Everybody Sing|work=Dambusters blog|date=1 February 2016}}</ref> Scenes were filmed at the Chelsea Palace on [[Sydney Street]].<ref>''Westminster News'' Friday 23 July 1954, page 4</ref>

Richard Todd described filming the final scene with Michael Redgrave, where Gibson says he has to write letters, saying that as he walked away from the camera he was quietly weeping. He had his own experience of letter writing. He also said that the dog, also named Nigger, refused to go near the spot where the real Nigger was buried.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.key.aero/article/interview-dam-busters-star-richard-todd | title=Interview: 'The Dam Busters' star Richard Todd | newspaper=Key Aero }}</ref>

Five photographs of Labrador dogs from a [[Defence Animal Training Regiment|site]] at [[Melton Mowbray]] were sent to the film studios, and a mine-tracking dog was chosen,<ref>''Melton Mowbray Times and Vale of Belvoir Gazette'' Friday 4 June 1954, page 3</ref> looked after by handler Lance Corporal Peter Reid of Ainslie Gardens in Perth, Scotland.

The black Labrador had never lived in a house before, and Richard Todd took the dog back to the White Hart Hotel in Lincoln, where the dog slept in the bathroom. Richard wanted to keep the dog, but the RAF would not let him.<ref>''Grantham Journal'' Friday 14 May 1993</ref>

===Soundtrack===
{{main|The Dam Busters March}}
''[[The Dam Busters March]]'', by [[Eric Coates]], is for many synonymous with the film, as well as with the exploit itself, and remains a favourite [[military band]] item at [[flypast]]s and in the concert hall.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

Other than the introduction and trio section theme, the majority of the march as performed is not featured in the film soundtrack. Coates himself avoided writing music for the cinema, remembering the experiences of his fellow composer [[Arthur Bliss]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lace |first1=Ian |title=Elgar and Eric Coates |url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/coates/elgar.htm |website=Music Web International |access-date=29 November 2020}}</ref> Coates only agreed to provide an overture for the film after he was persuaded by the film's producers it was of "national importance" and pressure was put on him via his publisher, [[Chappell & Co.|Chappell]]. A march he had recently completed was found to fit well with the heroic subject and was thus submitted.<ref>{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=Alan|title=The Dambusters: 70 Years of 617 Squadron RAF|publisher=Pen and Sword|date=2013|pages=171–172}}</ref> The majority of the soundtrack including the theme played during the raid sequence in the film was composed by [[Leighton Lucas]].

[[Philip Lane (composer)|Philip Lane]], who reconstructed parts of Leighton Lucas's orchestral score (which had been lost) notes that Lucas created his own main theme "which seems to play hide and seek with Coates's throughout the film, both vying for supremacy."<ref>{{cite book|last=Lane|first=Philip|title=CD notes for "The film music of Arthur Benjamin and Leighton Lucas"|url=https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/CH10713.pdf|publisher=Chandos Records CH10713|date=2012|pages=13–14}}</ref>