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It's in the Air (1938 film)

1938 film by Anthony Kimmins

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ6091389 ↗
Source-derived summary

It’s in the Air is a 1938 British comedy film written and directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring George Formby, Polly Ward and Jack Hobbs. The film was released in the United States with the alternative title George Takes the Air in 1940. The film depicts Great Britain's preparations for war with ARP warden training, mock air attacks dropping poison gas bombs and the deployment of antiaircraft weapons in the streets.

Plot

After George Brown is rejected as an air-raid warden, he wears his brother-in-law's Royal Air Force uniform and realises that his brother-in-law has left behind some very important papers in the pockets. He delivers the despatches to a nearby RAF station, whereupon George is mistaken for a despatch rider from headquarters. Although he becomes the butt of jokes from his corporal, George stays indefinitely at the RAF air base. He soon falls in love with the sergeant major's daughter Peggy, a base NAAFI girl, and when Corporal Craig, who also fancies her, discovers his real identity, he threatens to report George.

On the day of an annual inspection, George attempts to escape the base and finds himself in a Hawker Audax aircraft that is being readied for a test flight. While the inspector watches, George's aerial display is memorable and the inspector insists that George should be commended. George manages to land the aircraft and is accepted as a flyer by the RAF.

Cast

Production

It’s in the Air was partly produced at the former London Air Park in Feltham, Middlesex.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “It's in the Air (1938 film)” as 1938 film by Anthony Kimmins. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around It's, film and Anthony.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1938, 1940—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with It's, film and Anthony providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “It's in the Air (1938 film)”, the useful work is to connect “1938 film by Anthony Kimmins” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6091389. The first chronological checks are 1938 and 1940.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “It's in the Air (1938 film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow It's in the Air (1938 film) primary sources, It's in the Air (1938 film) archive and It's research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “It's in the Air (1938 film)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “It's in the Air (1938 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.