Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

Sy Bartlett (screenplay) and
Beirne Lay Jr. (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 February 1950 (Brazil)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

A story of twelve men as their women never knew them...

Plot:

A hard-as-nails general takes over a bomber pilot unit suffering from low morale and whips them into fighting shape.

Plot Keywords:

Bomber | General | Pilot | Bombing | Bomber Pilot

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	General Savage
Hugh Marlowe	...	Lt. Col. Ben Gately
Gary Merrill	...	Col. Davenport
Millard Mitchell	...	General Pritchard
Dean Jagger	...	Major Stovall
Robert Arthur	...	Sgt. McIllhenny
Paul Stewart	...	Capt. 'Doc' Kaiser
John Kellogg	...	Major Cobb
Robert Patten	...	Lt. Bishop (as Bob Patten)
Lee MacGregor	...	Lt. Zimmerman
Sam Edwards	...	Birdwell
Roger Anderson	...	Interrogation Officer

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | West Germany:16 (f) | USA:Approved (certificate #13818) | Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:S | Spain:T | UK:U | Sweden:15 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Eglin Air Force Base, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The B-17 bomber crash landing at the airstrip near the beginning of the movie was no special effect. Stunt pilot Paul Mantz was paid $4,500 to crash-land the bomber. Mantz of course walked away from the wreck. Until the 1970s, that was the largest amount ever paid to a stuntman for a single stunt.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Stock combat footage of air-to-air combat is used extensively. Some clips have been flipped left to right and reused. Others, particularly of German fighters blowing up, were not filmed from bombers but were taken from the gun cameras of Allied fighters, which did not accompany the bombers at this time. (Some shots taken from non-bombers are from cameras on German fighters, on footage captured after the war.)

Quotes:

Maj. Gen. Ben Pritchard: I guess I don't have to tell you what's coming, Frank. I'm promising you nothing except a job no man should have to do who's already had more than his share of combat. I've gotta ask you to take nice kids and fly them until they can't take any more, and then put 'em back in and fly 'em some more. We've got to try to find out just what a maximum effort is. How much a man can take and get it all.
[sighs]
Maj. Gen. Ben Pritchard: I don't even know if any man can do it. That's what cracked Keith.
[pause]
Maj. Gen. Ben Pritchard: What time do you think you can get down there tomorrow?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Star Wars (1977)

Soundtrack:

Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree

Probably the greatest film of the air war to be made about World War II

No gungho up and at 'em men. No false heroics. A great war film, but also an anti-war film of great intensity. Just ordinary men (and boys) doing the job they knew they had got to do. Greg Peck magnificent as the general forced to stiffen the morale of his bomber group, and who he himself eventually cracks under the strain. Dean Jagger outstanding and thoroughly deserving his oscar as best supporting actor. A truly great film, 10 out of 10 in my book. There are still disused airfields like that shown at the beginning only a few miles from where I live (although they were RAF bases). In 1943-45 as a young schoolboy I lived further down south in England and often saw the American Fortresses going to, and returning (not all of them!) from their daylight raids over Germany . A fine tribute to those American airmen wo gave their lives over Europe.