past. Gregory Peck as Brigadier General Frank Savage did great credit to this role, and deserved an Oscar. From the moment he enters the base and tears into the guard at the gate for casually waving him through, you know he's going to be a S.O.B. Dean Jagger as Major Stovall, the lawyer in uniform now Ground Executive Officer knows how to handle the paperwork after the first sobering face to face encounter with with Savage. That Jagger won the Oscar as best supporting actor, was well deserved indeed. Gary Merrill as Colonel Keith Davenport, the too popular Group CO, very good. Hugh Marlowe as Lt Colonel Ben Gately, who flew too many missions from behind a desk, placed on the rack by Savage with the other bomb group deadbeats and foul ups, handles his role well. Then their's Millard Mitchell as Major General Pritchard, displaying a commanding presence, and Paul Stewart as Doc Kaiser, also well portrayed. There are no false heroics in this movie. No blood and guts all over the silver screen. And no routine world war two, hard boiled, go-get-'em dialogue to spoil it. The authors, Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay. wrote an excellent screenplay. They did the film a favour, they deleted General Savage's love interest that appeared in their fine novel. I don't think it would have added anything to the movie at all. Maybe what surprised a lot of moviegoers who had not read the book before seeing the movie, was Savage's mental breakdown; freezing suddenly at the hatch as he attempted to heave himself aboard the B-17. It was so unexpected of him after showing such ice-cold nerves What rounded out this impressive movie was the insertion of the air combat footage shot over Europe during the actual daylight operations. This documentary footage crowned a very fine achievement. One of Henry King's best; a professional effort indeed. The thread of sincerity in this war movie runs deep.The reason I found the movie so engrossing was, as a teenager, on the sidelines of the war, I saw more than one B-17 stagger home and belly in on a wing and a prayer. This movie was loaded with integrity from the beginning to the end credits. I'm sure the gallant gentlemen who flew with the Eighth Air Force over enemy-occupied Europe would be of the same opinion. It is a kind of monument to those warriors.

Peck as the bomber group commander were complex, subtle and psychologically demanding, while the resolution was filled with the kind of male social and political dynamics not much explored at the movies these days. Director Henry King's clean, crisp, "invisible" direction was also superior to the uneven and far too showy pandering from Spielberg. Furthermore the acting, with Gary Merrill and Hugh Marlowe supporting Peck, was also better. Ted Danson in his cameo and Matt Damon at times in "Saving Private Ryan" were almost laughable. Comparing the two movies makes one wonder how much movies really have improved. Technically they have in every respect, but too often today's film-makers think they can get by with special effects and splashy sets. Pour a lot of blood, show a lot of skin, get people at each other's throat, and it will play, seems to be the attitude. What is often forgotten are the two most important aspects of film, namely, story and character development. In this respect I don't think today's films have improved on the great classics of the past. Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!

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.

tension is perfectly manipulated, and the characters are well-drawn, sympathetic and fully developed. Every member of this superb cast gives this great material the great acting it deserves. The usage of actual WWII bombing footage adds to the sense of reality. The psychological drama - what "maximum effort" does to people - is at the core of the story and supercedes the mere military aspect. And the device of the framing scenes - Harvey Stovall Dean Jagger recollecting the story while standing in the abandoned airstrip - is brilliant. It gives the tale an overwhelmingly bittersweet feeling of "long-ago" nostalgia. It is so powerful that Spielberg must have consciously had 12 O'clock High in mind when he used the same device in Saving Private Ryan to make that whole film a flashback, just as this one is. To hell with the flashy flamboyance of Citizen Kane; I would have to give 12 O'clock High a better shot at being "the best movie ever made". Film buffs &/or devotees of WWII history who haven't seen this one are living a deprived existence.

stuff for 1949.It avoids a lot of war film clichés. There's no love interest there's even a nod to the fact that the men weren't always faithful to their loved ones back home . There's no attempt to create a group of men who represent the breadth of society back home. You know the sort of thing - the New York cabbie, the young farm boy, the Texan, the idealistic schoolteacher, the journalist, the architect who's now bombing things that he once built. And it's about failure, it's about men destroying their bodies and their minds for something they don't understand. It reminds me of the colour-sergeant's reply to a soldier in Zulu, who asks 'Why us?'. 'Because we're 'ere, lad. Just us. Nobody else.' If I wanted to sound pretentious, I'd use the word 'existential'.It's about leadership and is similar to Nortwest Passage. Both Spencer Tracy in that film and Peck in this are aware that they are putting on an act. One of the great scenes is Peck arriving at the base. He's sitting in the front of the car. They stop and Peck offers his driver, whom he calls 'Ernie', a smoke. He thinks for a while, then grinds out his cigarette, says, 'Right, sergeant.' His driver snaps open the rear door and Peck becomes the general. Northwest Passage again - Tracy says 'I'm not a man now, I'm an officer responsible for men. If you meet me when I'm just a man, you might have to use a little charity.' Other nice touches: the way the fur-lined RAF boots become the symbol of leadership. The way the real-life footage is dovetailed into the main action, a tribute to the war-time cameramen as much as the editor. Notice how they filmed detail like empty shells falling to the aircraft floor.So how could a film about military leadership help a local government manager, of all people. I couldn't bust people or demote them easily, rearrange their duties with a stroke of the pen. I would have loved to set up a leper colony, but the union wouldn't let me. But Peck's stressing of the need for pride in one's group is something that can be transferred to any walk of life.

pilots began to weigh on his conscience. Savage initially whips the men into shape and, although they dislike his frank and uncompromising attitude, the fliers gradually find their morale improving. With their upturn in fortunes, however, comes a series of increasingly dangerous missions - and even Savage finds himself cracking under the pressure as did Davenport before him. Peck is in fine form here rarely was he better, other than in "To Kill A Mockingbird" . Special mention also to Hugh Marlowe as a misfit pilot who proves himself to be braver than anyone had ever foreseen, and Dean Jagger an Oscar-winner for his work here as an elderly paperwork clerk who occasionally stows away on risky bombing raids. The film explores the effects of high-pressure missions on the men involved, and comes to the disturbing conclusion that even the most iron-nerved of men can fold when the toll of war catches up with them. The psychological state of the characters becomes the main story thread - much more focal than, say, the actual bombing missions - but director Henry King ensures that the film remains thoroughly absorbing. You may come to Twelve O'Clock High expecting a film full of exhilarating aerial action, yet you won't get it. In spite of this, I guarantee you will still come away from the film totally affected by what you have seen. Great stuff.

that real, that wrenching. Instead of pretty "tributes" having their faces in the sky they talk about arms and legs being blown off in combat. And your imagination does the rest, if you're old enough to actually form mental pictures based on the tough, honest dialog.So then, the leader of the group begins to crack up. And it's not funny, it's not some weepy teen tantrum either. It's a grown man admitting that he can't cut it anymore. And then Gregory Peck comes in, determined to get the job done no matter what the cost in human lives. Imagine, a fully grown adult male in a leadership position! This movie is about war, and moral choices. But it's also about the nature of fatherhood. Gregory Peck seems to have specialized in exploring this theme, in films as strikingly different as TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, and even THE OMEN. In all three films he is the father who has to make the tough choices, torn between protecting his children and forcing them to take on adult responsibilities. 12 O'CLOCK HIGH demonstrates the meaning of "tough love" long before the phrase became cheapened by popular media. Yet 12 O'CLOCK HIGH shows the price of tough love, just as THE OMEN shows what happens when tough love becomes too tough and becomes crazed brutality. In a sense Damien was a deadbeat just like the boys in the Leper Colony in this film. Sometimes the bad seed cannot be redeemed. This movie doesn't glorify war, but it does suggest that without role models, such as father figures who demand respect and insist on discipline, children are likely to remain children forever. It's no accident that in a movie like THE HUNGER GAMES or CATCHING FIRE, the adult authority figures are either villains or clowns. Whether it's the drunken Haymitch or the sinister President Snow or the campy Effie Trinket, only caricatures of adults are permitted in modern films. TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH is the kind of movie they just don't make anymore. Because everyone knows that only teenagers are cool and it's only cool to be an adult if you're trying to stay a teenager forever.

going home. Accept the fact that you're already dead and it'll be easier for you," or words to that effect, he says by way of advice. His toughness works and turns the division into a highly successful one. But along the way, there are casualties, and Peck has to sublimate a lot of his true emotions.This is an excellent movie, both gripping and poignant, with actual fighter plane combat footage taken by both American and German soldiers that is mixed in with the film. The movie really makes you stop and think about what soldiers at war go through psychologically and what they face in battle. "Twelve O'Clock High," the title of which refers to a plane's position in the sky in relation to other planes makes you care about this division and most of all, about its commanding officer. Try as he might, as tough as Peck is in this film, he somehow manages to convey a warmth and quiet concern - the qualities that make Atticus Finch perhaps the greatest character in movies. Handsome, with an authoritative voice and strong presence, Peck's personality permeates throughout, as it does so often.Highly recommended.

leadership as Savage instills a vigorous camaraderie among his men and flies with them on bombing raids. But ultimately he succumbs like the Commanders before him to nervous breakdown."Twelve O'Clock Hight" is at once a gung-ho patriotic reaffirmation of the "good fight," yet also gives an anti-war message about the brutality of a world at war. The all-male cast give superb performances and Dean Jagger as Major Harvey Stovall won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. Production all round is first-rate including real footage of dogfights and bombing raids and the the most famous to that day action stunt of all time when stunt pilot Paul Mantz crash lands a B-17. And that's just the start of the picture! See this one.