| Twelve O'Clock High | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | Henry King |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Written by | Novel & screenplay: Sy Bartlett Beirne Lay, Jr. Screenplay only: Henry King |
| Starring | Gregory Peck Hugh Marlowe Gary Merrill Millard Mitchell Dean Jagger |
| Music by | Alfred Newman |
| Cinematography | Leon Shamroy |
| Editing by | Barbara McLean |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) | December 21, 1949 (Los Angeles) January 26, 1950 (New York) |
| Running time | 132 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $3,225,000 (US) |
Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American war film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett, Henry King (uncredited) and Beirne Lay, Jr. from the 1948 novel by Bartlett and Lay. It was directed by King and stars Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, and Dean Jagger.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two: Dean Jagger for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Thomas T. Moulton for Best Sound Recording.[1] In 1998, Twelve O'Clock High was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Contents |
In 1949, American attorney and former U.S. Army Air Forces officer Harvey Stovall (Dean Jagger) is vacationing in Great Britain when he spies a familiar toby jug in an English antique shop.[N 1] He buys it and bicycles out to an abandoned airfield, the former USAAF Station Archbury, where he served with the 918th Bomb Group during World War II. The scene then flashes back to USAAF Archbury, c. 1942.
Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill) is the commander of the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group, a B-17 Flying Fortress unit based at (the fictional) USAAF Archbury. Having recently arrived and being thrown into action, the 918th has suffered heavy losses, gaining the reputation as a "hard luck group" suffering from poor morale. One reason is the US strategy of daylight precision bombing and the corresponding high loss rate it causes to the American bombers to enemy antiaircraft fire and enemy fighters, the latter being aggravated by the fact that there are not yet any US or Allied fighters with sufficient range to escort the bombers to and from their targets.
Davenport has become too close to his men and is troubled by his losses. When he is ordered to fly one mission at low altitude to increase accuracy, Davenport rushes to headquarters and confronts his friend, Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck), the A-3 (Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations) of VIII Bomber Command. His visit prompts Major General Patrick Pritchard (Millard Mitchell), commanding general of VIII Bomber Command, Eighth Air Force, to visit the 918th. After interviewing Davenport and others, Pritchard recognizes that Davenport is the problem. He relieves Davenport of command and reassigns him. The 918th is given to Savage.
Savage finds his new command in disarray and begins to address the discipline problems, dealing with everyone so harshly that the men begin to detest him. Savage is particularly hard on Lieutenant Colonel Ben Gately (Hugh Marlowe), the Group Air Executive Officer, placing him under arrest for being Absent Without Leave during the command change. Major Joe Cobb (John Kellogg), one of Savage's squadron commanders, takes Gately's place as Air Exec. Gately, a graduate of West Point, grandson of a general officer and son of General Tom Gately, is assigned as the commander of a bomber named the "Leper Colony", to which Savage assigns those he considers substandard.
Upset by Savage's stern leadership, all of the 918th's pilots apply for transfers. Savage asks the Group Adjutant, Major Stovall (Dean Jagger), to delay processing their applications to buy some time. Stovall knows how to use "red tape", telling Savage he is a veteran of World War I. Stovall goes along, giving Savage more than a week. The 918th, after hasty refresher training, resumes combat flying. The 918th's increased skill and discipline become obvious to the enemy, who attack other groups and leave the 918th alone.
The men begin to change their minds about Savage after he leads them on a mission in which the 918th is the only group to bomb the target and all of the aircraft return safely. The word gets around that Pritchard personally chewed Savage out for his claim of "radio malfunction" as an excuse to ignore the recall order.[N 2]
When the pilots continue to ask about their transfer applications, Savage tries to enlist a young pilot, Medal of Honor-nominee Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (Robert Patten) to help him change their attitudes. Bishop eventually comes to believe in the general, and when the Inspector General arrives to check out the unrest, Bishop convinces the others to withdraw their requests. Later, Savage learns that Gately has been hospitalized, having flown three missions with a chipped vertebra that caused him acute pain. This brings about a "rapprochement" between him and Savage.
As the air war advances deeper into Germany, missions become longer and riskier, with enemy resistance intensifying. Many of Savage's best men, including Bishop, are shot down or killed. Pritchard tries to get Savage to return to a staff job at VIII Bomber Command. Savage refuses because he feels that the 918th is not quite ready to do without him yet. Reluctantly, Pritchard leaves Savage in command.
The first of these missions, aimed at destroying Germany's ball bearing industry, has the Luftwaffe throwing everything available at the bomber force. Although the target is hit, the 918th takes a beating, losing six of 21 B-17s. Savage is shaken when he witnesses Cobb's airplane being blown up by a direct flak hit. Savage concludes that a second strike on the same target is necessary. With the death of Cobb, Savage reinstates Gately as Air Exec. The next day, Savage becomes disoriented and erratic and is unable to haul himself up into his B-17. Gately takes over.
Savage becomes nearly catatonic. Only when the bombers return after destroying the target, does he regain his composure. He says a few words, and falls asleep.[N 3]
The story then returns to 1949 and Stovall. Stovall places the toby jug in its original place on the fireplace mantle of the long abandoned USAAF Archbury officers club and pedals away from the abandoned airfield on his bicycle.
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):[3]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Gregory Peck | Brigadier General Frank Savage |
| Hugh Marlowe | Lieutenant Colonel Ben Gately |
| Gary Merrill | Colonel Keith Davenport |
| Millard Mitchell | Major General Pritchard |
| Dean Jagger | Major / Lieutenant Colonel Harvey Stovall |
| Robert Arthur | Sergeant McIllhenny |
| Paul Stewart | Major "Doc" Kaiser (flight surgeon) |
| John Kellogg | Major Cobb |
| Robert Patten | Lieutenant Bishop |
| Lee MacGregor | Lieutenant Zimmerman |
| Sam Edwards | Lieutenant Birdwell |
| Roger Anderson | Interrogation Officer |
| Lawrence Dobkin | Captain Twombley, group chaplain (uncredited) |
| Kenneth Tobey | Sgt. Keller, guard at gate (uncredited) |
| Paul Picerni | Bombardier (uncredited) |
| Harry Lauter | Radio officer (uncredited) |
| Barry Jones | Lord Haw-Haw, German radio commentator (voice) (uncredited) |
| Don Gordon | First patient in base hospital (uncredited) |
| Richard Anderson | Lt. McKesson (uncredited) |
Brigadier General Frank Savage (played by Gregory Peck) was created as a composite of several group commanders but the primary inspiration was Col. Frank A. Armstrong, who commanded the 306th Bomb Group on which the 918th was modeled.[5] The name "Savage" was inspired by Armstrong's Cherokee heritage. In addition to his work with the 306th, which lasted only six weeks and consisted primarily of rebuilding the chain of command within the group, Armstrong had earlier performed a similar task with the 97th Bomb Group, and many of the training and disciplinary scenes in Twelve O'Clock High derive from that experience. Towards the end of the film, the near-catatonic battle fatigue that General Savage suffered and the harrowing missions that led up to it, were inspired by the experiences of Brigadier General Newton Longfellow,[5] although the symptoms of the breakdown were not based on any real-life event, but were intended to portray the effects of intense stress experienced by many airmen.
Major General Pritchard (played by Millard Mitchell) was modeled on that of the VIII Bomber Command's first commander, Maj. Gen. Ira C. Eaker.[6]
Colonel Keith Davenport (played by Gary Merrill) was based on the first commander of the 306th Bomb Group, Colonel Charles B. Overacker, nicknamed "Chip."[6] Of all the personalities portrayed in Twelve O'Clock High, that of Colonel Davenport most closely parallels his true-life counterpart. The early scene in which Davenport confronts Savage about a mission order was a close recreation of an actual event, as was his relief.
2nd Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (played by Robert Patten) who belly lands in the B-17 next to the runway at the beginning of the film and was nominated for the Medal of Honor, has his true life counterpart in Second Lieutenant John C. Morgan.[6] The description of Bishop's fight to control the bomber after his pilot was hit in the head by fragments of a 20 mm cannon shell is taken almost verbatim from Morgan's Medal of Honor citation. Details may be found in The 12 O'Clock High Logbook.
Sergeant McIllhenny (played by Robert Arthur) was drawn from a member of the 306th Bomb Group, Sgt Donald Bevan,[6] a qualified gunner who was assigned ground jobs including part-time driver for the commander of his squadron. Bevan had received publicity as a "stowaway gunner" (similar to McIllhenny in the film), even though in reality he had been invited to fly missions. Like McIllhenny, he proved to be a "born gunner."
The “tough guy" character Major Joe Cobb (played by John Kellogg) was inspired by Colonel Paul Tibbets who had flown B-17s with Colonel Armstrong.[6][N 4] Tibbetts was initially approved as the film’s technical advisor but the job was eventually given to Colonel John Derussy.[7]
According to their files, Twentieth-Century Fox paid "$100,000 outright for the [rights to the] book plus up to $100,000 more in escalator and book club clauses." Darryl Zanuck was apparently convinced to pay this high price when he heard that William Wyler was interested in purchasing it for Paramount. Even then, Zanuck only went through with the deal in October 1947 when he was certain that the United States Air Force would support the production.[4]
Twelve O'Clock High was indeed produced with the full cooperation of the Air Force and made use of actual combat footage during the battle scenes, including some shot by the Luftwaffe.[4] A good deal of the production was filmed on Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida.[9]
Screenwriters Bartlett and Lay drew on their own wartime experiences with Eighth Air Force bomber units. At the Eighth Air Force headquarters, Bartlett had worked closely with Colonel Armstrong, who was the primary model for the character General Savage. The film's 918th Bomber Group was modeled primarily on the 306th because that group remained a significant part of the Eighth Air Force throughout the war in Europe.[N 5]
Veterans of the heavy bomber campaign frequently cite Twelve O'Clock High as the only Hollywood film that accurately captured their combat experiences.[10] Along with the 1948 film Command Decision, it marked a turning away from the optimistic, morale-boosting style of wartime films and toward a grittier realism that deals more directly with the human costs of war. Both films deal with the realities of daylight precision bombing without fighter escort, the basic Army Air Forces doctrine at the start of World War II (prior to the arrival of long range Allied fighter aircraft). As producers, writers Lay and Bartlett re-used major plot elements of Twelve O'Clock High in Toward the Unknown and A Gathering of Eagles, respectively.
Paul Mantz, Hollywood's leading stunt pilot, was paid the then-unprecedented sum of $4,500 to crash-land a B-17 bomber for one early scene in the film.[11] Frank Tallman, Mantz' partner in Tallmantz Aviation, wrote in his autobiography that, while many B-17s had been landed by one pilot, as far as he knew this flight was the only time that a B-17 ever took off with only one pilot and no other crew; nobody was sure that it could be done.“[N 6]
Locations for creating the bomber airfield at RAF Archbury were scouted by director Henry King, flying his own private aircraft some 16,000 miles in February and March 1949. King visited Eglin Air Force Base on March 8, 1949, and found an ideal location for principal photography at its Auxiliary Field No. 3, better known as Duke Field, where the mock installation with 15 buildings, including a World War II control tower, were constructed to simulate RAF Archbury.[6][12] The film's technical advisor, Colonel John deRussy, was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and suggested Ozark Army Air Field near Daleville, Alabama (now known as Cairns Army Airfield, adjacent to Fort Rucker).[12] King chose Cairns as the location for filming B-17 takeoffs and landings, including the spectacular B-17 belly-landing sequence early in the film, since the light-colored runways at Eglin did not match wartime runways in England which had been black to make them less visible to enemy aircraft. When the crew arrived at Cairns, it was also considered as an "ideal for shots of Harvey Stovall reminiscing about his World War II service" since the field was overgrown.[6][13]
Additional background photography was shot at RAF Barford St John, a satellite station of RAF Croughton in (Oxfordshire, England, UK). The runways and perimeter tracks at Barford St Johns are still in existence. Officially the airfield is in Ministry of Defence ownership following its closure in the late 1990s as a Communications Station linked to RAF Upper Heyford. Other locations around Fort Walton also served as secondary locations for filming.[14] The crew used 12 B-17s for filming which were pulled from drones used at Eglin and from depot locations in Alabama & New Mexico. Since some of the aircraft were used in the 1946 Bikini atomic experiments, they could only be used for shooting for limited periods.[6]
Twelve O'Clock High was in production from late April to early July 1949.[15] Although originally planned to be shot in Technicolor, it was instead shot in black and white, allowing (as is noted in the main title sequence) all aerial footage to have been shot in actual combat by Allied and Luftwaffe cameras.[4]
Twelve O'Clock High premiered in Los Angeles on December 21, 1949, opened in New York on January 26, 1950.[16] It went into general release in February 1950.[17]
An influential review by Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was indicative of many contemporary reviews. He noted that the film focused more on the human element than the aircraft or machinery of war.[18] The Times picked Twelve O'Clock High as one of the 10 Best Films of 1949, and, in later years, it rated the film as one of the "Best 1000" of all time.[19]
After attending the premiere, the Commander of the Strategic Air Command, General Curtis LeMay, told the authors that he "couldn't find anything wrong with it." The film is now widely used in both the military and civilian worlds to teach the principles of leadership. It is required viewing at all the U.S. service academies, in college ROTC programs, Coast Guard Officer Candidate School, Air Force Officer Training School and the U.S. Air Force's Squadron Officer School for junior Air Force officers, where it is used as a teaching example for the Situational leadership theory.
In its initial release, the film took in $3,225,000 in rentals in the U.S. alone.[20]
Twelve O'Clock High won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Dean Jagger and Best Sound, Recording. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Gregory Peck and Best Picture.[1] In addition, Peck received a New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor, and the film was nominated for Best Picture by the National Board of Review.[19]
In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[21][22]
The term "twelve o'clock high" refers to the aircrew's practice of calling out the positions of attacking enemy aircraft by referring to an imagined face of a clock, with the bomber at the center. The terms, "high" (above the bomber), "level" (at the same altitude as the bomber) and "low" (below the bomber) further refines the location of the enemy. Thus "twelve o'clock high" meant the attacker was approaching from directly ahead and above. This location was preferred by German fighter pilots, as until the introduction of the Bendix chin turret, the nose of the B-17 was the most lightly armed and vulnerable part of the bomber. Enemy fighter aircraft diving from above were also more difficult targets for the B-17 gunners due to their high closing speed.
Bartlett’s wife, actress Ellen Drew, named the story after hearing Bartlett and Lay discuss German fighter tactics, which usually involved head-on attacks from "twelve o’clock high".[6]
Gregory Peck repeated his role as General Savage on a Screen Guild Players radio broadcast on September 7, 1950.[4]
Twelve O'Clock High later became a television series, also called Twelve O'Clock High, that premiered on the ABC network in 1964 and ran for three seasons. Robert Lansing played General Savage. However, Lansing was fired from the series at the end of the first season and was replaced by Paul Burke, who played Colonel Joseph Anson "Joe" Gallagher, a character loosely based on Ben Gately from the novel.[23] Much of the combat footage seen in the film was reused in the television series. The B-17 bomber shown in one such sequence was that of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Webb, who earned one of his eight Distinguished Flying Cross awards in the action depicted.
Many of the television show's ground scenes were filmed at the Chino, California, airport, which had been used for training Army pilots during the war, and where a replica of a control tower, typical of the type seen at an 8th Air Force base in England, was built. The airfield itself was used in the immediate postwar period as a dump for soon-to-be-scrapped fighters and bombers and was used for the penultimate scene in The Best Years of Our Lives when Dana Andrews relives his wartime experiences and goes on to rebuild his life.[24]
The film has been used as a case study in various military and civilian leadership training seminars for many years. It is frequently used as an example to stimulate discussion with respect to leadership styles and effectiveness.