Movies In History: Twelve O'clock High

Yet another war movie filmed in 1949, this movie stands with the other mentioned that year as being a classic.  Indeed, this film is the best of its genera, the World War Two flying movie.  Nothing filmed since it has surpassed it.

Twelve O'clock High portrays an early U.S. Army Air Corps bombing wing stationed in the United Kingdom just as those units were first beginning to be used over Europe.  The unit is suffering from poor performance and the commanding officer is relieved from duty when he's judged to be responsible for the condition. The film then portrays the efforts of the new commander, Gen. Frank Savage to get the unit into shape. 

With an excellent story line and very good acting, including  Gregory Peck in one of his best roles, the movie is really well done.  There's surprisingly little flying in it, but the scenes that do portray B-17s in the air are realistic, aided by the fact that a lot of actual combat footage is used, and that the movie was filmed so close to World War Two that B-17s were available to be used.  The movie is excellent in material defects with no obvious mistakes and the sense of the time and era are well done. The movie avoids overdoing either heroism or angst, as later flying movies did, and as the film was close enough to World War Two, it predates any later concern over the nature of strategic bombing, which is a feature of more recently analysis. Simply put, it's the best of the air war movies that are set in the Second World War.