Review: Twelve O’Clock High

Set in WWII England with American flyboys losing a commanding officer (Gary Merrill) accused of being too friendly and compassionate, and gaining a new one in rigid, aloof Gregory Peck (as a character named Brig. General Frank Savage, no less!), who despite being friends with the former, is the man who recommended he be replaced. Needless to say, the anal-retentive, humourless Savage doesn’t gel with the men under his leadership, particularly early on. And he doesn’t have it easy, his crew is poorly looked upon, but Peck stoically and rigidly tries to whip them in to shape, nonetheless. Whether they like him or not, or whether he likes them or not, is of no consequence to him...or is it? Millard Mitchell plays Savage’s superior, Hugh Marlowe does his best Robert Ryan impersonation as a somewhat untrustworthy (in Peck’s eyes at any rate) Lieutenant Colonel, and Paul Stewart scores in a small role as a possibly too compassionate doctor. As Savage’s one ally, Dean Jagger gets perhaps the role of his career, the bespectacled desk jockey Maj. Stovall, who holds off on the men’s transfer requests (of all the men, dissatisfied with Savage’s leadership) so that Peck has time to win the men over.

Well-acted 1949 Henry King (“The Song of Bernadette”, “Jesse James”) WWII movie contains what many consider the best performance of Peck’s career, but I prefer “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Omen”, and “Spellbound” myself. He’s still excellent here anyway, and Jagger is even better in a pretty damn good cast overall. The film itself has some memorable moments, particularly the climax, but I actually found it awfully hard to care about this man’s dilemma when the men he comes to be so concerned about, are barely introduced to the audience. Calling them 2-D characters would be too kind, the film (which is told in flashback, by the way, through Jagger’s character) seems more interested in the superior officers and pencil-pushers. Fine, remove the flyboys then and just focus on the top brass and the desk jockeys. But the film does not do that, and it takes a heavy hit for it. So, what one ends up with is a sometimes stirring, but occasionally ineffectual film that never quite soars, despite some truly excellent aerial footage (the best use of stock footage I have perhaps ever seen, actually, this element alone almost made me care more than any other aspect of the film).

Certainly a must for Peck fans and aerial warfare enthusiasts, I just found the dramatic elements to be lacking. The screenplay is by Sy Bartlett (the excellent Peck-starring western “The Big Country”) and Beirne Lay Jr. (“Above and Beyond”, “Strategic Air Command”), from their novel.

Rating: B-