Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

9/13

(England, and the sky’s over Europe; 1942-1943, 1949)

Kind of talkie war movie stars Gregory Peck as a second generation general assigned to straighten up a ‘hard luck’ squad of bombers. Dean Jagger won a best supporting actor Oscar as Peck’s deep feeling adjutant. Very little of the movie is actually spent in combat (and what there is of combat uses actual war footage), but instead focuses on ‘behind the scenes’ happenings at base and the emotional coast of war on all involved. While the flick clock’s in at about 2 hrs 12 minutes, events kind of blur because so much of it is talking, which is a bit unusual for a war picture. This isn’t a bad thing its well executed, but it does mean that viewers looking for action may be a little disappointed in the proceedings.