Twelve O’Clock High (1949)

Twelve O’Clock High
Directed by Henry King
Written by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay Jr. from their novel
1949/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box]General Frank Savage:  I’ve been sent here to take over what has come to be known as a hard luck group. Well, I don’t believe in hard luck. So we’re going to find out what the trouble is…. I can tell you now one reason I think you’ve been having hard luck. I saw it in your faces last night. I can see it there now. You’ve been looking at a lot of air lately… and you think you ought to have a rest. In short, you’re sorry for yourselves. I don’t have a lot of patience with this, “What are we fighting for?” stuff. We’re in a war, a shooting war. We’ve got to fight. And some of us have got to die. I’m not trying to tell you not to be afraid. Fear is normal. But stop worrying about it and about yourselves. Stop making plans. Forget about going home. Consider yourselves already dead. Once you accept that idea, it won’t be so tough.[/box]

This is less a war story than a psychological study of one way to motivate men and its cost.  I thought it was excellent.

The story is told in flashback from the point of view of Harvey Stovall, who had been a major on desk duty with a bomber group flying out of England doing daylight bombing runs.  As the flashback begins, the group has been suffering heavy losses.   Their beloved commander Col. Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill) is cracking under the strain.  It turns out that the group is suffering above average losses.  The brass is concerned that this will jeopardize funding for the daylight bombing program.

Gen. Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) is sent over to analyze the problem.  He concludes that  Davenport is suffering from “over-identification with his men.” He is selected to take over and correct the situation.  Although Davenport advises him to ease up on the number of missions flown, Savage decides to take a hard line.  He dresses down Air Exec Lt. Col. Gately (Hugh Marlow) for shirking his duty and assigns him to pilot a crew to be made up of all the screw-ups in the group.  He then makes the speech quoted above and challenges the men to quit if they don’t agree.

Soon Savage has a mass resignation of pilots on his hands.  Stovall agrees to hold up the paperwork seeking reassignment long enough for Savage to show results.  This brings a team of inspectors down on Savage’s neck but by then he has succeeded in instilling some pride in the group.

Although morale does improve under Savage’s command, his steely facade begins to crack when losses mount during the group’s first mission over Germany.

I thought this was just about perfect for what it was.  The acting is fantastic and the story is really interesting.  I love the scene where Hugh Marlowe gets injured and Gregory Peck sort of pretends to not be visiting him in the hospital.

I wonder if they ever show this movie to business executives as a model for improving team performance?  Savage’s way was harsh but you could see how it might work.  Recommended.

Twelve O’Clock High won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Jagger) and Best Sound, Recording.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture and Best Actor (Peck).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOGl_7a2nWU

Clip – Straight talk