Twelve O’clock High – Special Edition (Fox DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B     Film: B

 

 

Twelve O’clock High (1949) is a wonderful war film starring Gregory Peck, about the first American bomber squadron stationed in England during the second World War.  This film is one of the rare exceptions that show what these brave young men went through, warts and all, in and out of combat.  Fox recently reissued this monochrome classic in a new double-DVD special edition and it breaks down like this:

 

Disc One - The Film: Released in 1949 and directed by Henry King, Twelve O’clock High is the realistic portrayal of the United States Army's Eighth Air Force squadron who was the first to fly daylight bombing missions against the Axis' powers during World War II.  The film tells the story General Frank Savage who has take over the command of a "hard luck" bomber squadron from his friend and colleague, Colonel Keith Davenport.

 

Davenport has become too close to his men, suffering as they do at the lost of their fellow soldiers.  After a disastrous mission, in which he loses half of his squadron, Commanding General Patrick Pritchard relieves Col. Davenport of his duties and replaces him with Savage.

 

When Savage takes command he immediately starts to lay down the law.  He finds his new command in disarray.  The men have a problem with discipline due to low morale, and all seem to drink heavily.  Savage treats them harshly and shuts down the Officer's Club to show them that he means business.  The men begin to detest him and put in requests to be transferred.  He then takes what he considers the biggest screw-ups of the squadron and has them serve in one of the B-17 bomber planes that he dubs "The Leper Colony".  Anytime anyone of the men fails to meet the General's expectations, he places them in the Leper Colony.

 

Delaying the men's transfers through some creative wrangling, Savage starts to win the soldiers over when they begin to come back to come back from their missions safe and successful.

 

But just like Colonel Davenport before him, Savage starts to get too close to his men to the point where he starts to have panic attacks.  Just as they are about to leave on one of their most important missions, Savage finds that he can not climb into his bomber.  The squadron takes off without him and Savage sweats out his nervous breakdown in his quarters.  Only when he hears the roar of the engines of the returning B-17's, does he finally relax and pass out.

 

Hollywood was not prone to make war film's that showed the physical and psychological effects that soldiers suffered due to combat.  Like The Time of Our Lives, Twelve O’clock High realistically portrays what the soldiers go through when they get too caught up in their missions and when they lose a fellow solider to combat.  Where Lives shows what these men go through when they return home from the war, High shows how they got that way.  The film isn't all about the after effects of combat; it also shows what men can do when someone believes in them and how to act cohesively as a group.

 

This film is also known for its use of actual filmed combat, as it is used so flawlessly that in some scenes, it is hard to tell the staged dog-fights from the real ones.

 

The restoration quality is every good and is presented in full frame 1.33:1.  The sound quality is equally good and presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and Mono, with some edge to the Stereo, but not much.  Extras on this disc include a feature length audio commentary with historians Rudy Behlmer, Jon Burlingame and Nick Redman   

 

 

 

Disc Two delivers the rest of the extras including for featurettes:

 

Memories of “Twelve O’clock High”: This documentary tells of the history of the making of the film. Every year Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, personally produced one big film production himself and this short relates his journey of getting this film made, from working with the authors of the original novel that the film is based upon to the post-production editing of actual combat film footage.  Zanuck had a tough fight on his hands, producing a movie that shows the psychological trauma that soldiers go through from combat, instead of the usual "gung-ho" war films that Hollywood made, post World War II.  We also learn of the real life commanders that inspired the main characters of the film.

 

WWII and The American Homefront shows about how life was on American soil during the war.  It tells about the great sense of patriotism and sacrifice that Americans felt to support our country and the troops "over there".  Scrap metal drives, paper drives, and the buying of war bonds are covered here.  It also talks about the rationing of sugar, meat, rubber, gas and all the other necessities of life Americans did without to support the war effort.  Also covered here is the great effort of American women who went to work in the factories to make the equipment that was needed to "get the job done".

 

Inspiring a character: General Frank A. Armstrong talks about the real-life General who was the inspiration of Gregory Peck's character.  General Armstrong served as a consultant on the film.  The extra also states that Peck's character is based a few different commanders, and how the authors of the original novel drew inspiration from them to create Brigadier General Frank Savage (Peck).

 

and The Pilots of The Eighth Air Force tells the history of the air force squadron portrayed in the film and how they came up with and performed their ground-breaking bombing procedures.

 

The disc also includes a still gallery of scenes from the film and poster art. Also included is an interactive pressbook.  The DVD case itself comes with a pamphlet of the making and history of the film, and a set of lobby cards.  That adds up to another strong reissue by Fox of a key catalog title.  Peck fans will not be disappointed.

 

 

-   Marc Greisinger