Twelve O'Clock High
Encyclopedia
Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American war film
about aircrews in the United States Army
's Eighth Air Force
who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany
and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II
. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett
, Henry King
(uncredited) and Beirne Lay, Jr.
from the 1948 novel by Bartlett and Lay. It was directed by King and stars Gregory Peck
, Hugh Marlowe
, Gary Merrill
, Millard Mitchell
, and Dean Jagger
.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards
and won two: Dean Jagger for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
, and Thomas T. Moulton
for Best Sound Recording
. In 1998, Twelve O'Clock High was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
) is vacationing in Great Britain when he spies a familiar toby jug in an English antique shop. He buys it and bicycles out to an abandoned airfield, the former USAAF Station Archbury, where he served with the 918th Bomb Group during World War II. The scene then flashes back to USAAF Archbury, circa 1942.
Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill
) is the commander of the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group, a B-17 Flying Fortress unit based at (the fictional) USAAF Archbury. Having recently arrived and being thrown into action, the 918th has suffered heavy losses, gaining the reputation as a "hard luck group" suffering from poor morale. One reason is the US strategy of daylight precision bombing and the corresponding high loss rate it causes to the American bombers to enemy antiaircraft fire and enemy fighters, the latter being aggravated by the fact that there are not yet any US or Allied fighters with sufficient range to escort the bombers to and from their targets.
Davenport has become too close to his men and is troubled by his losses. When he is ordered to fly one mission at low altitude to increase accuracy, Davenport rushes to headquarters and confronts his friend, Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck
), the A-3 (Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations) of VIII Bomber Command. His visit prompts Major General Patrick Pritchard (Millard Mitchell
), commanding general of VIII Bomber Command
, Eighth Air Force
, to visit the 918th. After interviewing Davenport and others, Pritchard recognizes that Davenport is the problem. He relieves Davenport of command and reassigns him. The 918th is given to Savage.
Savage finds his new command in disarray and begins to address the discipline problems, dealing with everyone so harshly that the men begin to detest him. Savage is particularly hard on Lieutenant Colonel Ben Gately (Hugh Marlowe
), the Group Air Executive Officer
, placing him under arrest for being Absent Without Leave during the command change. Major Joe Cobb (John Kellogg
), one of Savage's squadron
commanders, takes Gately's place as Air Exec. Gately, a graduate of West Point, grandson of a general officer and son of General Tom Gately, is assigned as the commander of a bomber named the "Leper Colony", to which Savage assigns those he considers substandard.
Upset by Savage's stern leadership, all of the 918th's pilots apply for transfers. Savage asks the Group Adjutant
, Major Stovall (Dean Jagger), to delay processing their applications to buy some time. Stovall knows how to use "red tape", telling Savage he is a veteran of World War I
. Stovall goes along, giving Savage more than a week. The 918th, after hasty refresher training, resumes combat flying. The 918th's increased skill and discipline become obvious to the enemy, who attack other groups and leave the 918th alone.
The men begin to change their minds about Savage after he leads them on a mission in which the 918th is the only group to bomb the target and all of the aircraft return safely. The word gets around that Pritchard personally chewed Savage out for his claim of "radio malfunction" as an excuse to ignore the recall order.
When the pilots continue to ask about their transfer applications, Savage tries to enlist a young pilot, Medal of Honor
-nominee Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (Robert Patten) to help him change their attitudes. Bishop eventually comes to believe in the general, and when the Inspector General
arrives to check out the unrest, Bishop convinces the others to withdraw their requests. Later, Savage learns that Gately has been hospitalized, having flown three missions with a chipped vertebra that caused him acute pain. This brings about a "rapprochement" between him and Savage.
As the air war advances deeper into Germany, missions become longer and riskier, with enemy resistance intensifying. Many of Savage's best men, including Bishop, are shot down or killed. Pritchard tries to get Savage to return to a staff job at VIII Bomber Command. Savage refuses because he feels that the 918th is not quite ready to do without him yet. Reluctantly, Pritchard leaves Savage in command.
The first of these missions, aimed at destroying Germany's ball bearing
industry, has the Luftwaffe
throwing everything available at the bomber force. Although the target is hit, the 918th takes a beating, losing six of 21 B-17s. Savage is shaken when he witnesses Cobb's airplane being blown up by a direct flak hit. Savage concludes that a second strike on the same target is necessary. With the death of Cobb, Savage reinstates Gately as Air Exec. The next day, Savage becomes disoriented and erratic and is unable to haul himself up into his B-17. Gately takes over.
Savage becomes nearly catatonic
. Only when the bombers return after destroying the target, does he regain his composure. He says a few words, and falls asleep.
The story then returns to 1949 and Stovall. Stovall places the toby jug in its original place on the fireplace mantle of the long abandoned USAAF Archbury officers club and pedals away from the abandoned airfield on his bicycle.
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):
Cast notes
, who commanded the 306th Bomb Group
on which the 918th was modeled. The name "Savage" was inspired by Armstrong's Cherokee
heritage. In addition to his work with the 306th, which lasted only six weeks and consisted primarily of rebuilding the chain of command within the group, Armstrong had earlier performed a similar task with the 97th Bomb Group, and many of the training and disciplinary scenes in Twelve O'Clock High derive from that experience. Towards the end of the film, the near-catatonic battle fatigue that General Savage suffered and the harrowing missions that led up to it, were inspired by the experiences of Brigadier General Newton Longfellow, although the symptoms of the breakdown were not based on any real-life event, but were intended to portray the effects of intense stress experienced by many airmen.
Major General Pritchard (played by Millard Mitchell) was modeled on that of the VIII Bomber Command's first commander, Maj. Gen. Ira C. Eaker.
Colonel Keith Davenport (played by Gary Merrill) was based on the first commander of the 306th Bomb Group, Colonel Charles B. Overacker, nicknamed "Chip." Of all the personalities portrayed in Twelve O'Clock High, that of Colonel Davenport most closely parallels his true-life counterpart. The early scene in which Davenport confronts Savage about a mission order was a close recreation of an actual event, as was his relief.
2nd Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (played by Robert Patten) who belly lands in the B-17 next to the runway at the beginning of the film and was nominated for the Medal of Honor
, has his true life counterpart in Second Lieutenant John C. Morgan
. The description of Bishop's fight to control the bomber after his pilot was hit in the head by fragments of a 20 mm cannon shell is taken almost verbatim from Morgan's Medal of Honor
citation. Details may be found in The 12 O'Clock High Logbook.
Sergeant McIllhenny (played by Robert Arthur) was drawn from a member of the 306th Bomb Group, Sgt Donald Bevan
, a qualified gunner who was assigned ground jobs including part-time driver for the commander of his squadron. Bevan had received publicity as a "stowaway
gunner" (similar to McIllhenny in the film), even though in reality he had been invited to fly missions. Like McIllhenny, he proved to be a "born gunner."
The “tough guy" character Major Joe Cobb (played by John Kellogg) was inspired by Colonel Paul Tibbets
who had flown B-17s with Colonel Armstrong. Tibbetts was initially approved as the film’s technical advisor but the job was eventually given to Colonel John Derussy.
According to their files, Twentieth-Century Fox paid "$100,000 outright for the [rights to the] book plus up to $100,000 more in escalator and book club clauses." Darryl Zanuck was apparently convinced to pay this high price when he heard that William Wyler
was interested in purchasing it for Paramount
. Even then, Zanuck only went through with the deal in October 1947 when he was certain that the United States Air Force
would support the production.
Twelve O'Clock High was indeed produced with the full cooperation of the Air Force and made use of actual combat footage during the battle scenes, including some shot by the Luftwaffe
. A good deal of the production was filmed on Eglin Air Force Base
near Fort Walton Beach, Florida
.
Screenwriters Bartlett and Lay drew on their own wartime experiences with Eighth Air Force
bomber units. At the Eighth Air Force headquarters, Bartlett had worked closely with Colonel Armstrong, who was the primary model for the character General Savage. The film's 918th Bomber Group was modeled primarily on the 306th because that group remained a significant part of the Eighth Air Force throughout the war in Europe.
Veterans of the heavy bomber campaign frequently cite Twelve O'Clock High as the only Hollywood film that accurately captured their combat experiences. Along with the 1948 film Command Decision
, it marked a turning away from the optimistic, morale-boosting style of wartime films and toward a grittier realism that deals more directly with the human costs of war. Both films deal with the realities of daylight precision bombing without fighter escort, the basic Army Air Forces doctrine
at the start of World War II (prior to the arrival of long range Allied fighter aircraft). As producers, writers Lay and Bartlett re-used major plot elements of Twelve O'Clock High in Toward the Unknown
and A Gathering of Eagles
, respectively.
Paul Mantz
, Hollywood's leading stunt pilot, was paid the then-unprecedented sum of $4,500 to crash-land a B-17 bomber for one early scene in the film. Frank Tallman, Mantz' partner in Tallmantz Aviation, wrote in his autobiography that, while many B-17s had been landed by one pilot, as far as he knew this flight was the only time that a B-17 ever took off with only one pilot and no other crew; nobody was sure that it could be done.“
Locations for creating the bomber airfield at RAF Archbury were scouted by director Henry King, flying his own private aircraft some 16,000 miles in February and March 1949. King visited Eglin Air Force Base
on March 8, 1949, and found an ideal location for principal photography at its Auxiliary Field No. 3, better known as Duke Field
, where the mock installation with 15 buildings, including a World War II control tower, were constructed to simulate RAF Archbury. The film's technical advisor, Colonel John deRussy, was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base
, Alabama
, and suggested Ozark Army Air Field
near Daleville, Alabama
(now known as Cairns Army Airfield
, adjacent to Fort Rucker
). King chose Cairns as the location for filming B-17 takeoffs and landings, including the spectacular B-17 belly-landing sequence early in the film, since the light-colored runways at Eglin did not match wartime runways in England which had been black to make them less visible to enemy aircraft. When the crew arrived at Cairns, it was also considered as an "ideal for shots of Harvey Stovall reminiscing about his World War II service" since the field was overgrown.
Additional background photography was shot at RAF Barford St John
, a satellite station of RAF Croughton
in (Oxfordshire
, England, UK). The runways and perimeter tracks at Barford St Johns are still in existence. Officially the airfield is in Ministry of Defence ownership following its closure in the late 1990s as a Communications Station linked to RAF Upper Heyford. Other locations around Fort Walton also served as secondary locations for filming. The crew used 12 B-17s for filming which were pulled from drones used at Eglin and from depot locations in Alabama & New Mexico. Since some of the aircraft were used in the 1946 Bikini atomic experiments
, they could only be used for shooting for limited periods.
Twelve O'Clock High was in production from late April to early July 1949. Although originally planned to be shot in Technicolor, it was instead shot in black and white, allowing (as is noted in the main title sequence) all aerial footage to have been shot in actual combat by Allied and Luftwaffe cameras.
An influential review by Bosley Crowther
of The New York Times
was indicative of many contemporary reviews. He noted that the film focused more on the human element than the aircraft or machinery of war. The Times picked Twelve O'Clock High as one of the 10 Best Films of 1949, and, in later years, it rated the film as one of the "Best 1000" of all time.
After attending the premiere, the Commander of the Strategic Air Command
, General
Curtis LeMay, told the authors that he "couldn't find anything wrong with it." The film is now widely used in both the military and civilian worlds to teach the principles of leadership. It is required viewing at all the U.S. service academies, in college ROTC programs, Coast Guard Officer Candidate School, Air Force Officer Training School and the U.S. Air Force's Squadron Officer School
for junior Air Force officers, where it is used as a teaching example for the Situational leadership theory
.
In its initial release, the film took in $3,225,000 in rentals in the U.S. alone.
for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
for Dean Jagger and Best Sound, Recording
. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role
for Gregory Peck and Best Picture
. In addition, Peck received a New York Film Critics Circle Awards
for Best Actor, and the film was nominated for Best Picture by the National Board of Review.
In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Bartlett’s wife, actress Ellen Drew
, named the story after hearing Bartlett and Lay discuss German fighter tactics, which usually involved head-on attacks from "twelve o’clock high".
Twelve O'Clock High later became a television series, also called Twelve O'Clock High
, that premiered on the ABC
network in 1964 and ran for three seasons. Robert Lansing
played General Savage. However, Lansing was fired from the series at the end of the first season and was replaced by Paul Burke
, who played Colonel Joseph Anson "Joe" Gallagher, a character loosely based on Ben Gately from the novel. Much of the combat footage seen in the film was reused in the television series. The B-17 bomber shown in one such sequence was that of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Webb, who earned one of his eight Distinguished Flying Cross awards in the action depicted.
Many of the television show's ground scenes were filmed at the Chino
, California
, airport, which had been used for training Army pilots during the war, and where a replica of a control tower, typical of the type seen at an 8th Air Force base in England, was built. The airfield itself was used in the immediate postwar period as a dump for soon-to-be-scrapped fighters and bombers and was used for the penultimate scene in The Best Years of Our Lives
when Dana Andrews relives his wartime experiences and goes on to rebuild his life.
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
about aircrews in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
's Eighth Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett
Sy Bartlett
Sy Bartlett was an American author and screenwriter/producer of Hollywood films. Born Sacha Baraniev in Ukraine, he immigrated to the United States at the age of four and adopted the name Sidney Bartlett....
, Henry King
Henry King (director)
Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...
(uncredited) and Beirne Lay, Jr.
Beirne Lay, Jr.
Beirne Lay, Jr., was an author, aviation writer, Hollywood screenwriter, and combat veteran of World War II with the U.S. Army Air Forces...
from the 1948 novel by Bartlett and Lay. It was directed by King and stars Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
, Hugh Marlowe
Hugh Marlowe
Hugh Marlowe was an American film, television, stage and radio actor.Marlowe was born Hugh Herbert Hipple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began his stage career in the 1930s at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. Marlowe was usually a secondary lead or supporting actor in the films he...
, Gary Merrill
Gary Merrill
Gary Fred Merrill was an American film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances....
, Millard Mitchell
Millard Mitchell
Millard Mitchell was an American character actor whose credits include roughly thirty feature films and two television appearances....
, and Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
and won two: Dean Jagger for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
, and Thomas T. Moulton
Thomas T. Moulton
Thomas T. Moulton was an American sound engineer. He won five Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording and was nominated for eleven more in the same category...
for Best Sound Recording
Academy Award for Sound
The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. Compare this award to the Academy Award for Sound Editing...
. In 1998, Twelve O'Clock High was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In 1949, American attorney and former U.S. Army Air Forces officer Harvey Stovall (Dean JaggerDean Jagger
Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...
) is vacationing in Great Britain when he spies a familiar toby jug in an English antique shop. He buys it and bicycles out to an abandoned airfield, the former USAAF Station Archbury, where he served with the 918th Bomb Group during World War II. The scene then flashes back to USAAF Archbury, circa 1942.
Colonel Keith Davenport (Gary Merrill
Gary Merrill
Gary Fred Merrill was an American film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances....
) is the commander of the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group, a B-17 Flying Fortress unit based at (the fictional) USAAF Archbury. Having recently arrived and being thrown into action, the 918th has suffered heavy losses, gaining the reputation as a "hard luck group" suffering from poor morale. One reason is the US strategy of daylight precision bombing and the corresponding high loss rate it causes to the American bombers to enemy antiaircraft fire and enemy fighters, the latter being aggravated by the fact that there are not yet any US or Allied fighters with sufficient range to escort the bombers to and from their targets.
Davenport has become too close to his men and is troubled by his losses. When he is ordered to fly one mission at low altitude to increase accuracy, Davenport rushes to headquarters and confronts his friend, Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
), the A-3 (Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations) of VIII Bomber Command. His visit prompts Major General Patrick Pritchard (Millard Mitchell
Millard Mitchell
Millard Mitchell was an American character actor whose credits include roughly thirty feature films and two television appearances....
), commanding general of VIII Bomber Command
VIII Bomber Command
The VIII Bomber Command is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit that is better known as the later appellation Eighth Air Force, as was popularized in post-World War II filmsand is frequently called the First Eighth Air Force by its veterans and successors in the services.The command was...
, Eighth Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
, to visit the 918th. After interviewing Davenport and others, Pritchard recognizes that Davenport is the problem. He relieves Davenport of command and reassigns him. The 918th is given to Savage.
Hugh Marlowe
Hugh Marlowe was an American film, television, stage and radio actor.Marlowe was born Hugh Herbert Hipple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began his stage career in the 1930s at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. Marlowe was usually a secondary lead or supporting actor in the films he...
), the Group Air Executive Officer
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
, placing him under arrest for being Absent Without Leave during the command change. Major Joe Cobb (John Kellogg
John Kellogg (actor)
John Kellogg was an American actor in film, stage and television. Some sources, including ancestry.com, state that his given name was Giles Vernon Kellogg, Jr....
), one of Savage's squadron
Squadron (aviation)
A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...
commanders, takes Gately's place as Air Exec. Gately, a graduate of West Point, grandson of a general officer and son of General Tom Gately, is assigned as the commander of a bomber named the "Leper Colony", to which Savage assigns those he considers substandard.
Upset by Savage's stern leadership, all of the 918th's pilots apply for transfers. Savage asks the Group Adjutant
Adjutant
Adjutant is a military rank or appointment. In some armies, including most English-speaking ones, it is an officer who assists a more senior officer, while in other armies, especially Francophone ones, it is an NCO , normally corresponding roughly to a Staff Sergeant or Warrant Officer.An Adjutant...
, Major Stovall (Dean Jagger), to delay processing their applications to buy some time. Stovall knows how to use "red tape", telling Savage he is a veteran of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Stovall goes along, giving Savage more than a week. The 918th, after hasty refresher training, resumes combat flying. The 918th's increased skill and discipline become obvious to the enemy, who attack other groups and leave the 918th alone.
The men begin to change their minds about Savage after he leads them on a mission in which the 918th is the only group to bomb the target and all of the aircraft return safely. The word gets around that Pritchard personally chewed Savage out for his claim of "radio malfunction" as an excuse to ignore the recall order.
When the pilots continue to ask about their transfer applications, Savage tries to enlist a young pilot, Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
-nominee Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (Robert Patten) to help him change their attitudes. Bishop eventually comes to believe in the general, and when the Inspector General
Inspector General
An Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
arrives to check out the unrest, Bishop convinces the others to withdraw their requests. Later, Savage learns that Gately has been hospitalized, having flown three missions with a chipped vertebra that caused him acute pain. This brings about a "rapprochement" between him and Savage.
As the air war advances deeper into Germany, missions become longer and riskier, with enemy resistance intensifying. Many of Savage's best men, including Bishop, are shot down or killed. Pritchard tries to get Savage to return to a staff job at VIII Bomber Command. Savage refuses because he feels that the 918th is not quite ready to do without him yet. Reluctantly, Pritchard leaves Savage in command.
The first of these missions, aimed at destroying Germany's ball bearing
Ball bearing
A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this by using at least two races to contain the balls and transmit...
industry, has the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
throwing everything available at the bomber force. Although the target is hit, the 918th takes a beating, losing six of 21 B-17s. Savage is shaken when he witnesses Cobb's airplane being blown up by a direct flak hit. Savage concludes that a second strike on the same target is necessary. With the death of Cobb, Savage reinstates Gately as Air Exec. The next day, Savage becomes disoriented and erratic and is unable to haul himself up into his B-17. Gately takes over.
Savage becomes nearly catatonic
Catatonia
Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility, and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor. It was first described in 1874: Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein ....
. Only when the bombers return after destroying the target, does he regain his composure. He says a few words, and falls asleep.
The story then returns to 1949 and Stovall. Stovall places the toby jug in its original place on the fireplace mantle of the long abandoned USAAF Archbury officers club and pedals away from the abandoned airfield on his bicycle.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Gregory Peck Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an... |
Brigadier General Frank Savage |
| Hugh Marlowe Hugh Marlowe Hugh Marlowe was an American film, television, stage and radio actor.Marlowe was born Hugh Herbert Hipple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began his stage career in the 1930s at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. Marlowe was usually a secondary lead or supporting actor in the films he... |
Lieutenant Colonel Ben Gately |
| Gary Merrill Gary Merrill Gary Fred Merrill was an American film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances.... |
Colonel Keith Davenport |
| Millard Mitchell Millard Mitchell Millard Mitchell was an American character actor whose credits include roughly thirty feature films and two television appearances.... |
Major General Pritchard |
| Dean Jagger Dean Jagger Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor... |
Major / Lieutenant Colonel Harvey Stovall |
| Robert Arthur Robert Arthur (actor) Robert Arthur was an American motion picture actor who appeared in dozens of films in the 1940s and 1950s.... |
Sergeant McIllhenny |
| Paul Stewart Paul Stewart (actor) Paul Stewart was an American character actor known for his tough, guttural voice. He frequently portrayed villains and mobsters throughout his lengthy career.... |
Major "Doc" Kaiser (flight surgeon) |
| John Kellogg John Kellogg (actor) John Kellogg was an American actor in film, stage and television. Some sources, including ancestry.com, state that his given name was Giles Vernon Kellogg, Jr.... |
Major Cobb |
| Robert Patten | Lieutenant Bishop |
| Lee MacGregor | Lieutenant Zimmerman |
| Sam Edwards Sam Edwards Sam Edwards was an American actor. His most famous role on TV was as the banker in the TV series Little House on the Prairie.-Biography:Born into a showbusiness family, his first role was as a baby in his mother's arms... |
Lieutenant Birdwell |
| Roger Anderson | Interrogation Officer |
| Lawrence Dobkin Lawrence Dobkin Lawrence Dobkin was an American television director, actor and television screenwriter whose career spanned seven decades.... |
Captain Twombley, group chaplain (uncredited) |
| Kenneth Tobey Kenneth Tobey Kenneth Tobey was an American stage, television, and film actor.-Early years:Born in Oakland, California, Tobey was headed for a law career when he first dabbled in acting at the University of California Little Theater... |
Sgt. Keller, guard at gate (uncredited) |
| Paul Picerni Paul Picerni -Life and career:Picerni was born in New York City, New York. He was an Eagle Scout who joined the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, where he served as a B-24 Liberator bombardier in the China-Burma-India Theater. He flew 25 combat missions with the 493rd Bomb Squadron of the 7th... |
Bombardier (uncredited) |
| Harry Lauter Harry Lauter Herman Arthur "Harry" Lauter was an American character actor originally from White Plains, New York.... |
Radio officer (uncredited) |
| Barry Jones Barry Jones (actor) Barry Jones was an actor seen in British and American films, on American television and on the stage.-Biography:... |
Lord Haw-Haw, German radio commentator (voice) (uncredited) |
| Don Gordon | First patient in base hospital (uncredited) |
| Richard Anderson Richard Anderson Richard Norman Anderson is an American actor in film and television, known to TV audiences as Steve Austin's and Jaime Sommers' boss, Oscar Goldman, in both The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman TV series and their three subsequent TV movies: The Return of the Six-Million-Dollar Man... |
Lt. McKesson (uncredited) |
Cast notes
- The name Harvey Stovall was derived from William Howard Stovall, a World War I flying ace who served on the World War II staff of Major General Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz. The film's author Sy Bartlett served as Spaatz' aide-de-camp and became friends with Stovall during the war. He presented Stovall with a copy of his book referencing this fact in his inscription.
- The character of "Doc" Kaiser is listed in the film's credits as "Captain", but he is shown wearing the oak leaves of a majorUnited States Air Force officer rank insignia-Current insignia:This chart displays the United States Air Force officer rank insignia. The ranks are divided into three sections: company grade, field grade, and general officers. Company grade officers are those officers of grades O-1 to O-3. Field grade officers are those of grades O-4 to O-6...
and is referred to as "Major" throughout the film. - The character of Harvey Stovall is initially a major, but is promoted to lieutenant colonel when he takes over as the 918th's Ground Exec. He refers to himself as a "retreadRetreadA retread, or "recap," is a previously worn tire which has gone through a remanufacturing process designed to extend its useful service life.Retreading starts with a safety inspection of the tire. The old tread is then buffed away, and a new rubber tread is applied to the bare "casing" using...
" no longer physically qualified for combat, wears basic pilot wings and service chevrons from World War I on his service dress uniform, the inference being that he flew in the Army Air Service in World War I. In the novel, Stovall had been an infantryman, noting that his greatest moral challenge had been in bayonetBayonetA bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...
ing a German soldier.
Historical counterparts of characters
Brigadier General Frank Savage (played by Gregory Peck) was created as a composite of several group commanders but the primary inspiration was Col. Frank A. ArmstrongFrank A. Armstrong
Frank Alton Armstrong, Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Army Air Forces and the inspiration for the main character in the novel and subsequent film, Twelve O'Clock High. After the war he became a lieutenant general in the United States Air Force.Armstrong was born in Hamilton,...
, who commanded the 306th Bomb Group
306th Flying Training Group
The 306th Flying Training Group is a unit of the United States Air Force, assigned to the Air Education and Training Command's Nineteenth Air Force...
on which the 918th was modeled. The name "Savage" was inspired by Armstrong's Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
heritage. In addition to his work with the 306th, which lasted only six weeks and consisted primarily of rebuilding the chain of command within the group, Armstrong had earlier performed a similar task with the 97th Bomb Group, and many of the training and disciplinary scenes in Twelve O'Clock High derive from that experience. Towards the end of the film, the near-catatonic battle fatigue that General Savage suffered and the harrowing missions that led up to it, were inspired by the experiences of Brigadier General Newton Longfellow, although the symptoms of the breakdown were not based on any real-life event, but were intended to portray the effects of intense stress experienced by many airmen.
Major General Pritchard (played by Millard Mitchell) was modeled on that of the VIII Bomber Command's first commander, Maj. Gen. Ira C. Eaker.
Colonel Keith Davenport (played by Gary Merrill) was based on the first commander of the 306th Bomb Group, Colonel Charles B. Overacker, nicknamed "Chip." Of all the personalities portrayed in Twelve O'Clock High, that of Colonel Davenport most closely parallels his true-life counterpart. The early scene in which Davenport confronts Savage about a mission order was a close recreation of an actual event, as was his relief.
2nd Lieutenant Jesse Bishop (played by Robert Patten) who belly lands in the B-17 next to the runway at the beginning of the film and was nominated for the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
, has his true life counterpart in Second Lieutenant John C. Morgan
John C. Morgan
John Cary "Red" Morgan was a United States Army Air Forces pilot in World War II who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during a 1943 bombing run over Germany, which also inspired a character of the novel and film Twelve O'Clock High.-Background:Born August 24, 1914, at Vernon, Texas, and...
. The description of Bishop's fight to control the bomber after his pilot was hit in the head by fragments of a 20 mm cannon shell is taken almost verbatim from Morgan's Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
citation. Details may be found in The 12 O'Clock High Logbook.
Sergeant McIllhenny (played by Robert Arthur) was drawn from a member of the 306th Bomb Group, Sgt Donald Bevan
Donald Bevan
Donald Bevan was an American playwright whose works include the Broadway play Stalag 17, co-written with Edmund Trzcinski, and adapted as a movie in 1953. He was also a caricaturist for Sardi's restaurant in New York City.-External links:...
, a qualified gunner who was assigned ground jobs including part-time driver for the commander of his squadron. Bevan had received publicity as a "stowaway
Stowaway
A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected....
gunner" (similar to McIllhenny in the film), even though in reality he had been invited to fly missions. Like McIllhenny, he proved to be a "born gunner."
The “tough guy" character Major Joe Cobb (played by John Kellogg) was inspired by Colonel Paul Tibbets
Paul Tibbets
Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...
who had flown B-17s with Colonel Armstrong. Tibbetts was initially approved as the film’s technical advisor but the job was eventually given to Colonel John Derussy.
Production
William Wyler
William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
was interested in purchasing it for Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. Even then, Zanuck only went through with the deal in October 1947 when he was certain that the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
would support the production.
Twelve O'Clock High was indeed produced with the full cooperation of the Air Force and made use of actual combat footage during the battle scenes, including some shot by the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
. A good deal of the production was filmed on Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately 3 miles southwest of Valparaiso, Florida in Okaloosa County....
near Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Fort Walton Beach is a city in southern Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. As of 2005, the population estimate for Fort Walton Beach was 19,992, and as of 2010, the population estimate for Fort Walton Beach is 19,507 recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau...
.
Screenwriters Bartlett and Lay drew on their own wartime experiences with Eighth Air Force
Eighth Air Force
The Eighth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana....
bomber units. At the Eighth Air Force headquarters, Bartlett had worked closely with Colonel Armstrong, who was the primary model for the character General Savage. The film's 918th Bomber Group was modeled primarily on the 306th because that group remained a significant part of the Eighth Air Force throughout the war in Europe.
Veterans of the heavy bomber campaign frequently cite Twelve O'Clock High as the only Hollywood film that accurately captured their combat experiences. Along with the 1948 film Command Decision
Command Decision (film)
Command Decision is a 1948 war film starring Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson and Brian Donlevy and directed by Sam Wood, based on a stage play of the same name written by William Wister Haines, which he based on his best-selling novel. The screenplay for the film was written by George...
, it marked a turning away from the optimistic, morale-boosting style of wartime films and toward a grittier realism that deals more directly with the human costs of war. Both films deal with the realities of daylight precision bombing without fighter escort, the basic Army Air Forces doctrine
Doctrine
Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system...
at the start of World War II (prior to the arrival of long range Allied fighter aircraft). As producers, writers Lay and Bartlett re-used major plot elements of Twelve O'Clock High in Toward the Unknown
Toward the Unknown
Toward the Unknown is a 1956 movie about the dawn of supersonic flight filmed on location at Edwards Air Force Base. Starring William Holden, Lloyd Nolan and Virginia Leith, the film features the screen debut of James Garner. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and written by Beirne Lay, Jr...
and A Gathering of Eagles
A Gathering of Eagles
A Gathering of Eagles is a 1963 film about the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War and the pressures of command. The plot is patterned after the World War II film Twelve O'Clock High, which producer-screenwriter Sy Bartlett also wrote, with elements also mirroring Above and Beyond and Toward the...
, respectively.
Paul Mantz
Paul Mantz
Albert Paul Mantz was a noted air racing pilot, movie stunt pilot and consultant from the late 1930s until his death in the mid-1960s. He gained fame on two stages: Hollywood and in air races.-Early years:...
, Hollywood's leading stunt pilot, was paid the then-unprecedented sum of $4,500 to crash-land a B-17 bomber for one early scene in the film. Frank Tallman, Mantz' partner in Tallmantz Aviation, wrote in his autobiography that, while many B-17s had been landed by one pilot, as far as he knew this flight was the only time that a B-17 ever took off with only one pilot and no other crew; nobody was sure that it could be done.“
Locations for creating the bomber airfield at RAF Archbury were scouted by director Henry King, flying his own private aircraft some 16,000 miles in February and March 1949. King visited Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately 3 miles southwest of Valparaiso, Florida in Okaloosa County....
on March 8, 1949, and found an ideal location for principal photography at its Auxiliary Field No. 3, better known as Duke Field
Duke Field
Duke Field , also known as Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #3, is a military airport located three miles south of the central business district of Crestview, in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States-Units:...
, where the mock installation with 15 buildings, including a World War II control tower, were constructed to simulate RAF Archbury. The film's technical advisor, Colonel John deRussy, was stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base
Maxwell Air Force Base
Maxwell Air Force Base , officially known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a United States Air Force installation under the Air Education and Training Command . The installation is located in Montgomery, Alabama, US. It was named in honor of Second Lieutenant William C...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, and suggested Ozark Army Air Field
Cairns Army Airfield
Cairns Army Airfield is a military airport forming a part of Fort Rucker, in Dale County, Alabama, USA. It is owned by the United States Army. The airfield is south of the town of Daleville, which sits between it and the main post.-History:...
near Daleville, Alabama
Daleville, Alabama
Daleville is a city in Dale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 4,653. It is part of the Enterprise–Ozark Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city's nickname is "Gateway to Fort Rucker", as this U.S. Army post is located just north of town...
(now known as Cairns Army Airfield
Cairns Army Airfield
Cairns Army Airfield is a military airport forming a part of Fort Rucker, in Dale County, Alabama, USA. It is owned by the United States Army. The airfield is south of the town of Daleville, which sits between it and the main post.-History:...
, adjacent to Fort Rucker
Fort Rucker
Fort Rucker is a U.S. Army post located mostly in Dale County, Alabama, United States. It was named for a Civil War officer, Confederate General Edmund Rucker. The post is the primary flight training base for Army Aviation and is home to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence and...
). King chose Cairns as the location for filming B-17 takeoffs and landings, including the spectacular B-17 belly-landing sequence early in the film, since the light-colored runways at Eglin did not match wartime runways in England which had been black to make them less visible to enemy aircraft. When the crew arrived at Cairns, it was also considered as an "ideal for shots of Harvey Stovall reminiscing about his World War II service" since the field was overgrown.
Additional background photography was shot at RAF Barford St John
RAF Barford St John
RAF Barford St John is an air force station just north of the village of Barford St. John, Oxfordshire, England. It is now a non-flying facility, operated by the United States Air Force as a communications centre with many large communications aerials, and is a satellite of RAF...
, a satellite station of RAF Croughton
RAF Croughton
RAF Croughton is a United States Air Force communications base in Northamptonshire, England, to the southeast of the village of Croughton. The station is home to the 422nd Air Base Group and operates one of Europe's largest military switchboards and processes approximately a third of all U.S...
in (Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, England, UK). The runways and perimeter tracks at Barford St Johns are still in existence. Officially the airfield is in Ministry of Defence ownership following its closure in the late 1990s as a Communications Station linked to RAF Upper Heyford. Other locations around Fort Walton also served as secondary locations for filming. The crew used 12 B-17s for filming which were pulled from drones used at Eglin and from depot locations in Alabama & New Mexico. Since some of the aircraft were used in the 1946 Bikini atomic experiments
Bikini atomic experiments
The Bikini Atomic Experiments were a series of nuclear and thermonuclear tests conducted on Bikini Atoll in the Bikini Islands. The experiments were part of the United States' research into the full effects of the atomic bomb, including post-detonation radioactive fallout...
, they could only be used for shooting for limited periods.
Twelve O'Clock High was in production from late April to early July 1949. Although originally planned to be shot in Technicolor, it was instead shot in black and white, allowing (as is noted in the main title sequence) all aerial footage to have been shot in actual combat by Allied and Luftwaffe cameras.
Reception
Twelve O'Clock High premiered in Los Angeles on December 21, 1949, opened in New York on January 26, 1950. It went into general release in February 1950.An influential review by Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
was indicative of many contemporary reviews. He noted that the film focused more on the human element than the aircraft or machinery of war. The Times picked Twelve O'Clock High as one of the 10 Best Films of 1949, and, in later years, it rated the film as one of the "Best 1000" of all time.
After attending the premiere, the Commander of the Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command
The Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
, General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Curtis LeMay, told the authors that he "couldn't find anything wrong with it." The film is now widely used in both the military and civilian worlds to teach the principles of leadership. It is required viewing at all the U.S. service academies, in college ROTC programs, Coast Guard Officer Candidate School, Air Force Officer Training School and the U.S. Air Force's Squadron Officer School
Squadron Officer School
Squadron Officer School , is a five-week long Professional Military Education course for U.S. Air Force Captains. It fulfills the U.S. Air Force's requirement for primary developmental education . SOS is based at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and the in-residence version of the course is taught there...
for junior Air Force officers, where it is used as a teaching example for the Situational leadership theory
Situational leadership theory
The Hersey–Blanchard situational leadership theory, is a leadership theory conceived by Paul Hersey, a professor who wrote a well known book Situational Leader and Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, while working on the first edition of Management of Organizational Behavior...
.
In its initial release, the film took in $3,225,000 in rentals in the U.S. alone.
Awards
Twelve O'Clock High won Academy AwardsAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for Dean Jagger and Best Sound, Recording
Academy Award for Sound
The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. Compare this award to the Academy Award for Sound Editing...
. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for Gregory Peck and Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
. In addition, Peck received a New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards....
for Best Actor, and the film was nominated for Best Picture by the National Board of Review.
In 1998, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Meaning of the title
The term "twelve o'clock high" refers to the aircrew's practice of calling out the positions of attacking enemy aircraft by referring to an imagined face of a clock, with the bomber at the center. The terms, "high" (above the bomber), "level" (at the same altitude as the bomber) and "low" (below the bomber) further refines the location of the enemy. Thus "twelve o'clock high" meant the attacker was approaching from directly ahead and above. This location was preferred by German fighter pilots, as until the introduction of the Bendix chin turret, the nose of the B-17 was the most lightly armed and vulnerable part of the bomber. Enemy fighter aircraft diving from above were also more difficult targets for the B-17 gunners due to their high closing speed.Bartlett’s wife, actress Ellen Drew
Ellen Drew
Ellen Drew was an American film actress.Born Esther Loretta Ray in Kansas City, Missouri, Drew worked various jobs and won a number of beauty contests before becoming an actress...
, named the story after hearing Bartlett and Lay discuss German fighter tactics, which usually involved head-on attacks from "twelve o’clock high".
Radio and television
Gregory Peck repeated his role as General Savage on a Screen Guild Players radio broadcast on September 7, 1950.Twelve O'Clock High later became a television series, also called Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High (TV series)
Twelve O'Clock High or 12 O'Clock High is an American drama series set in World War II. This TV series originally broadcasted on ABC-TV for two-and-one-half TV seasons from September 18, 1964, through January 13, 1967; was based on the motion picture Twelve O'Clock High...
, that premiered on the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
network in 1964 and ran for three seasons. Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing (actor)
Robert Lansing was an American stage, film and television actor.Born in San Diego, California as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan, but was told he would...
played General Savage. However, Lansing was fired from the series at the end of the first season and was replaced by Paul Burke
Paul Burke (actor)
Paul Burke was an American actor best known for his lead roles in two 1960s ABC television series, Naked City and Twelve O'Clock High...
, who played Colonel Joseph Anson "Joe" Gallagher, a character loosely based on Ben Gately from the novel. Much of the combat footage seen in the film was reused in the television series. The B-17 bomber shown in one such sequence was that of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Webb, who earned one of his eight Distinguished Flying Cross awards in the action depicted.
Many of the television show's ground scenes were filmed at the Chino
Chino, California
Chino is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is located in the western end of the Riverside-San Bernardino Area and it is easily accessible via the Chino Valley and Pomona freeways....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, airport, which had been used for training Army pilots during the war, and where a replica of a control tower, typical of the type seen at an 8th Air Force base in England, was built. The airfield itself was used in the immediate postwar period as a dump for soon-to-be-scrapped fighters and bombers and was used for the penultimate scene in The Best Years of Our Lives
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell, a United States paratrooper who lost both hands in a military training accident. The film is about three United States...
when Dana Andrews relives his wartime experiences and goes on to rebuild his life.