Twelve O'Clock High (1949) on Netflix
In 1942, the 918th Bomb Group at Archbury is known as a hard luck outfit, worn down by daylight bombing runs over Germany. Brigadier General Frank Savage takes command.
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Trailer
Plot summary
In 1949, Harvey Stovall, a former Army Air Forces officer, spots a jug in an English antique shop window and is told it came from Archbury, where he was stationed during the war. He buys it and travels by train and bicycle to the abandoned airfield. The story returns to 1942, when the 918th Bomb Group flies daylight bombing raids over Germany from Archbury and has a name for bad luck. German anti-aircraft fire and fighters have cost it heavily, and its commander, Colonel Keith Davenport, has grown too close to his men to impose discipline. Ordered to send his crews out at low altitude for better accuracy, Davenport protests to Brigadier General Frank Savage, who tells Major General Pritchard that Davenport may break under the strain. Pritchard removes Davenport and gives the 918th to Savage.
Cast
- Roger Andersonas Interrogation Officer
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Twelve O'Clock High used 12 B-17s, drawn from QB-17 drones at Eglin and depot aircraft in Alabama and New Mexico. Some had been flown in the 1946 Bikini atomic experiments and absorbed high levels of radioactivity, so they could be used for shooting only for limited periods.
- Hollywood's leading stunt pilot, Paul Mantz, was paid an unprecedented $4,500 in 1948, about $58,000 in 2024, to crash-land a B-17 bomber for one early scene in Twelve O'Clock High.
- Mantz's partner in Tallmantz Aviation, Frank Tallman, wrote in his autobiography that while many B-17s had been landed by one pilot, the flight for Twelve O'Clock High was, as far as he knew, the first time a B-17 took off with only one pilot and no other crew.
- John Wayne was offered the lead role of General Frank Savage and turned it down, as did Gregory Peck, who finally took the part after being impressed with director Henry King. Peck had first refused because the script was similar to Command Decision.
- General Frank Savage was a composite of several group commanders, but the main model was Colonel Frank A. Armstrong, who commanded the 306th Bomb Group that the film's 918th was based on. The name Savage came from Armstrong's Cherokee heritage.
- Twelve O'Clock High was originally planned to be shot in Technicolor, but was filmed in black and white instead, which allowed actual combat footage by Allied and Luftwaffe cameras to be included.
- Twelve O'Clock High became required viewing at all the U.S. service academies, Air Force ROTC detachments and officer training schools, among others, where it was used to teach situational leadership theory. It is still widely used to teach leadership.
