Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

Nominated for Best Picture of 1949, Twelve O'Clock High is the story of some of the earliest Americans involved in fighting the Germans during World War II. Gregory Peck takes over as commander of a group of bomber pilots who have suffered a series of losses and are now suffering from low morale. At first, his stern manner and strict adherence to military codes of behavior are greeted with dissatisfaction from the pilots and others, but he begins slowly to increase their morale and their success rates.

Ostensibly a war movie, Twelve O'Clock High is actually a dissection of the psychological impact that war has on men. Peck's ironically-named Brigadier General Frank Savage (he is frank but hardly savage in his demeanor) seems to understand why the men in this unit are feeling demoralized, and he also seems to know just how hard he can push them without breaking their spirit completely. Peck gives a stellar performance here, almost as good as his Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, but then again, Peck was always a reliable actor. He manages to take a character who could come off as incredibly unsympathetic and make him into someone you admire and support.

There are other standouts, including Oscar winner Dean Jagger as the ground officer, Major Stovall, a lawyer in civilian life who only occasionally needs a drink when things get too rough. The film is framed by Stovall's return to the site of his group's headquarters, so I assume that most of the events that we see are his memories. I also admired Gary Merrill as Colonel Keith Davenport, who is removed from command because he cannot help but befriend the men in his company. Merrill was always underrated as an actor, I think, and he shows here why he was such a mainstay in films during the 1940s and 1950s.

My favorite performance, though, is by Hugh Marlowe. He plays Lt. Col. Ben Gately, a pilot who has managed to screw up so many times that he's been put behind a desk. However, Savage takes him and turns him back into a top pilot. Marlowe takes Savage's "abuse" with stoic grace; he is forced to call his squadron the "leper colony" and take all of the other screw-ups as his crew. The scene where Gately and Savage have a conversation after Gately has been injured is particularly touching for what it reveals about how both men have so much they would like to say to each other, but neither is able to break from the kind of behavior expected of military men.

The air battles are actual footage of bomber pilots in World War II. The sequences in the air are pretty thrilling to watch, particularly knowing that you are not watching special effects but actual fighting. These scenes come near the end of the film, and they add a nice sense of closure to the ways that Col. Savage has rebuilt the company after taking over its command. Of course, he has his own issues while these battles are going on, but that just makes them all the more significant in their outcome.