[SKUNKY]

Twelve O'Clock High - My alltime favorite war movie, hands down.........Wish someone would put the 1960s TV series of the same name out in DVD...

[MoMo]

How about a remake, Skunky?

Could it be topped, or at least brought up to today's standards for a younger generation to appreciate without moaning about having to watch a movie in black and white?

There are enough B17s about to be able to do a lot of it with non-CGI sequences. Problem is, are today's American actors up to it? Who could replace Peck? Who would you give Dean Jagger's part to?

Hard, ain't it?

MoMo

[bsmith13]

Heaven forbid they ever remade Twelve O'Clock High...I would probably see it, but I probably wouldn't be favorably disposed towards a remake.

The original does things so well, and I think the black and white makes it seem more, I don't know...authentically period to me.

[STARMAN 352ND]

Twelve O'clock high is a great film.It gives you the realities of sending out young men out to die and the men who shoulder that decisions. There are bigger movies...like the "The Battle of Britain" ,"Tora Tora Tora","Battle of Midway" or even "Dambusters" but I don't think any film can really touch the energy of this film.
It is a quiet film that address the pressures man faces, the ones going out there and fighting, the ones that stay behind and give the orders.
Gregory Peck Plays Brig. Gen. Frank Savage. At the beginning of the film he is dealing with the Lt. Col. Gately played by Hugh Marlowe.
Gately is very popular with his men, because he cares. Each time he sends them out and they do not come back, his heart bleeds. Slowly the guilt is grinding him down.
Savage sees his friend's problems as one of distancing himself from the men. If you do not get involved with them personally, the decisions would come easier.
He is told to put his money with his mouth is.. he is to take over for the Lt.Col Gately.
Savage arrives and immediately he is in the untenable position of being the replacement for the much beloved Gately.
His by-the-book, shut up and salute, does not earn him adoration.
In fact, the whole unit has all written transfer requests. Standing between Savage and is men who would like to frag him...is Maj. Harvey Stovall played by Dean Jones.
Stovall was devoted to Gately but he to sees both sides of the problem and truly understands the bottom line..unless you are totally without a heart, there is no way to keep the emotional distance from your men.
Eventually, the line is blurred and you care. Something Savage slowly learns, and grinds him down just as had to Gately.
This is one of the most outstanding set of actors i have seen in a long time
Very powerfull movie and highly recommened to all.
JP

[SKUNKY]

Originally Posted by MoMo

How about a remake, Skunky?
Could it be topped(?).....

I would definitely give it a look for sure, but I doubt the original could be 'topped.' This movie was made shortly after the end of the war and therefore gives me a 'being there" feel when I watch it that could never be re-created today. Besides, who could ever replace Gregory Peck as Gen. Savage?... BTW, the character of Frank Savage was inspired primarily by Frank Armstrong, commander of the 306th BG. Paul Tibbetts was the inspiration for the character of Maj. Joe Cobb.

[SKUNKY]

Hey all fellow 12 O'Clock Highofiles, coincidentally I just read in my latest copy of Flight Journal that there's a new book out called The 12 O'Clock High Logbook:The Unofficial History of the Novel, Motion Picture and TV Series..It's 422 pages..At $29.99 it ain't cheap (heck, that's exactly what I paid for my 1/72nd Corgi Memphis Belle) but you can get it a lot cheaper thru Amazon.com....This one is definitely headed for my library.

[MoMo]

Thanks for the great review, Starman. I could read that you were affected by the movie and that it was a moving experience.

Apart from the dramatic aspects, were the action sequences believable? Was the hardware correct?

Thanks for the intel. Skunky. It looks as if I'll have to track that book down. I'm interested in the T.V. series because that one never appeared on this side of the pond.

I doubt if " Twelve O'Clock High" would ever be remade for the cinema.


However, one day the CGI will be so natural-looking and cheap to generate that T.V. programme providers will be looking for action projects to make for the small screen. War movies set in all periods will be a natural direction for them to take. I'm sure that they will trawl through the back catalogues to find suitable projects which will end up on HBO or the equivalent.

After they have shaken out the archives and made a lot of bad remakes they just might start to generate some original material based on books which never experienced the dark shadow of Hollywood's grasping hand passing over them. At this point I'm sure that some personal stories of aviation, seamanship and soldiering will be considered.

This is my prediction for the week!

Whatdja think, Starman, Bsmith and Skunky?

[MoMo]

Hi, Guys,

Just to change the subject for a while, I watched a terrible WW2 war movie the other night. I picked it up cheap in one of the DVD Cutout stores which I frequent in the hope of finding a few lost gems.

Avoid this one like the plague :

" The Desert Rats " directed by Robert Wise.

Now, I'm a big fan of Robert Wise. I love his " The Day the Earth Stood Still" and many of his other movies but this one must rate as one of the phoniest movies ever to be made on the subject of the desert war.

I should have known when I saw the 20th Century logo that it was dire! That studio produced some of the worst war movies ever made. Remember
" The Young Lions" with Marlon, Montgomery Clift and Dino?

It stank! The nearest a war movie ever came to inventing Soap Opera!

Of course, 20th Century did release " Telve O'Clock High", but that is an exception......... I digress.........

The Dreadful Rats starred Richard Burton, James Mason ( as Rommel ) and Robert Newton.

The story covers the first siege of Tobruk in 1941 The story was written by a guy called Richard Murphy who should have been shot and made to watch this film 10 times as a punishment!

As usual, Hollywood-know-how f---ed up what should have been a very good movie by insisting on sub-plots and psychological sub-text as the main interest for the movie-going public in 1953. As a result the movie was cut to 84 minutes running time for a tale that should, and could, have sustained interest for an epic 2.5 hours!

The vital battle is reduced to Richard Burton ( throwing a few tizzy fits along the way ) battle-weary British captain having to ' take charge' of a newly-arrived Australian Company which has never seen battle. Burton AKA Captain McRoberts has to lick the Aussies into shape and deal with his own Demons at the same time ( we're never sure what the demons are, Burton just delivers the angst while the script ignores the reasons )

Thrown into this doubtful mix is Robert Newton ( you remember him! He's the guy who played Long John Silver in Disney's ' Treasure Island' ...' Arrrr, Jim,lad ). He turns out to be McRoberts' long-lost teacher who happened to emigrate to Australia, joined the army to prove he was not a coward and then just happened to bump into McRoberts on the docks at Tobruk! Newton refers to Burton by his first name, Tammy, and I had trouble trying not to picture Burton singing ' Stand by Your Man!

Even if it were all true, no scriptwriter should have come within 10 miles of it because of the hollowness of the plot!

Anyway, Burton licks the Aussies into shape, Newton comes through in the end and the Aussies beam gratefully when McRoberts pronounces them the best company on the line. The level of Brit pomposity and Paternalism in this dreck is only equalled by Wayne's worst avuncular utterences in many of his flag-waving numbers.

Add to the mix James Mason not quite turning in his best in the role he excelled at in " The Desert Fox"! He delivers his lines in German to Germans and delivers his lines to Burton ( temporarily captive ) in the worst " Ve haff vays of makink you talk " movie-German-speaking-english. This is after Burton and the Aussies have blown up half the Afrika Korp's ammunition!

" Ve vill still beat you!" Rommel predicts.

But no. The german attack falters as their armour ( a mix of everything that isn't a Mark 111 ) is stopped short by being drawn into an A.T. killing zone ( about the only accurate fact in the movie ) which is epitomised by Burton using the 50mm cannon of a knocked-out Panhard to stop what is supposed to be a Mark111! Bravo ( even if the Panhard was on fire and the ammo was about to go up ! )

As I said. Avoid this pile of manure like it was the worst exam you've ever had to endure after avoiding any revision all week and then decided to look at the book in the last few minutes before the test. It is an insult to the real Desert Rats and a slur to the Aussies who, by all accounts, were the best fighters to see action from any part of The Empire!

To cap it all, they added a voice-over by Peter Lawford ( what was he good for? )in his nauseating Mid-Atlantic accent which attempted to fill in the holes in the plot for anyone who had forgotten that WW2 had come and gone.


On the other hand, I did enjoy watching " Das Boot", the director's cut just after this unriveting performance.

Review soon.

( I'll just have to watch " Ice Cold in Alex" as an antidote! )

Happy viewing,

MoMo

[MoMo]

Hi Guys, ( and any women...not to be sexist! )

I thought that I would watch Wolfgang Petersen's " Das Boot" again last weekend and gather my thoughts on it during the course of the week.

I was going to write this review of it last weekend, but I got bogged down in the current and impending Christmas madness and could not escape from the miasma of shopping and writing and emailing and.... You know!

Anyway, the version which I watched is the 200 minute ' Director's Cut' which is cut down from the TV version which is a little longer.

I remember being transfixed by the drama when it was shown on UK TV in the 80s and Im happy to say that this version of the story is just as gripping.

For those of you who don't know the story, it concerns the fate of a U-Boat which goes out on patrol at a time when the war in the Atlantic was swinging from the U Boats being the hunters to them becoming the hunted.

U-96 has to rendezvous with a pack in the Atlantic and there it makes several kills. It then has to chance the run to the Med. through the Gibralter Straits via neutral Vigo where it picks up supplies and torpedoes. This creates a contrast in the movie, and some lifting of tension, when the submariners see fresh food and clean sailors!

The squalor and boredom of the previous part of the movie are well represented from the long hours and days of hunting for targets to the checking of sailors for VD and lice!

Tension is released when the U-Boat is depth-charged by British escorts and this part of the movie is well done. You live through the terror with them.

The interior of the U-boat looks authentic and the feeling of claustrophobia is tangible as the men push past one another in well-drilled panic as they crash-dive!

The noise of the detonations and the flash of the depth charges exploding all add to the feeling of helplessness as U-96 dives deeper, way beyond the safety limit of the pressure hull, in order to escape the pounding.

This terror is repeated when U-96 reaches the Straits of Gibralter. They are forced to abort their mission and head for home where the sub is finally sunk!

Performances from the German actors is first rate and the Direction is wonderful and accute.

The model-work is very good and there is no sign of CGI!

You can watch the DVD in German or an overdubbed English version, which is actually quite good!

Well worth watching if you have not seen it and worth a reviewing if you have!

MoMo

[MoMo]

re " Das Boot",

I forgot to add that the only plot device which I thought was questionable was the one which cast the volunteer submariner from Mexico in the role of the token Nazi. All the other crew members were silent or openly hostile to Hitler ( manifest in their derision of the German/Mexican ) in a manner which sought to distance them from their political masters, thus maintaining the myth that the Kreigsmarine was anti-Nazi.

This fairy-tale was the only fly in the ointment as far as the movie was concerned.

You can model a U-Boat and crew from the Revell range. I don't know if anyone is planning to produce a die-cast 1.72 scale U-Boat, but I'm sure that such a model would be a great success, especially among members who have Swordfish, Hudsons, Beau.s, Seafires, Catapult-Launched Hurri.s, etc.

Such a model ( Even a waterline effort ) would spark off hundreds of loose scenarios or dioramas.

Would Dragon attempt a waterline U-Boat after their foray into the Landing Craft market? An E-Boat even? It's high time someone sorted all the bugs in the old Airfix E-boat so that a more accurate representation of this iconic torpedo launcher can be made available!

Another idea : what do you guys think of Dragon producing some of the classic Air-Sea Rescue boats from WW2 or the present day? P.T. boats? MTBs ?

Whatdy'a think, huh?

MoMo