Jump to content

12 O' Clock High


m1ashooter
 Share

Recommended Posts

The instructor was discussing Randall Jarrell's poem, 'The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.'

 

Just in case not every one at this forum had that Literature course....

 

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

 

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

 

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A buddy of mine drives a school bus for a severely mentally handicapped kid. Nobody else wanted that route, but it actually had the most driving time. I suggested he call his vehicle & crew "The Leper Colony". That's what he calls himself & his aide. Funny, but sad at the same time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always want a Robin Hood Toby Mug after watching it.

I've read that reproductions are available somewhere. :think:

Google: 12 o'clock high toby mug. Somebody from the UK had them last year. I wanted but didn't get one. They came with

2 still shots from the movie where it shows the mug being handled. Pretty neat item, even if a person dosen't

collect USAAF stuff, that mug would be recognized sittin on a shelf just by people remembering the movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always want a Robin Hood Toby Mug after watching it.

I've read that reproductions are available somewhere. :think:

Here is where you can find one. A buddy had one as part of his AAF displaysand I got a good look. It's neat, but after 5 minutes you'd likely say, "Okay, it's a mug.... oh well." They et more pricey every year, I remember when they were just around $50 and I thought that was steep. Unless you have a very wide mantle on a fireplace to put it, I can't say it'd be worth it or not...
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is where you can find one. A buddy had one as part of his AAF displaysand I got a good look. It's neat, but after 5 minutes you'd likely say, "Okay, it's a mug.... oh well." They et more pricey every year, I remember when they were just around $50 and I thought that was steep. Unless you have a very wide mantle on a fireplace to put it, I can't say it'd be worth it or not...

$190 + shipping. Wow! Definitely exclusive to the diehard AAF collector who has to have everything.

Thanks for the link.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RANDALL 1953

When the TV show was on Aurora models had a plastic model kit that had 3 B17s on a bombing run over a base. I remember building this one and the B17s were supported over the base by clear plastic holders that you applied a decal strip of bombs as they were falling. It was a very cool kit and fun to build.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
When the TV show was on Aurora models had a plastic model kit that had 3 B17s on a bombing run over a base. I remember building this one and the B17s were supported over the base by clear plastic holders that you applied a decal strip of bombs as they were falling. It was a very cool kit and fun to build.

 

I just found the model kit you were discussing. Here is a link.

 

Model kits

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Ahh 12 O'Clock High they don't so em like that anymore. One of Gregory Peck's finest hours, (aside from Ahab) as well the the rest of the cast.

Picadilly Lil so dramatic and the realism, the emotion was still alive from the war. Wasn't it made in '47? I read the belly land was an actual stunt.

I doubt they could so any better now even with the CGI

 

B17 's Keep 'em flyin!!!!

 

Claymore

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

The belly landing scene site is now at Fort Rucker. It was called "Ozark Field" at the time, and that's where most of the flying scenes were done from. Duke Field as the "Archbury" set in Florida.Not exactly.

The Movie Plot starts with:

In 1949, American attorney and former U.S. Army Air Forces officer Harvey Stovall (Dean Jagger) is vacationing in Great Britain when he spies a familiar Toby Jug in an English antique shop.[N 1] He buys it and then goes by train and bicycle out to an abandoned airfield, The airfield was overgrown with high grass, and cattle grazing, the runways in disrepair. The former USAAF station, RAF Archbury, where he served with the 918th Bomb Group during World War II. As Stovall broods over his memories of the place, the scene flashes back to RAF Archbury, c. 1942, and the main story begins.

 

Additional background photography was shot at RAF Barford St John, a satellite station of RAF Croughton (2130th Communications Squadron [Later: Group]) in (Oxfordshire, England, UK), Near the village of Bloxum. 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 (transmitter site) Station designated as Detachment 1, 2130th Communications Squadron (Later: Group) linked to RAF Upper Heyford. the Control Tower was still in place in the late 1960's, with numerous long wire antennas on telephone poles, and an large transmitter center and power plant. Both RAF Barford St. John and RAF Croughton were supported by the 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing (1966 to April 1970) and the 20th Tactical Fighter Wing (After Apr 1970)

 

Station History:

RAF Station Barford St John was opened on 30 July 1941 as a training facility for RAF Flying Training Command. It had three grass runways, used primarily by Airspeed Oxfords of No 15 Service Flying Training School from RAF Kidlington. The airfield was closed in late 1941 and rebuilt as an RAF Bomber Command airfield with paved runways and equipped for night operations.

 

The airfield reopened in December 1942 as a satellite for RAF Upper Heyford. Bomber Command and No 16 Operational Training Unit was stationed there with Vickers Wellingtons until December 1944. No 1655 Mosquito Training Unit replaced the Wellingtons and the unit was renamed No 16 OTU in January 1945 when it moved to RAF Cottesmore. In 1943 the station served as flight test centre for its Gloster E.28/39 and Gloster Meteor jet aircraft[1] from RAF Brockworth.

 

After the war the airfield was closed in 1946 and placed into care and maintenance.

 

The site was used as the airfield in the 1949 film Twelve O'Clock High.

 

Terry L Horstead

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not sure where the UK field stuff has creeped in, but the making of the film is very well documented (a book was written on the making of the film a few years back). All the airfield scenes were shot at Duke and Ozark...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I'm not sure where the UK field stuff has creeped in, but the making of the film is very well documented (a book was written on the making of the film a few years back). All the airfield scenes were shot at Duke and Ozark...

I'd bet it's a mix up with The War Lover. If I remember right that was shot in England. Same markings on the 17s. Everyone was in the 91st After all :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd bet it's a mix up with The War Lover. If I remember right that was shot in England. Same markings on the 17s. Everyone was in the 91st After all :)

 

 

Good point, I didn't even think of that. Almost every B-17 film made after 1949 had to have some 91st BG markings so they could re-use the film of the Paul Mantz B-17 crash from '12 O clock high'...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hbtcoveralls

I read the book last year. I have to say that this is one time when the movie is much much better than the book. For the movie, they cut out so much extraneous stuff that the best parts remain and it is the classic that we watch today. Still not a bad read, but the movie is just so good that the book can't hold a candle. 12 O'clock High by Bernie Lay and Sy Bartlett

Tom Bowers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting as I thought the book the better effort. The doctors role was exact opposite in the movie. The storyline around Gately is better in the book and We see Savage after the breakdown on the way back up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hbtcoveralls

Interesting as I thought the book the better effort. The doctors role was exact opposite in the movie. The storyline around Gately is better in the book and We see Savage after the breakdown on the way back up.

But the way I found it, the Pamela character and the secret radio intercepts plot line were a real distraction to the story. I also found Bishop's role in the book, just unrealistic and improbable. I found the movie just so tight and focused that the book seems padded and too "novelistic".

Tom Bowrs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bishops crew seemed to be the way they recognized so many aircrew as the incidents that happened were from actual events, in particular the actions of the crew of The Duchess as well as the MoH won by Red Morgan who later went down over Berlin to become a POW.

 

I enjoyed the movie. I just felt like Savage got better resolution at the end of the book and the Gately storyline was better in the book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is really a movie that stands the test of time.

 

In my opinion, still the best movie on the daylight bombing campaign against

Germany ever made.

 

"12 O' Clock High" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" are my two favorite aviation films.

 

It is sad that after all this time, the best we can do is horrible CGI films.

 

There is so much potential to do something great, yet the film industry keeps falling

on it's face with every aviation film.....

 

John

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

In my previous working life, I was part of a team of LE Chiefs who traveled about doing exams for communities looking for a new Chief of Police. We used the film as part of a situational leadership portion of the exam. Many could watch the film and never see it was about leadership styles. I never tired of watching it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...