Command Decision (1948)

Director:

Sam Wood

Writers:

George Froeschel (writer)
William Wister Haines (play)

Release Date:

February 1949 (USA)

Genre:

War | Drama

Tagline:

Heroes, cowards, fighters, braggarts, liars...and what goes on in their hearts!

Plot:

Army generals struggle with the decision to prioritize bombing the German factories producing new jet fighters over the extremely high casualties the mission will cost.

Plot Keywords:

B 29 | Secrecy | Aerial Photography | Blackmail | Airplane Runway

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Brig. Gen. K.C. 'Casey' Dennis
Walter Pidgeon	...	Maj. Gen. Roland Goodlaw Kane
Van Johnson	...	TSgt. Immanuel T. Evans
Brian Donlevy	...	Brig. Gen. Clifton I. Garnet
Charles Bickford	...	Elmer Brockhurst
John Hodiak	...	Col. Edward Rayton Martin
Edward Arnold	...	Congressman Arthur Malcolm
Marshall Thompson	...	Capt. George Washington Bellpepper Lee
Richard Quine	...	Maj. George Rockton
Cameron Mitchell	...	Lt. Ansel Goldberg
Clinton Sundberg	...	Maj. Homer V. Prescott
Ray Collins	...	Maj. Desmond Lansing
Warner Anderson	...	Col. Earnest Haley
John McIntire	...	Maj. Belding Davis
Moroni Olsen	...	Congressman Stone

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

March Air Force Base, Riverside, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Clark Gable had an officer's commission of Major in the Army Air Corps during WWII.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Casey is wondering about the weather for the third straight day of maximum effort, he tells his staff to keep him informed with weather updates. But when he does so, his lips don't move.

Quotes:

James Carwood: What's the answer, Brockie, all guts and no brain?
Elmer Brockhurst: No. That's putting it too simply. Dennis is one of those boys whose brain is fascinated by guts. He loves this lousy war.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Clark Gable: Tall, Dark and Handsome (1996)

Under-Appreciated, A Great War-Movie

This is an under-appreciated gem of a move.

To start with, the core story sounds utterly fantastic, but it is partly true. There was never a "Lance-Wulf 190", but there really was a Messerschmidt Me-262 in World War 2. The Me-262 wasn't quite the wonder-plane which the mythical Lance-Wulf was, but it was a swept-wing jet with a top speed of 540 mph, a blinding speed for the time. And, as fighter pilots say, "speed is life".

American bombing in August, 1943 did delay the introduction of the real Me-262. (The pre-production aircraft were wrecked on an assembly line, forcing a delay of several months.) The irony is that the German jet fighter program was really stymied by Hitler's aversion to defensive weapons and the German feeling that the war could be won with existing fighter types.

There is, however, a "message" in this film which fully applies to civilian life. You know that everything is okay just now, but this will soon come to an end. Given those facts, are you willing to take some massive losses now and solve the problem? Or do you just wait for the situation to become visible to everyone before you act?

I don't know how many times I've seen people--even bright ones--opt for the "wait and see" course of action. It never works.

Just as Betty Davis's 1938 film "Jezebel" was overshadowed by "Gone With The Wind", this film was overshadowed by "Twelve O'Clock High".