Twelve O'Clock High (1949) was delayed in its release because this film beat it to the punch. The similarity in content between the two films forced 20th Century-Fox to hold back on "Twelve O'Clock High" for a few months.
Clark Gable enlisted in the US Army Air Forces after his wife Carole Lombard died in a plane crash on a war bonds selling trip assisting the war effort. Gable went to Officers Candidate School (OCS), graduating as a second lieutenant, and was eventually promoted to major. He was trained as an aerial gunner and combat cameraman and was awarded both the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal for at least five aerial bombing missions over Germany from England with the 351st Bomb Group (Heavy). Adolf Hitler personally offered a reward to the pilot or anti-aircraft gun crew who shot down Gable's plane.
The cast of Clark Gable, Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Brian Donlevy, John Hodiak, Richard Quine and Edward Arnold reprised their roles from this movie in a "Screen Guild Theater" program radio broadcast on 3/3/49 for NBC Network. Apparently, according to "Daily Variety" in February 1949, this was the first ever pre-recorded commercial show to be broadcast from Hollywood over the network.
The "Lantze-Wolf 1" referred to in the movie is actually a Messerschmitt ME-262 "Schwalbe" turbojet fighter, introduced in combat in 1944.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
