24 Hour Alert

Because I've always been interested in studying and reading about military aircraft, I was excited to see this short film playing on TCM one afternoon. This film, a half hour in length, concerns itself with a residential area located near an air force base. It's the 1950s, and the jet age is underway. Because jets are much louder than propeller driven aircraft, the people in the town are starting to get irritated with all the noise. Jack Webb (who also narrates) travels to the base and meets with Colonel Breech, who is the man the civilians have been sending their complaints to. The mayor of the town wants the base to move somewhere else in order to make the complaints go away, but changes his tune after his private plane has a hard time landing one day because the plane's wheels won't fold out. Jets from the base are sent up to fly close to his plane and nudge the wheels, making them operate normally again. Being spared from a bad accident, the mayor is now convinced of the importance of having the base nearby. The formerly annoyed people of the town also show up to the base to show their support, and witness a huge spectacle of different aircraft, such as the massive c-130 cargo plane, f-84 Thunderjets, b-52s, and even an aerobatics team that flies f-86 Sabres, america's main offensive air weapon during the korean war. In the end, the town learns to accept the air force base because they realize its importance in making sure america is safe. While this film is pretty average, I thought it was good because it focuses on planes. Not only this, but you can see all the amazing and vibrant paint schemes on them because it's in color. They also show an experimental plane that never entered serial production: the Douglas Stiletto. Unfortunately, they only show it on the ground but it was nice to see it at all. To make a short story even shorter, 24 Hour Alert is a good enough film that features some interesting planes, but it's not really that memorable because of its lackluster story.

Outstanding aerial shots of 1950's USAF fighter jets. If you like warplanes, this little gem of a movie is an absolute must see.

Great narration by Jack Webb. This film honors those who served in the USAF back in the Cold War 1950's. There are no combat scenes, but there is plenty of aerial action.

At the end, there is extensive high quality footage of a 1950's USAF air show. B-52's, F-100's, B-47's, early C-130's, and F-86's. The highlight was the Pre-Thunderbirds USAF aerial demonstration team called the Sabre Knights.

Never heard of this short movie. But it was great.

Jack Webb did a great job honoring the USAF.

Warner Bros. And the United States Air Force make a bit of propaganda for public consumption. It is about thirty minutes. Actor Jack Webb visits a fictional military commander. There are noise complaints from the local mayor and much of the public.

This actually got an Oscar nomination. There are lots of 50's era American warplanes. The footage is up close and personal. The filming probably doesn't get much better than this for the public. The flying is absolutely amazing. It's super cool. It is Top Gun Plus. The other amazing part is seeing all these old silver beauties parked on the tarmac.

24 Hour Alert (1955)

** (out of 4)

This short from Warner runs 31-minutes for some reason and it also picked up an Oscar nomination for some reason. Jack Webb appears as himself and also narrates as he talks about a U.S. Air Force base that is coming under attack by local residents who are unhappy over all the noise that the jets are making. Webb goes with the some experts as they talk to the people and see if they can come to some sort of understanding since the work of the jets are so important. Um, yeah, I'm really not sure what the entire point of this film was but it's certainly a strange little picture. I'd be lying if I said it was any good in regards to entertainment but I'll at least give it credit for being well made. The entire subject matter is just so bland and boring that it's impossible to really care about anything going on. I'm sure those who enjoy watching jets in motion should at least get some mild entertainment out of that. The only great thing in the film is its WarnerColor, which looks downright terrific. Seriously, the colors are so remarkable that it really does seem as if you're watching some sort of animated movie.

Jack Webb, narrating in the same staccato style that he used in DRAGNET, heads over to a temporary air force base to speak with an old friend and try to pick up some contemporary dialogue for a story. He winds up with a civics lesson about the purposes and methods of air defense and the difficulties of getting along with the civilian neighbors.

Of more interest to me is the lovely photography by Edward Colman, not only the jets -- I used to assemble Aurora models of them when I was a kid -- but images of the jet engines firing up and the scenery they fly past -- and the flocks of turkey gabbling at the noise, upsetting the civilians.

It's a good point, driven home, in Jack Webb style, with a sledge hammer, but the pictures are beautiful.