24 Hour Alert

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.

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.

I am watching 24 Hour Alert right now on TCM. Jack Webb stars in and narrates this documentary style short film about a fictional town that wants the nearby temporary Air Force base to move. The locals don't like the noise the jets make. There are numerous 1950s jets shown in action and they are really the stars of this tribute to the Air Force and the great work it does protecting the country. Jack gets to go for a ride in a T-33 trainer with the base commander as pilot and gets to see what a jet can do. An uncredited role is the film is "2nd pilot in ready room" with Gordon Cooper as that pilot. I don't know if that is the Gordon Cooper who later became an astronaut. 24 Hour Alert is only 31 minutes long and is well worth a look, especially if you are interested in vintage aircraft.

The story with Webb narrating is bland enough, as far as jack Webb can make it.

But the real treats are the flying sequences.

We get to see some of the great mid-50s jets, including an early look at the B-52.

The "drama" includes an F-100 assisting an old B-25 in deploying its landing gear.

And, what Webb off-handedly describes as a turbo-prop cargo aircraft, which turns out to be the early version of the famous workhorse C-130 Hercules.

Those are worth the price of admission.

Oscar-nominated short film, a Walt Disney co-production distributed by Warner Bros., honoring the military forces that keep us safe from enemy harm--at the expense of families living in homes located around the noisy air bases. Jack Webb tours one such location (in sunny Millville, possibly standing in for Southern California's March Air Force Base), filled with Tigers--"a nice bunch of kids"--which has come under fire for its particular flight patterns. Narrating in his halting, somber style, Webb (courtesy screenwriters Beirne Lay Jr. and Richard L. Breen) makes melodramatic observations about the aircraft, the pilots, and the controllers as if the country were on the verge of World War III (one presumes to belittle the complaints of mothers down below who can't get their babies to sleep because of the passing jets). Not particularly well-executed, the 30-minute film is both awkward and naïve, a showcase for the military advancement in decimating entire towns. *1/2 from ****