Review of Twelve O´ Clock High

Introduction

Twelve O’Clock High tells the story of an American bomber group down on their luck after heavy losses in missions over Germany. General Frank Savage is sent in to whip them into shape and, after first finding the group skeptical, unites the men. The film also contains actual combat footage.

Video

The 4:3 black-and-white picture looks fairly good, but Fox could have done a better job of the transfer. Various specs and print marks appear a number of times, so this points at little effort done in the restoration process. However, the level of detail is good and the wear and tear can only be expected from a film made in 1949.

Audio

The 2-channel soundtrack is adequate – a surround remix would have been pretty pointless in this case. The audio is clear throughout.

Features

Absolutely nothing here. Although this does not seem like a film that would have many extras available to Fox, due to its age and genre, I would have at least liked to see a trailer.

Conclusion

Twelve O’Clock High is an entertaining enough war film, although it does come from a different era of filmmaking and so may not appeal to the younger generation of DVD viewers. I would have liked to applaud Fox for bringing out a low-seller such as this to DVD from its back catalogue, but it seems they have made little effort with the picture restoration and none with the special features. Till, if you’re looking to replace your video version then this is just about enough incentive to do so.