The Thousand Plane Raid

Just saw this 36 year old movie on a Spanish T.V. channel.It was a midnight movie and it's dubbed in Spanish. This movie is very and I mean very cheaply made. It looks more like a made for T.V. movie. However, it was made in 1969 and most likely it was riding on the coat-tails of such films as Battle for Britan or Operation Crossbow. I like Christopher George, but the poor guy just wasn't given any decent acting roles. I feel his "meatiest" role was that of gunman Nelson McCloud in the John Wayne movie, El Dorado. Sadly, Christopher George died of a massive heart attack at 54, and is best remembered for his hit 1960s T.V. show, The Rat Patrol. As for this film, well, it's better in Spanish! Only thing, I don't speak Spanish!

This film takes place during World War II on a fictitious USAAF bomber base in England, referred to as Steeple Bassington. It was released to local California audiences only in the summer of 1969, and stars Christopher George as the no-nonsense, by-the-book bomb group commander Colonel Brandon, who develops a plan to attack a heavily defended German aircraft factory using 1,000 bombers, that if successful, could turn the tide of the air war in the allies favor. The remainder of the cast is a proverbial who's who of TV-Movie character actors of the day including J. D. Cannon, Laraine Stephens, Gavin MacLeod, Ben Murphy, Bo Hopkins, and Charles Dierkop. British actor Gary Marshal portrays Wing Commander Howard, a free-spirited and highly successful RAF fighter ace, who's been assigned to the base to teach fighter tactics to Brandon's hard luck outfit, the 103rd Heavy Bombardment Group. The cliche riddled script is predictable, and the combat sequences are a hastily prepared mishmash of wartime footage, movie clips, and cheesy, low budget airplane sets. In spite of all that, I actually found this movie to be semi-entertaining; the acting is competent and believable, and the use of actual B-17 aircraft for the location flying scenes, including the extremely LOW buzz job of the field, was particularly satisfying. In addition, historical credibility was enhanced by the period control tower, base operations, and maintenance buildings that were constructed on the site of what is now Santa Maria Public Airport, formerly known as Santa Maria Army Airfield, which was an actual B-25 and P-38 pilot transition training base during WWII.

A low-cost production for a typical war film of the era where triumphant and propagandistic tones seem more important than a well-executed movie. The characters are not fully developed, and while their performances are correct, they lack significant interpretive moments. It is a passable film if considered as a TV movie, but that is not the case. When compared to the series "12 O'Clock High," its level doesn't even reach that of its worst episodes, not to mention comparing it to the movie of the same title.

The worst part is that it's a work of fiction that appropriates successes from real events, which, however, haven't occurred in these terms, and that's why I refer to it as propaganda, like the very feat that gives the film its title, which is actually based on a mission carried out by the British aviation in the famous raid on Cologne in 1942.

A fairly average B-grade movie that is pulled up by a sequence of low flying that is used on more than one occasion throughout the movie for different story line progressions. To see a B-25 coming over the trees and then missing the ground with the right wing by only a few feet is amazing to say the least. Most of the footage in the battle scenes is from war footage and low budget (nowadays) SFX but given the age and being made about the same time as "the Battle Of Britain" it puts up a reasonable performance. Aircraft buffs will like the flying sequences as they always will and for an afternoon diversion it is not too bad. Look out for the maintenance crew chief, Sgt Kreuger a few years before commanding his well known ship the Love Boat.

This is very much like "The War Lover" with Steve McQueen 10 years earlier in black-and-white, it is basically the same story, but that film was humanly so much more interesting. This is in colour, and although Christopher George is very much like Steve McQueen, almost like a twin character, he is grimmer, harder and more superficial - the McQueen character has an abyss of depth in its psychopathic possibilities, while Christopher George is only doing his job. Both died too young, by the way, Steve McQueen at 50 and Christopher George at 54.

What saves the film are the other characters, first of all Gary Marshal, who adds a very needful sense of humour and detachment to the grim show, while colonel Brandon (George) has no humour at all and never smiles. The case of the grounded pilot Palmer (J.D.Cannon) also adds some interest to the epic, while on the whole, like as if it was made for television, this is clearly less realistic than the McQueen feature, which offers so much more human insight into the lives of the bomber pilots in this dreadful war. Here it more amounts to aerobatics and showing off. McQueen makes that showing off pathological, while here it is superficial.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting film, better than its reputation, awfully exciting and with splendid scenery of war pilot flights in the air and in action. The only disturbing thing was Laraine Stephens' hair style, a cold blonde with too much make-up for that war and a coiffure belonging entirely to the 60s.