The Thousand Plane Raid

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.

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!

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 US Air Col. Called Greg Brandon : Christopher George convinces Allies that a daylight bombing can change the course of the WWII . As about thousand planes have to destroy an industry where Nazis are making aircrafts .Hitler Knew the Plan...But the Allies Bet a Thousand Planes That He Didn't Know the Place!.This was the day the Allies turned the blitz on Hitler The biggest air-borne armada of the war - a thousand bombers on a secret mission to destroy the Nazi dream of a Thousand Year Reich!

Run-of-the-mill Warlike movie abot a dangerous mission with thrills, emotion , romance and a lot of stock footage . Concerning a true plot , around thousand allied Bombers assigned to destroy a specific target producing German fighter planes . Stars Christopher George who gives a nice but serious acting as the Colonel who receives a bombing mission against an industrial facility in France. Being well accompanied by a good cast of familiar faces , most of them from TV films such as the beautiful Laraine Stephens, J. D. Cannon, Gary Marshal , Gavin McLeod , Ben Murphy , Bo Hopkins , James Gammon , Charles Dierkop, among others . The Thousand Plane Raid 1969 is reminiscent of other warlike movies as Dam Busters , Operation Crossbow, by Michael Anderson, 633 Squadron by Walter Grauman and Mosquito Squadron by Boris Sagal himself .The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Boris Sagal , a television series expert such as : Rich Man Poor Man , Ike , Columbo , Diary of Ana Frank , The Name is the Game , Madigan , Masada. And he occassionally directed some films as Omega Man , The Helicopter Spies , Mosquito Squadron. Rating : 5.5/10 . Only for WWII enthusiasts.

"The Thousand Plane Raid" is a fictionalized account of an actual raid that occurred using 1000 American bombers. It also is in many ways like the movie and TV show "12 O'Clock High"....and focuses only on the B-17, which is odd, as in reality the US built and used even more B-24s which are never shown in movies. I assume part of it might be that there were just more B-17s in flyable shape for films.

Christopher George plays Colonel Brandon, a humorless and intense bomb group leader. He's very tough on his men...presumably because not quite good enough would mean death. In so many ways he's like General Savage from the "12 O'Clock High" film and show...a tough guy who knows what needs to be done and is willing to do it...and do it along with his men.

Overall, this is a pretty exciting and well made film. My only complaint is a common one...the use of stock footage. Now I would NOT expect them to blow up real planes and risk stuntmen's lives...but sometimes stock footage just is bad. In this case, when the Colonel's B-17 crashes later in the movie, it suddenly becomes a B-29 bomber...a much larger and different style plane...and it's obviously NOT a B-17.

Oh, and if want to be more picky, IMDB says 'US Air Force'....but that term was created AFTER WWII. At that point the air service was part of the US Army and was called the US Army Air Corps.