Dad's Movies: Command Decision (1949)

It's back to WWII with Command Decision (1949).

This is an interesting one: a movie about WWII bombing that doesn't really have any depiction of combat or other action. Loading bombs onto B-17s and one scene of an emergency landing make up the bulk of the action. No, this is a very talky show about the importance of strategic bombing during the war and the (according to its author at least) need to just let those military men do their damn jobs! The main idea here is that Clark Gable's General Dennis character has a secret mission:  the destruction of a German facility that is working on new jet fighters that, according to the movie will tip the balance in the war (this is pretty exaggerated here as the German jet capacity wasn't nearly as large as the movie portrays). The problem is that the facilities are deep in Germany and the bombers have to fly beyond the range of fighter support, leaving them vulnerable to attack so each mission is racking up heavy casualties. Those losses and the pressure by visiting politicians and reporters to minimize the numbers of American dead are the conflicts here. Dennis truly believes in the mission but his superiors and a wary press are questioning it.

In the end, the film clearly comes down on the side of not questioning the people making the "command decisions". The reporters come off as weak and the civilian elected leaders are meddling fools who must be talked to like children. Now, I don't doubt that there is truth in this and things do change during a war setting but the film is very one sided about this. It's also conveniently free of any concern about the horrible civilian losses during the war due to the gazillion tons of bombs that were dropped on cities. I wouldn't expect this kind of perspective in a film made during the war, but this was a few years later and in that context, it seems already retrograde and a little bit propagandistic. By 1949, America was more ready to hear a better balanced story of the war (again, this is probably all present in the source play). Still, it's an interesting show and is different from most movies I've seen of the genre. I think the most powerful parts are the drama about Gable's character dealing with the pressure of having so many men in his command sent to their graves every day; the scenes where he is dealing with this are good.


This was based on a broadway play and it doesn't seem as though it was changed a whole lot for its film adaptation. Most of the movie is confined to a few static sets with the characters delivering long winded speeches. The show is slow going at the beginning but comes more alive in the second half.

Gable is actually good here, even in a non action role. Van Johnson plays a snarky, proto-Radar O'Reilly sergeant and Walter Pigeon as Gable's boss. Pidgeon rattles off his speeches well but seems exactly the same as his Dr. Morbius character from Forbidden Planet ("The Krell must not be allowed to develop jets!").