Command Decision

There must be at least one whole generation of viewers who don't even know this film exists! Yet it remains one of the very best WWII films ever made. I first saw as a child, when it was quite new, and have seen it several times since. It has never lost its hold and that, I suppose, principally because of Clark Gable's superb performance (although the other parts are all very strongly done). It really must be one of his finest screen roles and that alone, one might think, would ensure that it is never long absent from television screens. Sadly it has been shown in Britain but once that I know of, and is not available here on a PAL-system video, although "Twelve O'Clock High" is available and often screened. In many ways the two films complement each other, each not wholly to be appreciated without seeing the other. "Twelve O'Clock High" has an almost exclusively military focus while "Command Decision" brings in the effect of political factors on military decisions. The latter film, however, has an edge: Gable on top form and that was always something very special.