Movie of the Week: Command Decision (1948)

This week, Clark Gable is an American General stationed in England during World War II, commanding bombing missions over Germany in Command Decision (1948).

Okay, so here’s the thing about this whole Movie of the Week premise. It’s great for me to re-watch all of Clark’s films and revisit a lot of these pictures that are otherwise buried in my computer, and it gives some structure to my Facebook and Instagram posts as well. As you can probably tell, they are not in any particular order; I figured chronological would be boring–it’s much more interesting to bounce around his filmography. Some weeks are certainly better than others; some movies have endless trivia, backstage photos and fan excitement (Lord help me when we get to Gone with the Wind–I don’t think I’ll have time to sleep!) but others there’s not much to say.

Command Decision is definitely the latter. I was not looking forward to re-watching it. I just simply don’t like it. It would have been easy to put it off to the end of this Movie of the Week exercise–like eating everything else on your plate before you touch the broccoli–but I decided to plug it in this week because part of this week will of course be devoted to the anniversary of Carole Lombard’s death.

So here we go. We’re going to do a list of the good and the bad. Let’s start out with the good:

• Clark is actually execllent in this role, which couldn’t have been an easy one. He has quite a few lengthy speeches that involve a lot of complicated jargon and the material is quite heavy stuff. I know he took on this role as a way to be taken more seriously, rather than just the same old rogue-getting-the-girl and he succeeds, as he is showing some serious chops here playing a troubled man ill at ease with his job at hand.
• The best scene, perfectly executed by Clark, is the one in which he is trying to guide a a bombardier to the runway after the pilot and co-pilot are killed. Quite the nerve-wracking scene and the most emotional one.
• A great supporting cast: Walter Pidgeon, John Hodiak, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Edward Arnold. Robert Taylor was originally supposed to have Pidgeon’s part but had to drop out. That would have been great!
• Although it flopped at the box office, it was listed as one of the critics’ favorite films of the year.

And here’s the bad:

• The 1947 play by William Wister Haines that this film was based on ran for over 400 performances and won Tony Awards. I do think (much like Clark’s Strange Interlude) this is just one of those stories that parlays better onto a stage than the screen. It is just too stage-y and talky. I can see that as a play the suspense of unseen people and unseen events would be fine; it works in that atmosphere, not here on screen. For a war drama, there is very little action. It’s really just a bunch of men in uniform standing around talking.
• There is a lot of conversing about wives at home, about children at home, but we never see them. An emotional element is missing.  Not a single woman in the cast. Not that Clark has to have a sweeping love story in every picture, but as I say it is just a missing emotional link. Clark makes a brief mention of a wife and a son towards the end of the picture and by then it’s lacking weight.
• Command Decision ended up losing $130,000–Clark’s first box office offering to be in the red since 1939’s Idiot’s Delight. Clark was very disappointed by this, as he had been excited to sink his teeth into this more serious role. I think it made Clark retreat back into the what he was more comfortable with, which is a shame. He could do a serious role, he just needed a better vehicle!

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