ABOVE AND BEYOND Movie Review

1953 Melvin Frank, Norman Panama

What is it about Air Force single-mission stories that inspires directors to make films about marriage? That, inexplicably, is the case with Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, about the Doolittle raid, and with Above and Beyond, about the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In both, the inner workings of the operation are no more important than the hero's domestic turmoil.

After a foreword to remind audiences of the subject, Lucy Tibbets (Eleanor Parker) explains in voice-over how worried she is about divorce. It's 1945 but she traces the problem back to 1943, when her husband Paul (Robert Taylor) is flying bombers in North Africa. That's also where and when Col. Tibbets is put in charge of “Operation Silverplate,” which will deliver a new secret weapon, still under development. The first thing that he learns is the unprecedented need for secrecy concerning the project. If he forgets, he's got Maj. Uanna (James Whitmore) to remind him.

The situation is so delicate that when he is transferred to a remote air base in the high Utah desert, Lucy practically has to invite herself and their two young children to join him. Even then, her husband tells her that the scientists wearing white coveralls and lab coats are “sanitation engineers.” Tibbets's mission is twofold. First, he must test fly the new B-29 bomber, and then when the atomic bomb nears completion, he is involved in determining the details of its detonation. That potentially fascinating part of the story is shown mostly in montage sequences, which are intercut with Lucy's growing dissatisfaction with her husband's refusal to tell her anything about what he does.

That marital unhappiness, however exaggerated, must reflect the emotional stresses that the war placed on many couples. But it never rings completely true—in large part because Eleanor Parker's performance is so overly dramatic. She affects precise, vaguely British diction that robs the important emotional moments of any believability. Taylor's responsibility is much easier to handle. In those same emotional moments, he is called upon to look stern and keep his mouth shut. In short, what we have here is failure to communicate. When the characters do try to talk, the script does them few favors. Punctuated with unintentional humor (see quotes), only at the very end does the writing come to terms with its subject.

The dropping of the bomb itself—that moment when the genie is unleashed—is appropriately frightening and awesome. The combination of special effects and real footage is remarkably moving, and its impact on the crew is clear. After he has returned from his successful mission, Col. Tibbets is surrounded by reporters. One demands to know what it's like. “You've just dropped a bomb that's killed 80,000 people,” he says. “My readers want to now how you feel about it.”

“How do they feel about it,” Tibbet answers, his face revealing his own mixed emotions and the responsibility that the entire country must share. The filmmakers do not address the political questions that have been brought up in recent years, but, whenever they get around to it, they do deal honestly with the individual and collective emotions involved in this kind of mass destruction.

Cast: Robert Taylor (Col. Paul Tibbetts), Eleanor Parker (Lucy Tibbetts), James Whitmore (Maj. Uanna), Larry Keating (Maj. Vernon C. Brent), Larry Gates (Capt. Parsons), Robert Burton (Gen. Samuel E. Roberts), Jim Backus (Gen. Curtis E. LeMay), Marilyn Erskine (Marge Bratton), Steve Dunne (Maj. Harry Bratton), John Pickard (Miller), Hayden Rorke (Dr. Ramsey), Lawrence Dobkin (Dr. Van Dyke), Jack Raine (Dr. Fiske), Jeff Richards (Thomas Ferebee), Barbara Ruick (Mary Malone), Harlan Warde (Chaplain Downey), John Close (Co-pilot), Frank Gerstle (Sgt. Wilson), Dabbs Greer (Haddock), Ewing Mitchell (Gen. Wolfe), Gregory Walcott (Burns), John Baer (Captain), Jonathon Cott (Dutch Van Kirk), Dick Simmons (Bob Lewis), John McKee (Wyatt Duzenbury), G. Pat Collins (Maj. Gen. Creston), John Hedloe (Lt. Malone), Mack Williams (Col. Bill Irvine), Dorothy Kennedy (Nurse); Written by: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, Beirne Lay Jr.; Cinematography by: Ray June; Music by: Hugo Friedhofer; Technical Advisor: Maj. James B. Bean, Lt. Col. Charles E.H. Begg, Maj. Norman W. Ray. Producer: Melvin Frank, Norman Panama; released by MGM. Awards: Nominations: Academy Awards '53: Best Story, Best Original Dramatic Score. Running Time: 122 minutes. Format: VHS.