The High Command

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A general of the old school, who believes strongly in his own honour and sense of duty, must come to terms with a crime he commited years earlier, during the Irish War for Independence in 19... Read allA general of the old school, who believes strongly in his own honour and sense of duty, must come to terms with a crime he commited years earlier, during the Irish War for Independence in 1921.A general of the old school, who believes strongly in his own honour and sense of duty, must come to terms with a crime he commited years earlier, during the Irish War for Independence in 1921.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

205

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
This is one of about three dozen British films picked up by CBS in 1949 for USA television presentation. Its initial telecasts as part of this series took place in Los Angeles Saturday 16 July 1949 on KTTV (Channel 11), in Baltimore Saturday 20 August 1949 on WMAR (Channel 2), in Chicago Sunday 23 October 1949 on WBKB (Channel 4), in New York City Saturday 26 November 1949 on WCBS (Channel 2), in Boston Sunday 12 March 1950 on WNAC (Channel 7), and in San Francisco Sunday 30 July 1950 on KRON (Channel 4). Previously released in the USA by Grand National Pictures in a severely edited version, this shorter version had been telecast in New York City Friday 7 June 1946 by WNBT (Channel 4).

Goofs
At the opening of the film, in the Ireland sequence, the time is established by a curfew notice dated February 1921. The bullet retrieved from the scene of the shooting then is found preserved years later with a note indicating such, but is dated "12/11/21", nearly a year off.

Alternate versions
The version on Netflix has a running time of 88 min.

User reviews7

Review

Featured review

5/10

For King And Empire

The High Command has the advantage that American made films concerning Africa do not, that being actual location shooting in Africa because the UK was occupying large chunks of it. The story itself did not deal with the jungle per se, but rather is a tedious soap opera involving some of the occupiers.

The story really begins back during the Irish Rebellion in 1921 where during a fit of rage Lionel Atwill murders a man who stole his sweetheart from him and married her. The blame is easily put on the Sinn Fein rebels, but a certain army doctor keeps the ballistic evidence of the crime.

Fast forward fifteen years later to West Africa and Atwill and the doctor are stationed together again. The doctor is murdered, but the blame falls not on Atwill, but another man, James Mason who was thought to be embezzling company funds.

The High Command is static and talky with everybody going around in the best stiff upper lip tradition. We certainly can't let these Africans know that their occupiers morals are less than perfect.

Some good photography of Nigeria and the Gold Coast (later Ghana) is wasted on a trite story with characters you really cease caring about halfway through.