User reviews

"The Thousand Plane Raid" is a fictionalized account of an actual raid that occurred using 1000 American bombers. It also is in many ways like the movie and TV show "12 O'Clock High"....and focuses only on the B-17, which is odd, as in reality the US built and used even more B-24s which are never shown in movies. I assume part of it might be that there were just more B-17s in flyable shape for films.

Christopher George plays Colonel Brandon, a humorless and intense bomb group leader. He's very tough on his men...presumably because not quite good enough would mean death. In so many ways he's like General Savage from the "12 O'Clock High" film and show...a tough guy who knows what needs to be done and is willing to do it...and do it along with his men.

Overall, this is a pretty exciting and well made film. My only complaint is a common one...the use of stock footage. Now I would NOT expect them to blow up real planes and risk stuntmen's lives...but sometimes stock footage just is bad. In this case, when the Colonel's B-17 crashes later in the movie, it suddenly becomes a B-29 bomber...a much larger and different style plane...and it's obviously NOT a B-17.

Oh, and if want to be more picky, IMDB says 'US Air Force'....but that term was created AFTER WWII. At that point the air service was part of the US Army and was called the US Army Air Corps.

A US Air Col. Called Greg Brandon : Christopher George convinces Allies that a daylight bombing can change the course of the WWII . As about thousand planes have to destroy an industry where Nazis are making aircrafts .Hitler Knew the Plan...But the Allies Bet a Thousand Planes That He Didn't Know the Place!.This was the day the Allies turned the blitz on Hitler The biggest air-borne armada of the war - a thousand bombers on a secret mission to destroy the Nazi dream of a Thousand Year Reich!

Run-of-the-mill Warlike movie abot a dangerous mission with thrills, emotion , romance and a lot of stock footage . Concerning a true plot , around thousand allied Bombers assigned to destroy a specific target producing German fighter planes . Stars Christopher George who gives a nice but serious acting as the Colonel who receives a bombing mission against an industrial facility in France. Being well accompanied by a good cast of familiar faces , most of them from TV films such as the beautiful Laraine Stephens, J. D. Cannon, Gary Marshal , Gavin McLeod , Ben Murphy , Bo Hopkins , James Gammon , Charles Dierkop, among others . The Thousand Plane Raid 1969 is reminiscent of other warlike movies as Dam Busters , Operation Crossbow, by Michael Anderson, 633 Squadron by Walter Grauman and Mosquito Squadron by Boris Sagal himself .The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Boris Sagal , a television series expert such as : Rich Man Poor Man , Ike , Columbo , Diary of Ana Frank , The Name is the Game , Madigan , Masada. And he occassionally directed some films as Omega Man , The Helicopter Spies , Mosquito Squadron. Rating : 5.5/10 . Only for WWII enthusiasts.

This film takes place during World War II on a fictitious USAAF bomber base in England, referred to as Steeple Bassington. It was released to local California audiences only in the summer of 1969, and stars Christopher George as the no-nonsense, by-the-book bomb group commander Colonel Brandon, who develops a plan to attack a heavily defended German aircraft factory using 1,000 bombers, that if successful, could turn the tide of the air war in the allies favor. The remainder of the cast is a proverbial who's who of TV-Movie character actors of the day including J. D. Cannon, Laraine Stephens, Gavin MacLeod, Ben Murphy, Bo Hopkins, and Charles Dierkop. British actor Gary Marshal portrays Wing Commander Howard, a free-spirited and highly successful RAF fighter ace, who's been assigned to the base to teach fighter tactics to Brandon's hard luck outfit, the 103rd Heavy Bombardment Group. The cliche riddled script is predictable, and the combat sequences are a hastily prepared mishmash of wartime footage, movie clips, and cheesy, low budget airplane sets. In spite of all that, I actually found this movie to be semi-entertaining; the acting is competent and believable, and the use of actual B-17 aircraft for the location flying scenes, including the extremely LOW buzz job of the field, was particularly satisfying. In addition, historical credibility was enhanced by the period control tower, base operations, and maintenance buildings that were constructed on the site of what is now Santa Maria Public Airport, formerly known as Santa Maria Army Airfield, which was an actual B-25 and P-38 pilot transition training base during WWII.

World War Two had many facets which claim to have been the pivotal point of the conflict. Regardless, it took the whole industry of several countries to group themselves into the Allied cause, which eventually destroyed the Nazi dream of world dominance. This is one of the key elements which was essential towards that goal. The film is called " The Thousand Plane Raid " which was directed by Boris Sagal and penned by novelist Ralph Barker. It purports to tell the story of Col. Greg Brandon (Christopher George) who proposed to group together a thousand allied B-17 Bombers to destroy a specific target producing German fighter planes. He finds that he is troubled by both the British high command as well as his own men. In addition, those closest to him realize that he is obsessed with his idea and is losing touch with everyone. A good movie, though a bit melodramatic. Nevertheless, a solid action oriented story. A fine cast which includes J.D. Cannon, Gary Marshal, Michael Evans, Gavin MacLeod and Bo Hopkins as Capt. Douglass. Recommended to War buffs. ****

I would say the best part of this movie is Gary Marshall as a British fighter pilot attached to an American bomber group for mysterious reasons... Christopher George is a professional scowler, and he is over the top as an hardass commander who cares so much he convinces everyone he doesn't care at all.

The low budget is almost tolerable except the over use of stock footage leads to major continuity errors, like when a b-17 crashes and they cut to a burning b-29 which looks nothing like the b-17. That was a bridge too far.

But I watched the whole movie which means it wasn't that bad... when I researched the topic turns out the British had already tried thousand bomber night missions prior to this so it wasn't a big deal and this is revisionist history. Oh well.

I thought this movie was pretty good. They had a good cast, but the writing could have been better. I thought most of the characters were pretty one dimensional, almost wooden in the way they behaved. Rather a waste of all that talent. The action sequences were good. Makes me wonder if some of the footage was from Army Air Force archives. It is fun to watch those big, old bombers fly. Many of the facts seem to be correct. Bomber losses did start a sharp rise before they changed tactics. All in all. Not a bad way to relax for an hour or so and watch the war go by. As WWII films go, this is about middle of the road.

I had to turn this off after a few minutes, as the scenery was so phony. In one scene a top gunner is in his turret. It looked like he was in a plastic bubble with a fake plane underneath. That B-29 burning was an actual footage of one that crashed landed on Iwo Jima. Were we to believe it was a B-17? Even the airfield looked fake. The movie resembled the movie Twelve O'Clock High with a tough commanding officer and a cowardly pilot. If you remember the movie they were played by Gregory Peck and High Marlowe.

If you want to watch real WW2 planes in real WW2 footage, this is a good movie. You won't see these beautiful planes flying again without CGI. The movie gives a pretty accurate depiction on life aboard a WW2 bomber. Movies today will have to use CGI to show these beautiful planes. Sadly, there are too few of these aircraft available today to duplicate the airplanes in this movie. Appreciate these beautiful airplanes and the bravery of the young pilots and crew that were able to keep these beautiful airplanes flying.

Pretty good movie that uses real WW2 footage and new footage.

The acting is okay with a pretty good cast.

A fairly average B-grade movie that is pulled up by a sequence of low flying that is used on more than one occasion throughout the movie for different story line progressions. To see a B-25 coming over the trees and then missing the ground with the right wing by only a few feet is amazing to say the least. Most of the footage in the battle scenes is from war footage and low budget (nowadays) SFX but given the age and being made about the same time as "the Battle Of Britain" it puts up a reasonable performance. Aircraft buffs will like the flying sequences as they always will and for an afternoon diversion it is not too bad. Look out for the maintenance crew chief, Sgt Kreuger a few years before commanding his well known ship the Love Boat.

This is one of those movies that you may have thought was pretty cool when you were about ten years old and seeing it for the first time. Now, decad3s later, yikes! It has every typecast character ever seen in a cheap war movie, perverts history at British expense, and follows a completely predictable storyline. A forgettable movie that was, in fact, pretty much forgotten.

Just saw this 36 year old movie on a Spanish T.V. channel.It was a midnight movie and it's dubbed in Spanish. This movie is very and I mean very cheaply made. It looks more like a made for T.V. movie. However, it was made in 1969 and most likely it was riding on the coat-tails of such films as Battle for Britan or Operation Crossbow. I like Christopher George, but the poor guy just wasn't given any decent acting roles. I feel his "meatiest" role was that of gunman Nelson McCloud in the John Wayne movie, El Dorado. Sadly, Christopher George died of a massive heart attack at 54, and is best remembered for his hit 1960s T.V. show, The Rat Patrol. As for this film, well, it's better in Spanish! Only thing, I don't speak Spanish!

Typical for the era. Romantic view of WWII, bits of war footage thrown together for added reality with no real cohesion (scored a direct hit..shown bombs landing in woods, haha). Still, enjoyed it as kid ... wary of the message these days. Nothing glamorous about war. And that campaign does reek a little of payback rather than genuine military strategy.

This is very much like "The War Lover" with Steve McQueen 10 years earlier in black-and-white, it is basically the same story, but that film was humanly so much more interesting. This is in colour, and although Christopher George is very much like Steve McQueen, almost like a twin character, he is grimmer, harder and more superficial - the McQueen character has an abyss of depth in its psychopathic possibilities, while Christopher George is only doing his job. Both died too young, by the way, Steve McQueen at 50 and Christopher George at 54.

What saves the film are the other characters, first of all Gary Marshal, who adds a very needful sense of humour and detachment to the grim show, while colonel Brandon (George) has no humour at all and never smiles. The case of the grounded pilot Palmer (J.D.Cannon) also adds some interest to the epic, while on the whole, like as if it was made for television, this is clearly less realistic than the McQueen feature, which offers so much more human insight into the lives of the bomber pilots in this dreadful war. Here it more amounts to aerobatics and showing off. McQueen makes that showing off pathological, while here it is superficial.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting film, better than its reputation, awfully exciting and with splendid scenery of war pilot flights in the air and in action. The only disturbing thing was Laraine Stephens' hair style, a cold blonde with too much make-up for that war and a coiffure belonging entirely to the 60s.

i especially like these period films about the war in the air. I thought this war film was in the same class as the Mathew Modine B-17 pic,'MEMPHIS BELLE'. Particularly, memorable was the segment, where the British & American pilots are resting in a debriefing room when the music on the radio is interrupted by a German propaganda speech. This is a historical fact, that, like the 'TOkyo Rose' radio chats that were meant to demoralize the U.S.soldiers(also U.S.naval forces) in the Pacific,'Lord HAW-HAW' was a concerted effort by German intelligence to broadcast propaganda to hurt the American/allied air campaign of WWII. (Unbeknownst to the allies, the Germans had broken the allies 'ultra' code, allowing them priceless intelligence regarding B-17 bombing runs in Europe) . ALthough, I may be mistaken('ultra' intercepts provided the Nazis only valuable intelligence information about 8th army tactical moves in the North African Campaign(1040-1943?)

All in all, a great film,using actual historical facts....

A low-cost production for a typical war film of the era where triumphant and propagandistic tones seem more important than a well-executed movie. The characters are not fully developed, and while their performances are correct, they lack significant interpretive moments. It is a passable film if considered as a TV movie, but that is not the case. When compared to the series "12 O'Clock High," its level doesn't even reach that of its worst episodes, not to mention comparing it to the movie of the same title.

The worst part is that it's a work of fiction that appropriates successes from real events, which, however, haven't occurred in these terms, and that's why I refer to it as propaganda, like the very feat that gives the film its title, which is actually based on a mission carried out by the British aviation in the famous raid on Cologne in 1942.