A Gathering of Eagles is a 1963 SuperScope Eastmancolor film about the U.S. Air Force during the Cold War and the pressures of command. The plot is patterned after the World War II film Twelve O'Clock High, which producer-screenwriter Sy Bartlett also wrote, with elements also mirroring Above and Beyond and Toward the Unknown, films written by his collaborator, Beirne Lay Jr. The film was directed by Delbert Mann. Rock Hudson plays a United States Air Force officer, Colonel Jim Caldwell, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-52 wing commander. He must shape up his wing and men to pass a grueling operational readiness inspection (ORI) that the previous commander had failed and for which he had been relieved of his command. Caldwell is also recently married to an English wife, Victoria, and as a tough commanding officer doing whatever he has to do to shape up his command, his wife sees a side to him that she had not seen before. The film also stars Rod Taylor, Mary Peach, Barry Sullivan, Kevin McCarthy, Henry Silva, Robert Lansing, Leif Erickson, and Richard Anderson. Plot The Inspector General of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), Major General "Happy Jack" Kirby (Kevin McCarthy), lands unannounced at an Air Force Base in California, home to an important Strategic Aerospace Wing, and announces there will be an Operational Readiness Inspection at no notice. His team discover many failings, and Kirby reports unfavourably to his superior, General Hewitt (Leif Erickson). Hewitt decides that the wing commander must be replaced, and offers the prestigious job to his own aide, Colonel Jim Caldwell (Rock Hudson), who accepts gladly, especially as his vice-commander is to be an old and trusted friend Colonel Hollis Farr (Rod Taylor). Caldwell immediately sees many reasons for the low standards of training and readiness, and institutes a number of harsh policies that bring him into conflict with Farr. Caldwell faces the unwelcome truth that Farr himself is too undisciplined, and gives him notice of dismissal. This causes a rift between Caldwell and his wife Victoria (Mary Peach) who thinks that her rumoured affair with Farr may have cost him his job. At this point, Caldwell, absent on a hospital visit, is suddenly told of a genuine emergency on the base, as an unidentified aircraft is on final approach with no signal. Unable to return in time to handle the crisis, he orders Farr to assume