The marriage of Colonel Tibbets (Robert Taylor) and wife Lucy (Eleanor Parker) is on the rocks. Why? Beyond his obsession with his new Air Force assignment, Tibbets won't even tell his wife what it is. Such is the unstable core of Above and Beyond, a glamorized bio-pic about the crew of the infamous Enola Gay. The film moves forward with well-oiled efficiency when concentrating on the training of a bomber crew for a top-secret mission. The strain of working under severe security is delivered with tense drama, leading to a startling re-enactment of the fatal flight over Hiroshima. One would surmise that the gravity of this historic mission would satisfy the dramatic appetite of any film. Not so in a sanitizing cinema that sacrificed veracity for virility. In this recounting, the domestic squabbles of husband and wife are more explosive than the bomb. -Steve Seid