The High and the Mighty (film)
The High and the Mighty | |
---|---|
Directed by | William A. Wellman |
Screenplay by | Ernest K. Gann |
Based on | The High and the Mighty 1953 novel by Ernest K. Gann |
Produced by | Robert Fellows John Wayne |
Starring | John Wayne Claire Trevor Laraine Day Robert Stack Jan Sterling |
Cinematography | Archie Stout |
Edited by | Ralph Dawson |
Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 147 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.47 million[1] |
Box office | $8.5 million[2] |
The High and the Mighty is a 1954 American aviation disaster film, directed by William A. Wellman, and written by Ernest K. Gann, who also wrote the 1953 novel on which his screenplay was based.[3] Filmed in WarnerColor and CinemaScope, the film's cast was headlined by John Wayne, who was also the project's co-producer.
Wayne stars as a veteran airline first officer, Dan Roman, whose airliner has a catastrophic engine failure while crossing the Pacific Ocean. The film's supporting cast includes Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris, and Robert Newton. Composer Dimitri Tiomkin won an Oscar for his original score, while his title song was also nominated for an Oscar; it did not actually appear in the theatrical release prints, nor in its much later restoration. The film received mostly positive reviews and grossed $8.5 million on its theatrical release.[2][4]
Plot
In Honolulu, a DC-4 airliner prepares to take off for San Francisco with 17 passengers and a crew of 5. Former captain Dan Roman, the flight's veteran first officer, known for his habit of whistling, is haunted by an air crash that killed his wife and son and left him with a permanent limp. The captain, John Sullivan, suffers from a secret fear of responsibility after logging thousands of hours looking after the lives of passengers and aircrew. Young second officer Hobie Wheeler and veteran navigator Lenny Wilby are contrasts in age and experience.
Meanwhile,
After a routine departure, the airliner experiences sporadic, sudden vibrations. Although the aircrew senses that something may be wrong with the propellers, they cannot locate a problem. When a vibration causes Spalding to burn her hand, Dan inspects the tail compartment but still finds nothing wrong.
After nightfall, as the airliner passes the point of no return, Agnew confronts fellow passenger Ken Childs, accusing him of having an affair with his wife. The men struggle and Agnew pulls out a pistol, intending to shoot Childs, but before he can do so, the airliner swerves violently when it loses a propeller and its engine catches fire. The crew quickly extinguishes the fire, but the engine has twisted off its mounting. In mid-ocean, the aircrew radios for help and sets in motion a rescue operation. Dan discovers that the airliner is now losing fuel from additional damage to a wing tank. That, combined with adverse winds and the increased drag of the damaged engine, means that the airliner will eventually run out of fuel and be forced to ditch.
Unassuming José Locota disarms Agnew and confiscates the pistol, compelling him to sit quietly. Gustave Pardee, who up until now has made no secret of his
In San Francisco, Manager Tim Garfield comes to the airline's operations center but has little hopes for the airliner's chances. A favorable change in the winds raises the crew's hopes that they have just enough fuel to reach San Francisco, but Wilby discovers that he made an elementary error in navigation and their actual remaining time in the air remains inadequate.
Dan's experience tells him that their luck would be better trying to make land than ditching in rough seas at night. Sullivan panics and prepares to ditch immediately, but Dan slaps him back to his senses. Thinking clearly again, Sullivan decides against ditching. As the airliner approaches rain-swept, night time San Francisco at a perilously low altitude, the airport prepares for an emergency instrument landing. The airliner narrowly surmounts the city's hills and breaks out of the clouds with the runway lights dead ahead, guiding them to a safe landing. As the passengers disembark, Garfield watches their reactions as they are harried by reporters. After the tumult dies down, he joins the aircrew inspecting their damaged engine and informs Dan that only 30 gallons of fuel remained in their tanks. Dan acknowledges the gamble they took and walks away, limping and whistling into the night. "So long...you ancient pelican", Garfield mutters to himself.
Cast
Credited cast members (in order of on-screen credits) and roles:[5]
- John Wayne as Dan Roman (First Officer)
- Claire Trevor as May Holst
- Laraine Day as Lydia Rice
- Robert Stack as John Sullivan (Captain)
- Jan Sterling as Sally McKee
- Phil Harris as Ed Joseph
- Ann Doran as Mrs. Joseph
- Robert Newton as Gustave Pardee
- David Brian as Ken Childs
- Paul Kelly as Donald Flaherty
- Sidney Blackmer as Humphrey Agnew
- Julie Bishop as Lillian Pardee
- Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez as Gonzales (Ship's assistant ship's assistant Radio Officer, SS Cristobal Trader)
- John Howard as Howard Rice
- Wally Brown as Lenny Wilby (Navigator)
- William Campbellas Hobie Wheeler (Second Officer)
- John Qualen as José Locota
- Paul Fix as Frank Briscoe
- George Chandler as Ben Sneed (Far East Crew Chief, Honolulu)
- Joy Kim as Dorothy Chen
- Michael Wellman as Toby Field
- Douglas Fowley as Alsop (TOPAC Agent, Honolulu)
- Regis Toomey as Tim Garfield (TOPAC Operations Manager, San Francisco)
- Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer[Note 1] as Ens. Keim, USCG (ASR Pilot, Alameda)
- Robert Keys as Lt. Mowbray, USCG (ASR Pilot, Alameda)
- William Hopper as Roy (Sally McKee's fiancé)
- William Schallert as TOPAC Dispatcher (San Francisco)
- Julie Mitchum as Susie Wilby (Mrs. Lenny Wilby)
- Doe Avedon as Miss Spalding (Flight Attendant)
- Karen Sharpe as Nell Buck
- John Smith as Milo Buck
- Walter Reed as Mr. Field (uncredited)
Production
Script
After Wayne and
The High and the Mighty depicts a dramatic situation in a civil transport aviation context. Jack L. Warner initially was opposed to the film, believing that audiences would not stay interested in a plot stretching more than 100 minutes involving the passengers in an airliner.[11] William Wellman had reservations about the "intimate" storylines, which dominate the production, preferring to focus more on the airliner and pilots. Yet, after script deliberations set out the final screenplay, he endorsed the novel approach that harkened back to earlier films such as Grand Hotel.[12][13]
The airliner
The
Transocean Airlines director of flight operations Bill Keating did the stunt flying for the film. Keating and Gann had flown together and the author recommended his friend for the job.[16] During preproduction filming, Keating was involved in a near-incident when simulating the climactic night emergency landing. After several approaches, Wellman asked for "one more take" touching down even closer to the runway's threshold. Keating complied, taking out runway lights with his nose landing gear before "peeling off" and executing a go-around. Wellman quipped that the crash would look good in another film.[17]
A second former C-54 equipped with a large double cargo door
Filming
Filming took place from November 16, 1953, to January 11, 1954, on a
At one point during filming, Wayne attempted to assert himself as director. Wellman argued publicly with him in defense of his directorial control, telling Wayne: "Look, you come back here behind the camera and do my job, and you're going to be just as ridiculous doing it as I would be going out there with that screwy voice of yours and that fairy walk and being Duke Wayne".[23][24][25] Despite the initial issues on set, the two otherwise had a positive relationship and worked together on later films, including Track of the Cat and Blood Alley.[24]
Aircraft feature prominently in The High and the Mighty, including two unusual aviation events: the
Wellman, an accomplished pilot in real life, purposely maintained the point-of-view of the flight path of the seemingly doomed airliner traveling as the support staff in San Francisco would observe it: flying from the west to the east, from Honolulu to San Francisco, film frame right to film frame left, except during takeoff and landing. Similarly, the U.S. Coast Guard rescue plane was shown flying from San Francisco to towards the stricken airliner, film frame left to film frame right.
The film was initially budgeted at $1.32 million, but cost overruns led to a total cost of $1.47 million.[2][27] For directing, Wellman received $100,000 as well as a portion of the film's profits. Wayne earned $175,000 in addition to a percentage of the film's box office receipts.[2]
Casting
Casting for The High and the Mighty was problematic because there were no real "leading" roles, which resulted in many of Hollywood's major stars turning down roles that did not appear to be "big" enough for them. With stars such as
For the other major male lead, Wayne had promised the role to his friend Bob Cummings, who was a pilot and had Wellman's recommendation as well.[28] However Stack went after the role and an interview with Wellman eventually convinced the director that a non-pilot could effectively portray the drama of a cockpit conflict.[5][33]
Stanwyck's refusal was especially galling, as the director had always treated her as a "pet".[12] Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez appeared in this film and several others with John Wayne.
The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky shared many of the same cast and production crew. Along with Wayne, six other actors appear in both films: Regis Toomey, Paul Fix, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Ann Doran, George Chandler, and Michael Wellman.
Music
Composer
Impact
The High and the Mighty was produced nearly two decades before Airport and its sequels (along with the Airplane! parodies, the first of which featured Stack lampooning himself). The High and the Mighty served as a template for later disaster-themed films such as the Airport series (1970–79), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Hindenburg (1975), and Titanic (1997).[6][8][37] The film was one of Wayne's co-productions in which he also starred, a practice which would not become widespread until the 1980s and 1990s.
Release
Box office performance
The High and the Mighty had its premiere in Hollywood at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on May 27, 1954.[31] It was commercially released on July 3, 1954. Although the choice of the new Cinemascope format limited theater use,[3] it was also one of the most commercially successful films that year. Within two months of its release, the film was ranked first in box-office receipts and set the record for the "fastest return of negative cost" (screen jargon for making back production costs).[12] Beyond the film's initial run in theaters, it grossed $8.5 million in total box office receipts and was the sixth most popular film of the year in North America.[2]
Critical reception
At the time of the release of The High and the Mighty, it received mostly positive reviews. Variety wrote that the film "is a class drama, blended with mass appeal into a well-rounded show that can catch on with most any audience".[38] Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times called the film "an enormously vital picture, amazingly associated with life's panorama today, and thus filled with a rare kind of tingling excitement, especially for a modern air-minded public".[38] Joseph Henry Jackson, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, said that the film has "a story that gives you no time to catch your breath".[39]
The High and the Mighty also received some negative reviews, with Richard Griffin of the Los Angeles Times writing that another reviewer had criticized the cast: "All are fabricated characters—and that is the way they are played".[39] The film's running time was also commented on by several reviewers who called it "an unbelievably long trip" and "the extreme length of its proceedings, which seems almost full flight time Honolulu-San Francisco".[39]
Modern reviews of The High and the Mighty are mixed. Wayne biographer Ronald L. Davis described the film, "While its plot is somewhat synthetic, the special effects and performances make for an engaging film".[36] David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews, called the film "bloated and overlong" and that it relies on "artificial, needlessly drawn-out speeches for its characters".[40]
The film holds a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 13 reviews. [41]
Awards and nominations
Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Academy Awards | Best Director | William A. Wellman | Nominated | [42] |
Best Supporting Actress | Jan Sterling | Nominated | ||
Claire Trevor | Nominated | |||
Best Film Editing | Ralph Dawson | Nominated | ||
Best Original Music Score | Dimitri Tiomkin | Won | ||
Best Song | "The High and the Mighty" Music by Dimitri Tiomkin; Lyrics by Ned Washington |
Nominated | ||
Directors Guild of America Awards | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | William A. Wellman | Nominated | [43] |
Golden Globe Awards | Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Jan Sterling | Won | [44] |
Most Promising Newcomer – Female | Karen Sharpe | Won |
Restoration and re-release
By the 1960s and 1970s, The High and the Mighty became a television staple but, due to tighter broadcast schedules and several royalty disputes, its last appearances on broadcast television were in 1982 on
Demand arose to get the film released in home video formats. The estate of John Wayne, through Gretchen Wayne, the widow of the actor's late son, Michael, made a deal in the early 2000s with Cinetech (film) and Chace Productions (sound) to update and restore both The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky.[48] This led to a distribution agreement with Wayne's production and distribution company Batjac Productions and both American Movie Classics (for TV rights) and Paramount Pictures (home video rights).[3] Following the recovery of the lost reel, The High and the Mighty, after its meticulous restoration, was rebroadcast on television in July 2005, the first broadcasts of the film in 20 years. Together with Island in the Sky, it was released as a "special collector's edition" DVD with new cover art in August of the same year by Paramount Home Entertainment. It was also broadcast on Turner Classic Movies on October 27, 2007.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer (Ens. Keim) derived his nickname from the character "Alfalfa" for which he became famous portraying as a child actor in the Our Gang comedies from 1935 to 1940.
- ^ Ironically, a Transocean sister ship to this aircraft, The Argentine Queen (N4726V), was lost with no survivors while ditching on March 28, 1964, on a flight for another carrier from Honolulu to Los Angeles under circumstances similar to those in The High and the Mighty. This coincidence and the similarity of nicknames has resulted in some sources erroneously reporting this as the aircraft used during filming, but Keating's log book verifies N4665V's role.[14]
Citations
- ^ a b c McGivern 2006, p. 80.
- ^ a b c d e McGivern 2006, p. 81.
- ^ a b c Maltin ["The Batjac Story: Part 1 (1951–1963)".] The High and the Mighty (Collector's Edition) DVD, 2005.
- ^ Miller, John M. "The High and the Mighty." Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved: September 8, 2012.
- ^ a b The High and the Mighty (Collector's Edition) DVD, background notes. Burbank, California: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2005.
- ^ a b Levy 1988, p. 112.
- ^ Roberts & Olson 1997, p. 406.
- ^ a b c Roberts & Olson 1997, p. 407.
- ^ McGivern 2006, p. 87.
- ^ Munn 2005, p. 160.
- ^ The High and the Mighty-(On Director William A. Wellman) (DVD). Paramount. August 2, 2005. Event occurs at 3:20.
- ^ a b c Maltin ("On Director: William A. Wellman") The High and the Mighty (Collector's Edition) DVD, 2005.
- ^ Wellman 2006, p. xvi.
- ^ a b "W.L. "Bill" Keating - Letter to the Editor" Taloa Newsletter, February 2008, TALOA Alumni Association.
- ISBN 9780752494593. Retrieved August 3, 2015.
- ^ Shane 2006, pp. 22–23.
- ^ Shane 2006, p. 24.
- ^ "Douglas images, Photo ID: 1011538 (Photograph of a double door on a DC-4)". flyinghigher.net. Retrieved: February 20, 2008.
- ^ Dickson, J. Ron. "Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale, CA." godickson.com. Retrieved: December 27, 2012.
- ^ Shane 2006, p. 25.
- ^ a b c d McGivern 2006, p. 84.
- ^ Davis 2001, p. 180.
- ^ Munn 2005, pp. 161–162.
- ^ a b Levy 1988, p. 206.
- ^ McGivern 2006, p. 85.
- ^ Hardwick and Schnepf 1989, p. 66.
- ^ Roberts & Olson 1997, p. 409.
- ^ a b McGivern 2006, p. 82.
- ^ Roberts & Olson 1997, p. 408.
- ^ The High and the Mighty-(On Director William A. Wellman) (DVD). Paramount. August 2, 2005. Event occurs at 6:30.
- ^ a b McGivern 2006, p. 92.
- ^ Munn 2005, p. 159.
- ^ Stack, Robert; Evans, Mark (1980). Straight shooting. Macmillan. pp. 150–155.
- ^ a b Studwell 2004, p. 196.
- ^ a b c McGivern 2006, p. 90.
- ^ a b Davis 2001, p. 181.
- ^ Anderson, Jeffrey M."'The High and the Mighty' (1954): Who'll Stop the Plane?" combustiblecelluloid.com, July 24, 2005. Retrieved: February 22, 2008.
- ^ a b McGivern 2006, p. 94.
- ^ a b c McGivern 2006, p. 95.
- ^ Nusair, David. "The High and the Mighty." Reel Film Reviews, July 30, 2005. Retrieved: July 18, 2010.
- Fandango Media. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
- ^ "The 27th Academy Awards (1955) Nominees and Winners". Oscars.org (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Retrieved 2011-08-20.
- ^ "7th DGA Awards". Directors Guild of America Awards. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- HFPA. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ The High and the Mighty-(Restoring a Classic) (DVD). Paramount. August 2, 2005. Event occurs at 1:51.
- ^ The High and the Mighty-(Restoring a Classic) (DVD). Paramount. August 2, 2005. Event occurs at 1:38.
- ^ The High and the Mighty-(Restoring a Classic) (DVD). Paramount. August 2, 2005. Event occurs at 2:40.
- ^ Shane 2006, p. 22.
Bibliography
- Brownlow, Kevin. The Parade's Gone By... Berkeley, California: University of California Press; New Ed edition, 1976 (original edition, 1968). ISBN 0-520-03068-0.
- Davis, Ronald L. (2001). Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-80613-329-5.
- Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
- The High and the Mighty (Collector's Edition) DVD. Burbank, California: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2005.
- Levy, Emanuel (1988). John Wayne: Prophet of the American Way of Life. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-2054-4.
- Maltin, Leonard. "The Batjac Story: Part 1 (1951–1963) (film documentary)." The High and the Mighty (Collector's Edition) DVD. Burbank, California: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2005.
- Maltin, Leonard. "On Director: William A. Wellman (film documentary)." The High and the Mighty (Collector's Edition) DVD. Burbank, California: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2005.
- McGivern, Carolyn (2006). The Lost Films of John Wayne. Nashville: Cumberland House Publishing. ISBN 1-58182-567-6.
- Munn, Michael (2005). "From the Mighty to the Mongols". John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth. New York: NAL Trade, Penguin Group. pp. 156–166. ISBN 0-451-21414-5.
- Ricci, Mark and Boris and Steve Zmijewsky. The Films of John Wayne. New York: Citadel Press, 1970. ISBN 978-0-80650-945-7.
- Roberts, Randy; Olson, James S. (1997). John Wayne: American. London: Bison Books. ISBN 0-8032-8970-7.
- Shane, Bob (January 2006). "The Makings of 'The High and the Mighty': A Former Airline Pilot Remembers the Filming of an Aviation Classic". Airpower. 36 (1): 22–25.
- Silke, James R. "Fists, Dames & Wings." Air Progress Aviation Review, Volume 4, No. 4, October 1980.
- Studwell, William. The Popular Song Reader: A Sampler of Well-Known Twentieth-Century Songs. Abingdon, Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2004. ISBN 1-56024-369-4.
- Wellman, William Jr. The Man And His Wings: William A. Wellman and the Making of the First Best Picture. New York: Praeger Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0-275-98541-5.