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The High and the Mighty is a 1954 Cinemascope drama adventure film released through Warner Brothers. The film starred and was co-produced by John Wayne, directed by William A. Wellman and written by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the novel on which the film was based. Dimitri Tiomkin earned an Academy Award for his score and the film's theme was nominated for an Oscar.
ProductionThe High and the Mighty received considerable critical acclaim when it was released in July 1954 and was one of the most successful films that year. John Wayne played a critically praised role "against type" while supporting actresses Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling earned 1954 Academy Awards nominations for Best Supporting Actress. The film earned additional Oscar nominations for director William Wellman and film editor Ralph Dawson, along with composer Dimitri Tiomkin and lyricist Ned Washington for the film's title song. Tiomkin received the film's only Academy Award, for the film's original score.[1] The popular title song by Tiomkin and Washington was included on only one print of the film so as to qualify it for an Oscar nomination. It is not heard on the prints issued for general theatrical release.
During the sixties and seventies The High and the Mighty was a television staple. However, as a result of royalty disputes the film's last appearances on television came in 1982 on the TBS cable channel and on Cinemax in March/April 1985 and it was subsequently unavailable for over 20 years. Its rarity gave the movie a cult following which later led to petitions for the film's release on DVD. By 2004 the Warnercolor photography of The High and the Mighty was reportedly in danger of completely desaturating but the film was restored from the original negatives. It returned to television in July 2005 and a special edition DVD was released that August. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The filmThe High and the Mighty is often categorized as an adventure/drama film but it is also a complex, character-driven ensemble piece which explores the personal dramas and interactions of the seventeen passengers along with the professional conflicts and doubts of the five crew members. The storyline is set aboard an unpressurized DC-4 flying as Trans-Orient-Pacific ("TOPAC") Flight #420 on an overnight hop from Honolulu (T.H.) to San Francisco in what soon becomes a tense, nerve-wracking and life changing ordeal for everyone. The film spends its first hour and ten minutes carefully developing the characters of each member in the large ensemble cast, through both extensive interactive dialogue and many long, expensively produced flashback sequences before a crisis begins about half way through this unusually long (2:27) feature. The 22 "souls on board" the flight are: CharactersPassengersMay Holst (Claire Trevor): a loquacious, overly dressed, self-described "broken-down old broad" who seems to always be on the lookout for a man
Humphrey Agnew (Sidney Blackmer): an unctuous Honolulu "snake oil" manufacturer ("Agnew's Aids") and insanely jealous husband who is convinced Childs is having an affair with his wife Martha and brings a revolver (there was no TSA then) on the plane to "discuss" it with him Sally McKee (Jan Sterling): a platinum blonde, overly made up, self-doubting mail-order bride going to meet her as yet sight-unseen future husband Prof. Donald Falherty (Paul Kelly): an alcoholic amateur painter and Atomic Energy Commission scientist who has become conscience-stricken about his work on nuclear missiles Lydia Rice (Laraine Day): a rich, shrewish, aloof social climber from New York City who is not at all happy with and wants to divorce her husband Howard Rice (John Howard): who has infuriated Lydia because he wants to sell the New York advertising agency she bought for him ("as a new toy") and use the money to leave New York and buy "a broken down old mine in Canada" Gustave Pardee (Robert Newton): a philandering, self centered, English-accented (although New York-born) theatrical producer who is terrified of flying ("the original Frightened Freddie") and just about anything else he can't control Lillian Pardee (Julie Bishop): Gustave's placating, much younger wife who, despite all her husband's faults, still loves him Ed Joseph (Phil Harris): an exuberant, overweight, loud- mouthed tourist from New Jersey who is returning home from a nothing-went-right "vacation from hell" with... Clara Joseph (Ann Doran): his overly emotional Utah-born wife Nell & Milo Buck (Karen Sharpe and John Smith): a misty- eyed young couple returning from their honeymoon Frank Briscoe (Paul Fix): an ailing, wheelchair-bound grandfatherly gentleman who, although apparently down on his luck, is still gracious and generous to a fault Dorothy Chen (Joy Kim): a soft-spoken, self-effacing young Korean refugee looking to start a new life in America José Lacota (John Qualen): a heavily-accented, soft- spoken, harmonica-playing commercial fisherman who is flying for the first time in his life Toby Field (played by the director's son, Michael Wellman): a cap pistol toting seven-year-old who, returning to his mother from a visit to his father, sleeps through all the excitement CrewCaptain John Sullivan (Robert Stack): although an experienced, sober, and no-nonsense pilot, nevertheless "his nerves are getting rusty" First Officer "Whistling" Dan Roman (John Wayne): a troubled 20,000+ hour veteran flyer ("I've been flying since 1917") who a few years earlier was the captain and only survivor of a DC-3 crash on take-off in Colombia which killed his wife and young son Second Officer Hobie Wheeler (William Campbell): the flight's smart aleck young relief pilot Lenny Wilby (Wally Brown): the rumpled, often logorrheic navigator upon whose skills all will soon depend for their survival "Miss Spaulding" (Doe Avedon): a young, rookie flight attendant ("I've only been with the company for four months") and the plane's only cabin crew member. PlotSoon after departing Honolulu for a 2,393 statute mile trip over the empty Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, an intermittent, at first almost imperceptible minor shudder alerts co-pilot Dan Roman to a potential problem with the plane. The other aircrew and passengers don't seem to notice, except for stewardess Spaulding who is alarmed by a shake in a flight deck mirror. A short time later, while resting in the crew bunk, Capt. Sullivan senses that the prop "on either #1 or #3" is slipping out of sync but the cause can't be found. After passing the point of no return at an altitude of 9,000 feet on a trip anticipated to last twelve hours and sixteen minutes ("exactly"), the left outboard engine (#1) seizes, causing its three-bladed prop to separate, followed by a serious engine fire. Although the fire is quickly put out, the engine has become badly twisted in its mounts which greatly increases drag and the plane loses 4,000 feet of altitude ("and still sinking") before the crew regains full control. Worse, the separating prop has breached the left outboard wing fuel tank (#1) and caused the loss of 200 gallons of fuel (from less than 1,300 gallons remaining of the 3,050 gallons the plane took off with). For the next six hours it is unknown whether the crew can nurse the crippled plane to a safe landing in San Francisco or be forced to ditch at night in the storm-tossed Pacific. Each of the plane's seventeen passengers and five crew members react differently to the stress. In the cabin several personal crises are brewing among the passengers. Agnew has brought a chrome-plated revolver on board, with which to confront Childs whom he suspects of having an affair with his wife Martha, who once worked for Childs. As Agnew makes his move, engine #1 seizes, beginning hours of terror for all on board and the launching of an air-sea-rescue effort by the United States Coast Guard in case the plane is forced to ditch. The passengers and crew face this impending doom by reevaluating their lives. Navigator Wilby at first believes the plane can make it to land but then finds an error in his calculations and realizes they will run out of fuel "eleven minutes short" of the airport unless the winds change. Sullivan prepares to ditch the plane despite the risks until Roman rebels against his orders. The far more experienced first officer literally "slaps some sense" into Sullivan and convinces him to try making the airport, even though they must cross a hill standing in the way. The plane makes it to San Francisco (SFO) and a check of the tanks ("just 30 gallons left") reveals how close a call it was. After the passengers depart, the film ends with Roman walking off alone into the darkness, whistling as airline operations manager Tim Garfield (Regis Toomey) says, "So long, you ancient pelican." The aircraft (N4726V)The DC-4 aircraft used to film the tarmac, passenger boarding (Gate 4), take-off and external daylight flying sequences was a C-54A-10-DC (c/n 10315) built in 1942 at Long Beach, California by the Douglas Aircraft Company under military contract for the USAAF (s/n 42-72210).[2] When its sequences for the film were shot in mid November 1953 the aircraft (N4726V, formerly N66694 and LV-ABR) was being operated by Transocean Airlines (1946-62), an Oakland, California-based non-scheduled carrier and the largest civil aviation operator of recycled C-54 aircraft during the 1950s. Novel and screenplay author Ernest K. Gann had written the original book when he was flying C-54s for Transocean over the Hawaii-California routes. Named The Argentine Queen, the plane had once been the personal aircraft of Juan Perón (the controversial three-time President of Argentina) before it was acquired by Transocean in 1953. The film's fictional airline's name (TOPAC) was integrated with Transocean's red, white, and yellow color scheme for filming.[3] A second Transocean C-54/DC-4 (equipped with a large double door [4] to accommodate the loading of freight on pallets) was used to film the scenes of the damaged plane on the ground at the end of the film, while the external night and damaged "in-flight" sequences were filmed in a studio using a large miniature. Scenes inside the passenger cabin and on the flight deck were filmed on sets built on a sound stage. True life end of N4726VAt 8:47 PM (HST) on March 27, 1964 N4726V took off on a charter flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles with a crew of three and six passengers onboard. A little before 6AM (PST), about eight hours into the anticipated 11 hour, 40 minute flight, a Mayday call was heard from the pilot, who reported his position as about 700 miles west of San Francisco with a serious fire in engine #2 (left inboard) adding, "...we may have to put it in" (ditching the aircraft in the ocean might be necessary). No further transmissions were heard from the plane. The Coast Guard searched for five days but no traces of the aircraft or its occupants were ever found. Later investigation showed that engine #2 had a recurring oil leak in its propeller governor assembly, but the fire's cause remained unknown.[5] Many writers have commented on the ironic similarities between the plane's role in the film and its tragic end over the Pacific. AwardsAcademy AwardNominations
Golden Globe
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