The High and the Mighty (film)

The High and the Mighty is a 1954 disaster 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 (The High and the Mighty) on which the film is based. Dimitri Tiomkin earned an Academy Award for his score, and the film's theme ("The High and the Mighty") was nominated for an Oscar. The High and the Mighty was one of the first all-star disaster films, which paved the way for the Airport films (and eventually the parody, Airplane!, whose cast included Robert Stack, a star player in The High and the Mighty).

The High and the Mighty and its "sister" film, Island in the Sky, are American movie oddities in that they are two of the first all-star "disaster" films which paved the way for Airport and its sequels twenty-plus years later. Both films are early John Wayne co-productions in which he also starred. This production practice would not become widespread until the 1980s and 90s, when stars from Robert Redford to Sandra Bullock took control of productions. Both films shared many of the same crew members (producers, director, writer, cinematographer, and editor), and in addition to Wayne, no less than six other actors also have parts in both films: Regis Toomey, Paul Fix, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Ann Doran, George Chandler, and Michael Wellman. In addition both films are based on original stories by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the screenplays.

Both The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky were out of circulation for about a quarter-century due to legal issues. They finally returned to television in July 2005, the first such broadcasts in twenty years, and also released as special edition DVDs that August. The films have been restored and have greater clarity of picture and sound than they have had many years. In the case of The High and the Mighty the Warnercolor photography, which was reportedly in danger of completely vanishing, has been digitally restored, using the original negatives from Warner Brothers vaults.

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The film explores the personal dramas and interactions of the seventeen passengers -- and professional conflicts and doubts of the five crew members -- 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 proves to be a tense, nerve-wracking, and ultimately life changing ordeal for all.

A diverse group of seventeen passengers board the flight at Honolulu for the half-day trip across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco. They are:

May Holst (Claire Trevor): a loquacious, overly dressed, self-described "broken-down old broad" who seems to always be looking to pick up a man

Ken Childs (David Brian): an avuncular, middle aged, silver-haired playboy and TOPAC investor/Board Member who May Holst soon latches on to

Humphrey Agnew (Sidney Blackmer): an oily Honolulu "snake oil" manufacturer ("Agnew's Aides") and insanely jealous husband who is convinced that 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 blond, 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 conscious-stricken about his work on nuclear missiles

Lydia Rice (Laraine Day): a rich, shrewish, social climbing snob 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 inherited (and he runs), 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 is returning to his mother from a visit to his father and who sleeps through all of the excitement

Captain 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 that crashed on take-off in Colombia and in which his wife and young son were killed

Second Officer Hobie Wheeler (William Campbell): the flight's smart aleck young relief pilot

Lenny Wilby (Wally Brown): the rumpled, often logorrheic navigator on whose skills all will soon prove to depend for their survival

"Miss Spaulding" (Doe Avedon): a young, rookie flight attendant ("I've only been with the company for four months."), she is also the plane's only cabin crew member.

The actual 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 (USAAF s/n 42-72210).[1] When its sequences in the film were shot in mid November, 1953, the aircraft (N4726V; ex-N66694, ex-LV-ABR) was being operated by Oakland, California, based non-scheduled carrier Transocean Airlines (1946-62), the largest civil aviation operator of recycled C-54 aircraft in the 1950s. (Novel and screenplay author Ernest K. Gann wrote the original book during the period that he was flying these planes for Transocean over the Hawaii-California routes.) Named the “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 incorporated in Transocean's red, white, and yellow color scheme for filming.[2]

A second Transocean C-54/DC-4 (equipped with a large "double door"[3] used 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. The scenes inside the passenger cabin and on the flight deck were also all filmed on sets built on a sound stage.

Not long after departing Honolulu for the 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, however, except for stewardess Spaulding who is alarmed by a shake in a flight deck mirror in which she is looking at herself. 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 no cause (or proof) can be found.

Just after passing the point of no return flying at an altitude of 9,000 feet on a trip anticipated to last 12-hours and 16-minutes ("exactly"), the left outboard engine (#1) seizes causing its three-bladed prop to separate resulting in a serious engine fire. Although the fire was quickly extinguished and contained, the engine was badly twisted in its mounts thus greatly increasing drag, and the plane also lost 4,000 feet of altitude ("and still sinking") before the crew regained full control. Most serious of all, however, was a breech the separating prop had caused in the left outboard wing fuel tank (#1) resulting in the loss of a critical 200 of the by then less than 1,300 gallons of fuel remaining out of 3,050 that had been put on board prior to takeoff. For the next six hours or so, the question on everyone's mind would be whether or not the crew could nurse the crippled plane to a safe landing in San Francisco, or -- as seemed much more likely -- they would be forced to ditch at night in the storm tossed Pacific. Each of the plane's seventeen passengers and five crew members will react to the stress of the situation differently.

Meanwhile back in the cabin several personal crises are brewing among the passengers the greatest of which being the plot by Agnew -- who has brought a chrome plated revolver on board with him -- to confront Childs whom he suspects of having an affair with his wife, Martha, who had once worked for Childs. Just as Agnew makes his move, however, Engine #1 suddenly seizes beginning hours of terror for all aboard and the launching of an air-sea-rescue effort in case the plane is forced to ditch in the ocean. Viewers see the United States Coast Guard swing into action.

The passengers and crew face their impending doom by reevaluating their lives.

Navigator Wilby originally believes that the plane can make it to land, but then realizes after finding an error in his calculations that 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 then literally "slaps" some sense into Sullivan and convinces him to try to make the airport even though they have to cross a hill that stands in the way.

The plane does make it to SFO, of course, and a check of the tanks ("just 30 gallons left") reveals just how very close a call it was. After the passengers all depart, the film ends with Roman walking off alone into the darkness . . .whistling . . .as airline operations manager Tim Garfield (Regis Toomey) says of him "So long, you ancient pelican."

Ironically a little more than a decade after appearing in the film, N4726V experienced a real engine fire while flying over the Pacific with far more dire results. At 8:47 PM (HST) on March 27, 1964, the plane took off on a charter flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles with a crew of three and six passengers on board. About eight hours into the anticipated 11 hour, 40 minute flight, a "Mayday" call was heard from the pilot just a little before 6AM (PST). He reported being about 700 miles west of San Francisco with a serious fire in Engine #2 (left inboard) and preparing to ditch in the ocean. No further transmissions were heard from the plane for which the Coast Guard would search for five days, but no traces of the aircraft or its occupants were ever found.[4]

When released in July of 1954, The High and the Mighty found great success, becoming one of the most successful films of that year. Being a film oddity, one of the first all-star disaster dramas, the film garnered much praise by critics. In addition to lead actor and producer John Wayne in a memorable role against type, its supporting stars Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, earned Academy Awards nominations for Best Supporting Actress. The film's theme, written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington, was also nominated for an Academy Award and found popularity upon release.

The High and the Mighty was one of the earliest airplane disaster films, and the first to focus attentions on the personal dramas of the passengers. The film predated such all-star affairs as Airport and its sequels by nearly twenty years. It was also acknowledged as a prime inspiration for the parody film Airplane and its sequel.

In the sixties and seventies, The High and the Mighty became a staple of network television. Due to tighter broadcast schedules and several royalty disputes, the film's last appearances on television were in 1982 on the TBS cable channel, and on Cinemax in March/April, 1985. As a result of the film's rarity, it developed a cult following, which led to petitions to get the film released on DVD. Finally, the film was rebroadcast on television in July 2005, the first broadcasts in twenty years. Together with another "lost" John Wayne film, Island in the Sky, the film was released in a special edition DVD in August of the same year.

John Wayne as Dan Roman
Claire Trevor as May Holst
Laraine Day as Lydia Rice
Robert Stack as John Sullivan
Jan Sterling as Sally McKee
Phil Harris as Ed Joseph
Paul Fix as Frank Briscoe
Robert Newton as Gustave Pardee
David Brian as Ken Childs
Joy Kim as Dorothy Chen
Paul Kelly as Donald Flaherty
Sidney Blackmer as Humphrey Agnew
William Campbell as Hobie Wheeler
Julie Bishop as Lillian Pardee
John Howard as Howard Rice
John Qualen as Jose Locota
Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez as Gonzales
Doe Avedon as Stewardess Spalding
Karen Sharpe as Nell Buck
John Smith as Milo Buck

Won:

• Best Music - Dimitri Tiomkin

Nominated:

• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Jan Sterling
• Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Claire Trevor
• Best Director - William A. Wellman
• Best Film Editing - Ralph Dawson
• Best Music, Original Song - Dimitri Tiomkin & Ned Washington ("The High and the Mighty")

Won:

• Best Supporting Actress - Jan Sterling

• Catastrophe in the Movies
• The High and the Mighty at the IMDb.