Plot
For The High and the Mighty, director William Wellman made a point of using Cinemascope to heighten the dramatic content of a confined screen space -- in this instance, the cockpit of a plane in flight. Copilot Dan Roman (John Wayne) seems a lot more in control of things than Captain John Sullivan (Robert Stack) when the plane loses an engine during a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco. Wellman crosscuts from the tension in the cockpit to the various subplots involving the plane's passengers, among them May Holst (Claire Trevor), Lydia Rice (Laraine Day), Howard Rice (John Howard), Sally McKee (Jan Sterling), Ed Joseph (Phil Harris), and Humphrey Agnew (Sidney Blackmer) (as a character named Humphrey Agnew -- a remarkable prescient cognomen given the future of the U.S. vice presidency!). Adapted by Ernest K. Gann from his best-selling novel, The High and the Mighty was one of the first (and most profitable) entries in the "terror in the sky" genre. Its theme music, written by Dimitri Tiomkin and whistled incessantly by John Wayne in the film, would later become a best-selling hit throughout the world. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
The High and the Mighty has aged well -- seeing it anew in 2005, twenty-some years after it was last shown publicly, it's possible to pick out scenes and shots that might be cut or shortened, but ultimately it's not much more than a few minutes longer than it might ideally have been, even based on modern sensibilities; and, yes, parts of the Dimitri Tiomkin score are much more romantic than audiences are accustomed to in movies today. But otherwise, there's not much glaringly out-of-date in the style of the movie. On the other hand, to fully and properly appreciate it, one must remember that in 1954, when it was made, and in 1953, when it was in pre-production, all of what is depicted in the movie, in the way of trans-Pacific and trans-global commercial flight, was new. The idea that ordinary people, middle-class (or, really, mostly somewhat upper-middle-class) Americans would routinely cross the Pacific on scheduled airlines was something new, so there was an intrinsic sense of adventure in watching the movie in 1954. One of the virtues of the film today is that it still has that sense of adventure, which continues to radiate off the screen, from the tone of the acting and the performances, and the script. The interlocking and interwoven personal stories may seem hackneyed today, but in fact, with the exceptions of Casablanca -- which is a different kettle of fish -- and Hotel Berlin in 1945 (itself based on a book by Grand Hotel author Vicki Baum), no Hollywood movie since Grand Hotel, in 1932, had tried to weave together characters like this on this level -- and doing it in this airborne setting was startlingly new and dramatic. It's one of the great achievements of Wellman's career that he was able to pull this off as well as he did. Apart from a few slow moments in the pacing, and some shots and scenes that could have been shortened, it still works, although anyone watching it in the 21st century should be aware that The High and the Mighty has to be seen letterboxed -- this is an early Cinemascope movie, with a very wide aspect ratio and with most of the screen used most of the time; cropping it to fit an ordinary television screen is equivalent to not showing it at all. ~ Bruce Eder, RoviCast
- John Wayne - Dan Roman
- Claire Trevor - May Holst
- Laraine Day - Lydia Rice
- Robert Stack - Sullivan
- Jan Sterling - Sally McKee
Credit
Alfred Ybarra - Art Director, Gwen Wakeling - Costume Designer, William Wellman - Director, Ralph Dawson - Editor, Dimitri Tiomkin - Composer (Music Score), William H. Clothier - Cinematographer, Louis Clyde Stoumen - Cinematographer, Archie J. Stout - Cinematographer, Robert M. Fellows - Producer, John Wayne - Producer, Ernest K. Gann - Screenwriter, Ernest K. Gann - Book Author| The High Wall (1947 Film), The High Terrace (1957 Film) | |
| The High-Powered Rifle (1960 Film), The Highbinders (1915 Film) |
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