The High and the Mighty (1954)

When a commercial airliner develops engine problems on a trans-Pacific flight and the pilot loses his nerve, it is up to the washed-up co-pilot Dan Roman to bring the plane in safely.

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Ernest K. Gann (screenplay), Ernest K. Gann (novel)

Stars:

John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Wayne	...	Dan Roman
Claire Trevor	...	May Holst
Laraine Day	...	Lydia Rice
Robert Stack	...	John Sullivan
Jan Sterling	...	Sally McKee
Phil Harris	...	Ed Joseph
Robert Newton	...	Gustave Pardee
David Brian	...	Ken Childs
Paul Kelly	...	Donald Flaherty
Sidney Blackmer	...	Humphrey Agnew
Julie Bishop	...	Lillian Pardee
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez	...	Gonzales (as Gonzalez Gonzalez)
John Howard	...	Howard Rice
Wally Brown	...	Lenny Wilby, navigator
William Campbell	...	Hobie Wheeler

Storyline

On a flight from Hawaii to California, the engine dies on the plane Dan is flying. As he prepares for a crash landing, the passengers reassess their lives. The template for disaster movies with an Oscar-winning score and a cast list that reads like a who's who of 1950s film.

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Plot Keywords:

ocean crossing | airplane accident | based on novel | dysfunctional marriage | male male relationship | 

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Taglines:

The 2-year best seller blasts to the screen with every kind of love there is!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the reasons that all-star casts became in vogue for 1970s disaster films was because audiences needed to differentiate between up to twenty disparate characters in order to follow the relationships in the plot, and familiar faces cut the audience's work in half. (Director Sidney Lumet used the same philosophy in casting Murder on the Orient Express [1974]). Because The High and the Mighty (1954) could not attract top talent, one of its primary criticisms in the intervening years has been the pronounced challenge in keeping the passengers straight because, though the film rallied some of the finest character actors in Hollywood, their faces were not recognizable enough to distinguish the characters.

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Goofs

Stewardess inflated the little boy's life-jacket by blowing into it, in order not to disturb him. But if he had then pulled the red handles the life-jacket would have burst. You should only use the mouthpiece if the auto-inflate fails, or for a top-up.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Ben Sneed: Hey fella, ain't you Dan Roman?
Dan Roman: Yeah.
Ben Sneed: I heard you whistlin' and I said to myself only one guy does that just so.

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Alternate Versions

The song "The High and the Mighty" (with lyrics) does not appear in the original 1954 release of this film. However, the studio wanted the hugely popular, chart-topping song to be nominated for the Best Song Academy Award that year. According to AMPAS regulations, the song could not be nominated because it was no officially sung in the film, even if would be heard elsewhere. To satisfy these regulations, a version was released towards the tail-end of 1954 for a few nights only with the song inserted into an Exit Music. The Academy then decided to give the song a nomination on the basis of these screenings. The song lost to "Three Coins in a Fountain".

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Connections

Referenced in What's My Line?: Dimitri Tiomkin & Shelley Winters (1956)

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Soundtracks

Barber of Seville
(excerpts) (uncredited)
Music by Gioachino Rossini

User Reviews

Worth the Wait

Trans Ocean Pacific's flight from Honolulu to San Francisco seems to proceed with no problems until one of the four engines catches fire midway on the flight which causes one of the gas tanks to leak. The crew tries to prepare to land the plane in the bay to be rescued, while experienced co-pilot Dan Roman conserve the remaining fuel to get the plane to land in the San Francisco Airport. The widely heterogeneous group of passengers which include a disgruntled man who believes his wife had an affair with one of the other passengers, a female who is hoping her man will love her despite her age, a couple on the brink of divorce, and others have to make the best of their situation and hope its not the last moments they will spend alive. Very good film that took forever to get to DVD, but seems to be worth it. Excellent performances by all and Tiomkin's score is excellent and so memorable you'll be whistling or humming it for days. The film (like many air disaster epics) seems to run a bit too long, but there is a lot of emotion to be played out here. Rating 8.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 July 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

William A. Wellman's The High and the Mighty

Filming Locations:

San Francisco Municipal Airport, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,470,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wayne-Fellows Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

147 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (WarnerColor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1