The High and the Mighty 1954

     This film is based on a novel by Ernest K. Gann  and he also wrote the screenplay.  It is about a trans-Pacific flight from Hawaii to San Francisco.  The crew consists of a washed-up co-pilot, a milquetoast flight engineer and a young hotshot second officer.  The cabin isn’t entirely full but the passengers are a very mixed bag of problems and personalities.  Unfortunately, disasters pile on top of each other and this occurs after the point of no return between Hawaii and San Francisco.

     Everything about this flight shows how people traveled in this time period.  There are not long lines for checking in and the people at the check in desk are very polite.  Passengers have large comfortable seats three across, they can smoke and alcoholic beverages are available.  There is one stewardess and she is easily able to take care of everyone.  There is a young boy traveling alone sleeping across three seats.  There is a bunk for the flight crew to sleep during a break.  Everything I have written doesn’t describe any current flights except in First Class with a considerably larger ticket price!!  One item I didn't like that's in many scenes are the shots of the plane in the air!!  They can't be real shots and they must be simulated?  Why continue to show them?  3* (This movie is OK)

 

147 min, Action directed by William A. Wellman with John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris, Eobert Newton, David Brian, Paul Kelly, Sidney Blackmer, Julie Bishop, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, John Howard, Wally Brown, William Campbell.

Note:  The book has 3.98* out of 5* with 234 ratings on Amazon.  For the film Imdb 6.9 out of 10, 25% critic 59% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 3.5* out of 4* average user rating 4.2* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in San Francisco Municipal Airport, Oakland Municipal Airport, Glendale Grand Central Air Terminal, Samuel Goldwyn Studies, West Hollywood, California.  John Wayne took the role as Dan Roman but he didn’t want it.  Oddly, the title song became his theme song.  In the missile testing site scene in Hawaii, the word missile is misspelled as “missle” on a sign?  There is a mistake with a flashback showing Dan Roman (John Wayne) stumbling from the burning wreckage of a previous airplane crash that killed his family.  He picks up a burning teddy bear but it’s not burning when he clutches it to his chest?  When the plane departs from Honolulu Airport, the DC-4 has unpainted propeller blades.  Later the propeller tips are painted red and yellow.  Probably painted as a safety measure to let ground crew see rotating blades and not walk into them?  There is a mistake with a runway number.  It’s said to be runway 39 but runways are numbered within 10 degrees of their actual magnetic heading.  Since there are only 360 degrees on the compass, the highest number possible is runway 36.