William Wellman was a man who loved aviation. He had served, in World War I, in the Lafayette Escadrille in France, and he would devote more time than any other major director to discussing aviation dramas in his movies. In fact his last major film would be the Tab Hunter film about the Escadrille. But he never really topped this picture (fortunately made late in his career), wherein he puts 22 people on a trans Pacific flight between Hawaii and California, and then has the airplane develop mechanical difficulties just as it passes beyond the so-called "point of no return" to Honolulu.
Wellman knew aviation, and the dialog dealing with the plane and it's problems (a motor blows up and damages the right wing, and loses precious gasoline in the process) actually sounds very true - far truer than one normally finds in film. I take the solution to the problems given may be true - it somehow seems logical that the reduction of altitude may reduce gas consumption as the motors of the plane will not be strained doing two things at once. However, Wellman does keep reminding us that wind resistance and turbulence might undo this benefit anyway.
Besides the issue about the the plane's capability of still reaching the mainland of the U.S. or ditching in the Pacific, there are personal dramas involved. Pilot Robert Stack is a capable man, and (on the surface) he does not seem flustered. But he is also thoughtful about the chances of being involved in an airplane disaster. After all, if you have been in no plane wrecks, but keep flying, the law of averages will catch up to you sooner or later. So Stack is increasingly nervous about the chances of his airplane crashing. His co-pilot, John Wayne, has been in a tragic (and well-known) crash in South America years before, in which he was the plane pilot, and among the casualties were his wife and small son. While nobody is really knocking Wayne (except for his age, perhaps), he is aware that he is looked at as a figure of pity or of dread for his personal tragedy. George Chandler and he have a conversation at the start, having accidentally run into each other at the airport, and Chandler (without thinking about it) fully makes Wayne aware of the lingering effects of the tragedy on his name. Navigator Wally Brown seems a relaxed, happy man - he is looking forward to getting back to his beloved wife. However, later on we realize from what Regis Toomey says at the San Francisco airport, Brown's wife is an alcoholic.
The passengers have problems too. David Brian (a large shareholder in the airline, and a playboy) is targeted by Sidney Blackmer for death for a supposed affair with Blackmer's wife. Jan Sterling has had a life that has left her slightly better than a tramp, but now she is returning home to a pen-pal boyfriend (William Hopper) who thinks she is perfect for him. She's afraid he won't like what she has become. Laraine Day and John Howard are a wealthy society woman and her husband, whom are looked at as wealthy woman and "kept" husband on a financial leash. But Howard is determined to prove he is capable of building a career on his own in mining, and this has put a strain on their marriage. Paul Kelly is a kind of J. Robert Oppenheimer clone - a college physics professor recruited to work on missiles for the U.S. Government in the South Seas (near Bikini atoll, presumably), and has resigned after getting fed up with the government's lack of understanding about what their scientific ends really mean for people. Robert Newton is a Broadway producer traveling with his wife (Julie Bishop), who finds a well of inner strength he never knew he had, and in the process wins back this wife's respect.
The film was produced by Wayne, and he put many actors in it who were frequently in his movies (John Qualen, Paul Fix, Claire Trevor, John Howard, Larraine Day). The balance of the action between the cock pit, the cabin, a ship at sea (where Pedro Gonzalez - Gonzalez becomes a lifeline between the plane and the mainland) and the San Francisco airport, where Regis Toomey is setting up preparations to aid the stricken airplane) is well handled and balanced, with everyone acting fairly intelligently given the emergency that develops. Some rise to the occasion like Newton, while others never really do well (Blackmer for instance). And the film keeps your attention until the conclusion.
A brief word can also be made regarding Dmitry Tiompkin's famous theme, which is whistled several times on the sound track - usually by Wayne, but sometimes just on the soundtrack as his theme, and once actually whistled by Toomey, of all people. A simple theme it is, but quite haunting and memorable.
THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY was not the first aviation disaster movie. In 1951 the intelligent NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY appeared with Jimmy Steward, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, and Jack Hawkins. About the same time there was PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER with Gary Merrill, Michael Rennie, Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, and Bette Davis. And Wayne would also make ISLAND IN THE SKY about an arctic aviation disaster. But THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY is the the best film in this bunch from it's own day until today.
Wellman knew aviation, and the dialog dealing with the plane and it's problems (a motor blows up and damages the right wing, and loses precious gasoline in the process) actually sounds very true - far truer than one normally finds in film. I take the solution to the problems given may be true - it somehow seems logical that the reduction of altitude may reduce gas consumption as the motors of the plane will not be strained doing two things at once. However, Wellman does keep reminding us that wind resistance and turbulence might undo this benefit anyway.
Besides the issue about the the plane's capability of still reaching the mainland of the U.S. or ditching in the Pacific, there are personal dramas involved. Pilot Robert Stack is a capable man, and (on the surface) he does not seem flustered. But he is also thoughtful about the chances of being involved in an airplane disaster. After all, if you have been in no plane wrecks, but keep flying, the law of averages will catch up to you sooner or later. So Stack is increasingly nervous about the chances of his airplane crashing. His co-pilot, John Wayne, has been in a tragic (and well-known) crash in South America years before, in which he was the plane pilot, and among the casualties were his wife and small son. While nobody is really knocking Wayne (except for his age, perhaps), he is aware that he is looked at as a figure of pity or of dread for his personal tragedy. George Chandler and he have a conversation at the start, having accidentally run into each other at the airport, and Chandler (without thinking about it) fully makes Wayne aware of the lingering effects of the tragedy on his name. Navigator Wally Brown seems a relaxed, happy man - he is looking forward to getting back to his beloved wife. However, later on we realize from what Regis Toomey says at the San Francisco airport, Brown's wife is an alcoholic.
The passengers have problems too. David Brian (a large shareholder in the airline, and a playboy) is targeted by Sidney Blackmer for death for a supposed affair with Blackmer's wife. Jan Sterling has had a life that has left her slightly better than a tramp, but now she is returning home to a pen-pal boyfriend (William Hopper) who thinks she is perfect for him. She's afraid he won't like what she has become. Laraine Day and John Howard are a wealthy society woman and her husband, whom are looked at as wealthy woman and "kept" husband on a financial leash. But Howard is determined to prove he is capable of building a career on his own in mining, and this has put a strain on their marriage. Paul Kelly is a kind of J. Robert Oppenheimer clone - a college physics professor recruited to work on missiles for the U.S. Government in the South Seas (near Bikini atoll, presumably), and has resigned after getting fed up with the government's lack of understanding about what their scientific ends really mean for people. Robert Newton is a Broadway producer traveling with his wife (Julie Bishop), who finds a well of inner strength he never knew he had, and in the process wins back this wife's respect.
The film was produced by Wayne, and he put many actors in it who were frequently in his movies (John Qualen, Paul Fix, Claire Trevor, John Howard, Larraine Day). The balance of the action between the cock pit, the cabin, a ship at sea (where Pedro Gonzalez - Gonzalez becomes a lifeline between the plane and the mainland) and the San Francisco airport, where Regis Toomey is setting up preparations to aid the stricken airplane) is well handled and balanced, with everyone acting fairly intelligently given the emergency that develops. Some rise to the occasion like Newton, while others never really do well (Blackmer for instance). And the film keeps your attention until the conclusion.
A brief word can also be made regarding Dmitry Tiompkin's famous theme, which is whistled several times on the sound track - usually by Wayne, but sometimes just on the soundtrack as his theme, and once actually whistled by Toomey, of all people. A simple theme it is, but quite haunting and memorable.
THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY was not the first aviation disaster movie. In 1951 the intelligent NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY appeared with Jimmy Steward, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, and Jack Hawkins. About the same time there was PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER with Gary Merrill, Michael Rennie, Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, and Bette Davis. And Wayne would also make ISLAND IN THE SKY about an arctic aviation disaster. But THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY is the the best film in this bunch from it's own day until today.