The High and the Mighty is a 1954 disaster drama film directed by William A. Wellman. The film’s screenplay was written by Ernest K. Gann who based it on his 1953 novel of the same name. The High and the Mighty features an ensemble cast led by John Wayne and Robert Stack with Doe Avedon, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Newton and others in supporting roles.
Director: William A. Wellman
Production Company: Wayne-Fellows Productions (Batjac Productions)
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Cast: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack, Phil Harris, Ann Doran, Robert Newton, David Brian, Doe Avedon
US Box Office: $15,250,000 ($324,300,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: WarnerColor (shot in CinemaScope)
Genre: Drama, Disaster
Release Date: July 3, 1954
Plot Summary: Dan Roman (John Wayne) serves as the first officer on a passenger Douglas DC-4 airliner captained by John Sullivan (Robert Stack) for TOPAC airlines. Although formerly a captain, Roman is haunted and dissuaded by an air crash that killed his wife and child. On a routine flight from Honolulu to San Francisco with 17 passengers and a crew of 5, one of the plane’s engines starts on fire, eating up most of the fuel and setting the plane up for a crash landing. Some of the passengers on the flight include: former actress May Holdt (Claire Trevor), unhappily married heiress Lydia Rice (Laraine Day), former beauty queen Jan Sterling (Sally McKee), eccentric vacationer Ed Joseph (Phil Harris), and businessman Ken Childs (David Brian). After Sullivan panics and looses confidence, its up to Roman to keep the passengers safe and ensure a safe landing.
Production: In 1953, actor John Wayne and director William A. Wellman worked together on the aviation drama film Island in the Sky for Wayne’s production company Wayne-Fellows Productions. Ernest K. Gann, who had written the screenplay for Island in the Sky and the novel the film was based on, informed Wellman that he was almost done with a new aviation novel, titled The High and the Mighty. Wellman had been a military pilot during World War I, and had a passion for directing aviation-related films. Wellman told Wayne, who bought the rights to novel for $55,000 and additionally agreed to give Gann a percentage of the profits. Wayne hired Wellman to direct the film and agreed to give him a percentage of the profits as long as Wellman agreed to shoot the film in the wide CinemaScope format. Wellman was initially hesitant about directing an adaptation of The High and the Mighty, because he didn’t want to have to focus on the “intimate” stories and dramas of the passengers and would have instead preferred to focus on the aircraft and the pilots (as a former pilot himself). However, Wellman later changed his mind and agreed to direct The High and the Mighty because he thought that it would be a unique approach to combine the ensemble cast dynamic of films such as Grand Hotel (1932) with an aviation plotline. Gann wrote the screenplay for The High and the Mighty closely based on his original novel.
John Wayne originally didn’t want to play Dan Roman, the lead character in The High and the Mighty, because he was producing the film and felt like he was busy enough in that role. Wellman offered the role to Spencer Tracy, who initially accepted, but quickly backed out of the project. Warner Bros. studio head Jack Warner threatened to pull funding from the film if another big name star couldn’t be found to replace Tracy, so John Wayne took the role. The character’s screen-time in the finished film was likely shortened to accommodate Wayne’s busy schedule as star and producer. Wayne was personally unsatisfied with his performance because the role of Dan Roman required Wayne to play against type as a vulnerable character who lacked the natural confidence and heroism of Wayne’s typical characters.
John Wayne originally hoped to cast his friend Robert Cummings (a former pilot) in the role of Captain John Sullivan, but Wellman cast Robert Stack instead. Stack had lobbied Wellman for the part, and Wellman agreed to cast him after a successful interview. Wellman joking told Stack, “if you screw up, John Wayne is going to strangle the both of us.” Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy McGuire, Ginger Rogers, Ida Lupino, and Joan Crawford were offered female ensemble roles in The High and the Mighty, but all of them rejected the offer because the parts were too small. Claire Trevor (as May Holst), Jan Sterling (as Sally McKee), and Laraine Day (as Lydia Rice) accepted roles in the film. Model and actress Doe Avedon was cast as flight attendant Miss Spalding, it was her second film and her first major role.
Filming on The High and the Mighty began in November of 1953, and went until January of 1954. Most of the interior scenes were shot on set at Samuel Goldwyn Studios. The exterior scenes at the Honolulu and San Francisco airports were shot on location at San Francisco Municipal Airport, Oakland Municipal Airport, and the Glendale Grand Central Air Terminal, all in California. Some of the opening scenes in Honolulu and some of the flashback scenes were shot on location at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and at Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Wellman considered the CinemaScope camera to be “bulky and unwieldly” and preferred to keep it stationed in one spot when possible. As the majority of The High and the Mighty is set on a single Douglas DC-4 airplane, the actors who played passengers spent most of filming in the set used to represent the passenger cabin. The passenger actors were frequently bored and cold (as the set wasn’t properly insolated) and Claire Trevor later described The High and the Mighty as “a dreary picture to make.” John Wayne, Robert Stack, and the other crew actors got to have a little more set variety, and their main cockpit set was properly insulated. Early on in filming, John Wayne came close to taking over as director of the film, but was talked out of it by Wellman.
The airplane in The High and the Mighty was portrayed by a Douglas DC-4 airliner (serial number: N4665V, nicknamed “The African Queen“), which was a converted former Douglas C-54 military transport. The exterior and flying sequences of the DC-4 were shot in November of 1953. The plane was mainly flown by Transocean Airlines director of flight operations Bill Keating during filming. A second DC-4 was used in shots of the damaged airliner on the ground at San Francisco at the end of the film. A damaged engine was installed on this plane’s left wing. A large-scale miniature of the plane was used for the night sequences (including the scene where the engine starts on fire) and was shot against a night sky backdrop.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Island in the Sky, William A. Wellman’s previous aviation drama film features several actors who would later be cast in The High and the Mighty. They include: John Wayne, Regis Toomey (Tim Garland- the TOPAC Operations Manager), Paul Fix (Frank Briscoe), Carl Switzer (Coast Guard ensign Keim), Ann Doran (Mrs. Joseph), George Chandler (Ben Sneed- The Honolulu Crew Chief), and Michael Wellman (Toby). Michael Wellman was the son of William A. Wellman and was six years old when The High and the Mighty was being filmed. Many years later Robert Stack lampooned his role as the stoic Captain John Sullivan by playing a similar captain character in the comedy film Airplane! (1980), which was a parody of the disaster film genre.
Phil Harris (Ed Joseph) was the bandleader and a cast member of Jack Benny’s long running radio program. In the radio show Benny would frequently claim to be 39 years old (even though he was much older than that for most of the show). Harris references Benny in The High and The Mighty, his character claims to be 38 years old, even though Harris was about 50 years old at the time. Dan Roman (John Wayne) occasionally whistles throughout The High and the Mighty, usually just whistling “The High and the Mighty” (the theme song for the film created by Dimitri Tiomkin). However, in a scene near the end of the film when Sullivan tells Roman to whistle something because he works better with music, Roman whistles the song “I’m a Ramblin’ Wreck from Georgia Tech.”
Reception: The High and the Mighty had its premiere at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on May 27, 1954, and went into general release in the US on July 3, 1954. Despite the CinemaScope format limiting the amount of theaters the film could be seen in, The High and the Mighty quickly became a massive box office hit. The combination of the special CinemaScope format, the presence John Wayne and a star-studded supporting cast, and the film’s general escapist value all contributed to its popularity. The High and the Mighty was one of the top ten highest grossing films of the year.
The High and the Mighty received generally reviews from critics when it was first released. Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times praised the film for its excitement and Wellman’s use of the CinemaScope format. The film critics at Variety praised The High and the Mighty for its character drama, and noted that the film would be very popular with audiences. Joseph Henry Jackson of the San Francisco Chronicle spoke positively about the film’s story. Clyde Gilmour of the magazine Maclean’s complimented The High and the Mighty for its tension, but criticized the dialogue and thought that the characters were generic.
The High and the Mighty is an early pioneer of the modern disaster film genre alongside Paramount’s Zero Hour! (1957), another airplane-disaster related drama. The High and the Mighty was one of the first disaster films to feature a large ensemble cast of characters, with various subplots being formed by the characters’ intertwined personal dilemmas and interactions. The High and the Mighty was frequently shown on television in the 1960s and 1970s, but was eventually removed from circulation due to royalty payment issues, with its last regular cable broadcast being in 1982, and its last Cinemax broadcast in 1985. The original film print was kept in John Wayne’s film vault, where it suffered water damage and other issues over time. The High and the Mighty was fully restored in 2005 and in July it was broadcast on television for the first time in twenty years.
The High and the Mighty receives mixed reviews from modern film critics. David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews gave the film a negative review. He described The High and the Mighty as being as being “bloated and overlong,” and criticized the character dialogue. Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com also criticized The High and the Mighty for lacking plot twists that could have made it more exciting and suspenseful. Conversely, Mat Brunson of Film Frenzy gave The High and the Mighty a positive review and thought that it was underrated. Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid also gave the film a positive review, he thought that the script the weak, but that the film was saved by strong performances from the cast members. In 2001 The High and the Mighty was one of 400 films nominated by the American Film Institute for its list of the top 100 most thrilling films.
Oscars: The High and the Mighty was nominated for six Oscars at the 27th Academy Awards ceremony. The film’s nominations included: Best Director (William A. Wellman), Jan Sterling for Best Supporting Actress (as Sally McKee), Claire Trevor for Best Supporting Actress (as May Holst), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson), Best Original Score (Dimitri Tiomkin), and Best Original Song (“The High and the Mighty”- music by Dimitri Tiomkin, lyrics by Ned Washington). The High and the Mighty only received one Oscar, which Dimitri Tiomkin won for his film score. Sterling and Trevor lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront. Wellman lost the Best Director Oscar to Elia Kazan for On the Waterfront.
Why You Should See It: The High and the Mighty is a strong aviation drama film. William A. Wellman does a superb job directing the film, despite his reservations about the CinemaScope format. The flight scenes look great and the miniature work is realistic. Wellman spends plenty of time introducing and expanding upon the main characters in the film. The various character interactions and subplots make The High and the Mighty more interesting. John Wayne gives a good performance as Dan Roman. Though Wayne was unsatisfied with his performance, he gets the opportunity to play against type: Roman is unsure of himself and lacks the natural courage and charisma of Wayne’s usual characters. Dimitri Tiomkin’s film score is very good as well. One complaint that I have about The High and the Mighty is the length. I think that the film could have been more exciting and more intense if it was a little shorter (the “less is more” approach).