Saturday, October 5, 2013

The High and the Mighty (1954)

Director: William A. Wellman                            Writer: Ernest K. Gann
Film Score: Dimitri Tiomkin                              Cinematography: Archie Stout
Starring: John Wayne, Robert Stack, Claire Trevor and Sidney Blackmer

This is a difficult film to assess, though through no fault of its own. First, there is the overwhelming image of all of the disaster film of the seventies, with washed-up actors herded together to emote in a crisis, that initially makes the film seem cliché ridden. But since this is the first of its kind and set the template for those films, that can’t really be held against it. The second is the popularity of the spoof films that began with Airplane, and the unflattering comparison that is inevitable with Robert Stack as the pilot. Third, there is the Apollo 13 parallel, with Wally Brown desperately doing the math in the cockpit and getting it wrong. The final problem with the film is Dimitri Tiomkin’s bombastic score, which is so over-the-top with its choir of angels that it makes the film hard to take seriously at times. However, if you can try to put those things out of your mind, The High and the Mighty is quite an interesting film to watch.

The story began its life as a novel by Ernest Gann about a flight he made from Honolulu to Portland. Naturally, Gann was tabbed as the screenwriter and John Wayne’s production company picked up the film. Gann had also written the screenplay for Island in the Sky the previous year, a film that also starred Wayne and was directed by William Wellman. Wayne plays Dan Roman, a pilot who lost his wife and child in a crash where he was the pilot, and on this trip he's the co-pilot on a plane heading to San Francisco from Honolulu. The pilot is Robert Stack and his crew consists of Wally Brown as the navigator and hot shot back-up pilot Hobie Wheeler. Throughout the flight there are shudders and shakes that indicate something is wrong with the plane, but nothing can be discovered until it’s too late. Once past the point of no return one of the engines flames out, punching holes in the fuel tank and raising the possibility that the plane will have to ditch in the ocean before it reaches land.

The flying Love Boat full of passengers is interesting as well. Most of the big stars in Hollywood at the time refused to be in the film because there were no leading roles, so the ensemble cast includes mostly second-tier stars and has-beens. Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling play aging women who suddenly feel their beauty has gone. Sidney Blackmer plays a jealous husband with a gun in his pocket and a passenger he’d like to use it on, Paul Kelly. The great Phil Harris is unfortunately saddled with Ann Doran who is the completely panicked passenger who thinks she’s going to die and isn’t shy about letting everyone know about it. Paul Fix is a dying man who therefore has a fairly upbeat attitude about the impending crash. John Qualen, who was so memorable in Casablanca, is also onboard as a stereotypical Italian. The rest of the cast includes John Howard, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, David Brian, and Regis Toomey.

Dimitri Tomkin would score a big hit with the opening theme song, one that became associated with John Wayne for the rest of his career. Heard from the vantage point of some sixty years later, however, it’s an awkward leitmotif, similar to that in another fifties classic, High Noon, and eventually becomes just as obtrusive. The airplane set is fairly claustrophobic, but that just adds to the tension. Despite the claims that Wayne hated the role, he does a nice job at calming down the passengers as well as a stressed-out Robert Stack and has the same self-assuredness that he exhibited as far back as Stagecoach--which also featured Claire Trevor. The rich, Technicolor reeks of the fifties, as does the colorful, affluent clothing of the women. In the end it’s a fascinating look at the genesis of the disaster film and while the peril is not nearly as great as it would be in later films, The High and the Mighty is still worth a look for its creation of genre conventions that remain with us to this day.

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