The High and the Mighty (1954)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.55:1 147m
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Stack, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Jan Sterling, Robert Newton
Synopsis:
Assorted miserable characters, and one insufferably cheerful couple, board a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco co-piloted by a dinosaur who once lost his family in a plane he was flying. One of the engines burns out halfway across the Pacific.
Review:
Warners made this inflated Cinemascope showpiece with Wayne's production outfit, Batjac, and it remained the template for all those high-altitude dramas to come. That said, it does rather shortchange us on the all-star cast and give the Duke precious little to do except look into the middle distance with head bent (which he does when he has to look eaten up by something). It is a curious feature that everything about it rings false, from the studio sets to the character back stories, from the dialogue to the moments of high drama, and there is a theme of ageist disquiet running throughout ; meanwhile Tiomkin bars no holds in delivering one of his most bombastic scores (for which he picked up an Oscar).
Country: US
Technical: col/2.55:1 147m
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Stack, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Jan Sterling, Robert Newton
Synopsis:
Assorted miserable characters, and one insufferably cheerful couple, board a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco co-piloted by a dinosaur who once lost his family in a plane he was flying. One of the engines burns out halfway across the Pacific.
Review:
Warners made this inflated Cinemascope showpiece with Wayne's production outfit, Batjac, and it remained the template for all those high-altitude dramas to come. That said, it does rather shortchange us on the all-star cast and give the Duke precious little to do except look into the middle distance with head bent (which he does when he has to look eaten up by something). It is a curious feature that everything about it rings false, from the studio sets to the character back stories, from the dialogue to the moments of high drama, and there is a theme of ageist disquiet running throughout ; meanwhile Tiomkin bars no holds in delivering one of his most bombastic scores (for which he picked up an Oscar).
Country: US
Technical: col/2.55:1 147m
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: John Wayne, Robert Stack, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Jan Sterling, Robert Newton
Synopsis:
Assorted miserable characters, and one insufferably cheerful couple, board a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco co-piloted by a dinosaur who once lost his family in a plane he was flying. One of the engines burns out halfway across the Pacific.
Review:
Warners made this inflated Cinemascope showpiece with Wayne's production outfit, Batjac, and it remained the template for all those high-altitude dramas to come. That said, it does rather shortchange us on the all-star cast and give the Duke precious little to do except look into the middle distance with head bent (which he does when he has to look eaten up by something). It is a curious feature that everything about it rings false, from the studio sets to the character back stories, from the dialogue to the moments of high drama, and there is a theme of ageist disquiet running throughout ; meanwhile Tiomkin bars no holds in delivering one of his most bombastic scores (for which he picked up an Oscar).