The High And The Mighty

The High and the Mighty (1954)

Runtime: 147 minutes

Directed by: William A. Wellman

Starring: John Wayne, Robert Stack, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Phil Harris

From: Warner Bros. 

This is the first of two reviews to be posted here today. That noted, Robert Stack played an airline Captain more than once, believe it or not.

Last night I made a Prime rental to check out what I’ve heard of as “the granddaddy of all aerial disaster movies”, which I’ll presume is accurate. Either soon or real soon I’ll finally visit or revisit all the Airport sequels & that is because The High and the Mighty gave me enough of a push to do so.

Even more so than the 70’s disaster movies, the focus is on the characters & their interactions rather than any disaster spectacle or destruction. That ended up being OK as it was still interesting to follow these folks as they are on an airline from Honolulu to San Francisco and boom, an incident happens which puts the entire plane in jeopardy of not making it to California. The characters are about what you’d expect: a variety of different folks that range from a young boy and a scientist who has a crisis of conscience as he’s in the field of making nuclear weapons to a faded starlet, newlyweds returning from a honeymoon and even an older couple that are the “obnoxious tourists” stereotype.

This is a hair under 2 ½ hours and some scenes felt rather lengthy due to them being stuffed w/ dialogue. That noted, there was still enough where I’ll proclaim that this is fine. William A. Wellman as the director definitely was an asset; so was the score from Dimitri Tiomkin. The cast also has some noteworthy names, some of whom have been forgotten to time but still are quality talents: this includes Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Regis Toomey, Phil Harris and Robert Newton. The pilots are John Wayne-a veteran who is seen as washed-up due to a tragic incident in the past-and… Robert Stack. Yes, Stack did not only portray that kind of role in Airplane!... while not exactly Rex Kramer, that character has his own issues.

While definitely melodramatic & cheesy, there was enough intense drama and suspense to entertain me; the CinemaScope cinematography was another bonus. For a movie where Wayne is not around for long stretches, that may disappoint those who are still big fans of his despite some of his real life beliefs that have aged very poorly… otherwise this may be enjoyed by the 70’s disaster fans as long as you pay heed to what I said about this not being a spectacle.