My double-feature concludes with another William Wellman-John Wayne pilot film, The High and the Mighty. During a cross-Pacific flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, a commercial airliner piloted by John Sullivan (Robert Stack) and Dan Roman (John Wayne) begins to experience technical troubles and the crew begins to fear the plane may not make its destination.
In some ways, the film started the disaster movie track that would become hugely popular in the 60s and 70s, with films like the Airport series, The Towering Inferno and Earthquake. Even though it is considered these films predecessor, it is really hard to look at the film as a disaster movie, as it is much more focused on the plane’s inhabitants than it is the oncoming disaster. Just due to the fact that the plane doesn’t have any difficulties until over an hour into the film makes it a hard classification. Instead of thrilling the audience, the film takes its time to let us get to know the passengers and crew, which gives us even more of a stake when the plane starts to go down. In the DVD introduction, the great Leonard Maltin somewhat warns the viewer not to expect a balls-to-the-wall disaster flick when he says the film is a product of the 1950s, when films were much more interested in story than special effects. This certainly comes across in the film, but doesn’t make it any more interesting.
Speaking of the 1950s, boy, those were different times in airplane travel! No security, people taking them time, stress-free at the airport, men giving the stewardess randy compliments and people actually talking to each other on the plane. Can you believe it? Some of this is probably just movie-airplane stuff in order to drive plot points forward, but I would consider myself well versed in airplane travel, and it certainly has changed on many fronts.
Back to the film. Also being a product of the 50s, the film was one of the first films to use CinemaScope, an early form of wide screen projection. With the amazing aspect ratio of 2.55:1, the film only covers a sliver over the center of my wide-screen television. Honestly, the technology is mishandled for this film. As I mentioned before, most of the film’s focus is on the relationships of the passengers, documenting normal on-screen conversations in the small environment inside of an airplane. Typically, an ultra wide projection wouldn’t be totally necessary for this type of picture. Although Wellman frames the screen well enough, being a competent filmmaker he uses the technology fine, but without much big action that would normally be associated with a disaster film, its full capabilities are squandered.
Notice how I really haven’t mentioned John Wayne? His role in the film doesn’t quite match up to the star’s normal screen persona. He is also mostly over-shadowed by his co-pilot, Robert Stack, who I am realizing was a much better actor than I could imagine as the host of Unsolved Mysteries. His role is much more meatier, as an experienced pilot who totally suffers a psychological breakdown as the plane begins to do likewise. The film captures his psychosis well, making him much more than just an unlikable coward. And that voice! Unfortunately, with so many characters to keep track of, the film forgets about Stack’s John Sullivan for long stretches. Similar to my problem with Island in the Sky, The High and the Mighty spreads across too many characters who are much less interesting than others who could clearly be expanded.
The High and the Mighty is a solidly made, but mostly forgettable film. It suffers from a lack of action while introducing too many characters of subplots. It’s never hard to follow, but there is so much, most of it isn’t interesting enough to contain itself. Still, the film is important in cinema history as an early user of CinemaScope and for all of the films it potentially encouraged.
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