The High and the Mighty (1954) on Netflix
NR19542h 27mActionAdventureDrama
A DC-4 leaves Honolulu for San Francisco with seventeen passengers aboard. First officer Dan Roman, a pilot haunted by an old crash, is in the cockpit when the crossing runs into trouble.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.6/107,260 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes46%
Trailer
Plot summary
Captain John Sullivan has logged thousands of hours in command and carries a private fear of the responsibility the job brings. Beside him on the flight deck is first officer Dan Roman, a veteran who limps from an old crash that took his wife and son and who whistles as he works. The DC-4 carries seventeen passengers and a crew of five from Honolulu to San Francisco. In the cabin, flight attendant Spalding looks after travelers absorbed in problems of their own, among them former actress May Holst, Lydia Rice, Sally McKee and Ed Joseph. Second officer Hobie Wheeler and navigator Lenny Wilby round out the crew. Partway across the Pacific, a vibration runs through the airliner and the men on the flight deck cannot trace its source.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The High and the Mighty (1954)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Because the film had no single big leading role, Barbara Stanwyck, Dorothy McGuire, Ginger Rogers, Ida Lupino and Joan Crawford all turned parts down, and director William Wellman filled them with good but lesser-known actors instead.
- Spencer Tracy was offered the pilot Dan Roman and refused, telling Wellman the script was lousy; assistant director Andrew McLaglen said Tracy's friends had warned him that he, a liberal Democrat, was in for an ego-bruising ride from the Republican director.
- With Tracy gone, Jack Warner threatened to pull the Warner Bros. money unless another big name took the lead, so Wellman talked his producer John Wayne into playing Dan Roman himself. Wayne said during and after production that he did not like his own performance.
- When Wayne tried to take over the directing, Wellman slapped him down in front of the crew, saying Wayne would look as ridiculous behind the camera as Wellman would out front with that screwy voice and fairy walk. The two went on to make Track of the Cat and Blood Alley together.
- The airliner on screen was a real Transocean Air Lines machine named The African Queen, simply painted over with the fictional airline name TOPAC. Writer Ernest K. Gann had come up with the story while flying the same type of aircraft for that carrier between Hawaii and California.
- Transocean's director of flight operations, Bill Keating, flew the stunts on Gann's recommendation. Asked by Wellman for one more take of the night emergency landing, closer to the threshold, he took out the runway lights with his nose gear and went around; Wellman quipped that the crash would look good in another film.
- Dimitri Tiomkin's theme became known as "The Whistling Song" because Wayne whistled the tune during production. It topped the hit parade for weeks, a 1955 national survey of disc jockeys called it the most whistleable tune, and Hollywood learned from it that a publicised title song could pull audiences in.
