The High and the Mighty (1954)

To me, this movie is perfection.

the audience applauded

Sick Product of a Sick System

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

You'll enjoy this movie even if you haven't seen "Airplane". But if you enjoy "Airplane" you'll see the setups for the jokes contained in "Airplane".

As suspense films go this may be lacking, but the star power of John Wayne as dan Roman, the over the hill co-pilot and third in command allows the film audience to believe that this plane is in great jeopardy. Dan Roman is in the latter stage of his career and the younger pilots know it, but they show him little respect until their airplane loses an engine and is running low on gas. The pilot of this Titanic in the air is John Sullivan played superbly by Robert Stack.There is a multitude of great characters on the flight all of whom realize that whatever problems they had before they boarded their Titanic plane are now far in the past, and their will to live is put to the test.I enjoyed the film and although the first half of the film concentrated on each of the passengers personal stories, and the disparity amongst the three (3) pilots, the latter half of the film provided great suspense with a warm and fuzzy feeling ending expected from a catastrophic action/suspense film.I give the film a 6 out of 10 rating.

. . . though Doe Avedon ("Miss Spalding") does not mention this fact when she's interviewed for a nine-minute "extra" on the first DVD release for THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY called STORIES FROM THE SET. In Real Life, Dorcas Marie Nowell's dad was a butler for some New York Rich People. Since Pops Nowell died when she was 12, the Rich People raised her and helped her to get a position where the famous photographer Richard Avedon spotted and married her (changing her first name to "Doe," because her eyes reminded him of BAMBI's). When Dick tried to make Doe into a Super Model, she found this was too strenuous (and humiliating, when one of Dick's friends wrote the play FUNNY FACE about her), so she dumped him (but kept his pet name and surname), took up stage acting until she married a co-star, had a couple movie roles, retired, but had to return to the Big Screen when her husband rolled their car and killed himself as they drove back from Hollywood to the East Coast. Doe only acted in FIVE films, none of which were as notable as THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. She does not even say in her interview here whether she ever "stewed" in Real Life to make ends meet, but at least she was able to raise four kids with her third husband.

This has always been a great movie. Even contrasted with today's technology of great big airplanes that carry hundreds of people, this story of a little DC-7 on the brink of disaster makes for good movie stuff.The movie isn't just about the pending disaster, of course, it's about the life problems each of the characters is dealing with and how this experience of survival puts all of those problems into perspective.If you're going to watch and appreciate "Airplane" you have to watch this movie and "Airport" to get the jokes and the satire of "Airplane".The actors overplay their roles, and that's what makes this movie great 1950's movie history. I love the scene of the DC-7 taking off right into the camera. It's a cool shot.They don't make like this anymore.