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who saw the "High and Mighty"??

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From www.nytimes.com:

Two With John Wayne

The statistics are there to suggest that John Wayne was the biggest movie star of all time, with a career that, counting his early work as an extra and a prop man, stretched over 50 years and more than 180 titles. Wayne fans have long been frustrated by the unavailability of a few important entries in his filmography, which have largely remained in the vaults of Wayne's production company, Batjac, since they were first released.

Now, the family stock is coming out through Paramount Home Entertainment, beginning with what is probably the most requested of those titles, William Wellman's 1954 film "The High and the Mighty." Though the negative reportedly suffered severe water damage, you'd never know it from the restoration on the Paramount disc, which offers bright, fully saturated colors across a sharp CinemaScope image, along with a choice between the original three-channel stereo soundtrack and a five-channel remix.

Often cited as among the first examples of the disaster film, in which a catastrophic event (the sinking of the luxury liner Poseidon, for example) serves to sort out the personal problems of a small group of troubled characters, "The High and the Mighty" remains superb entertainment.

Wellman does not have the artistic instincts of a John Ford or a Howard Hawks, but he uses Wayne quite well (and quite sparingly) as Dan Roman, a veteran flier who after a life-shattering crash has been reduced to being co-pilot of a passenger plane traveling between Hawaii and San Francisco. After briefly introducing the Wayne character at the beginning - a loner given to mournfully whistling Dimitri Tiomkin's Oscar-winning musical theme - Wellman keeps Wayne offstage for much of the next 90 minutes as the script establishes the various mini-dramas gripping the plane's load of passengers (including Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris and Paul Kelly). Only when an engine flames out, forcing the pilot (Robert Stack), a secret coward, into contemplating a crash landing, does Wayne step up from the background. He immediately establishes his authority and expertise, not by bluster and bellowing but simply with a few well-directed glances.

Accompanying "The High and the Mighty" is another Wayne-Wellman collaboration, the black-and-white feature "Island in the Sky," released in 1953. In this one (also written by Ernest K. Gann of "The High and the Mighty"), Wayne is the pilot of an Army transport plane that goes down in the uncharted territory of sub-Arctic Canada; his pilot friends, among them Lloyd Nolan, James Arness, Andy Devine and Harry Carey Jr., band together to conduct a search. Wellman's literally tearful sentimentality about male friendship is, again, something neither Ford nor Hawks would have tolerated, but this is a solid little film that looks forward to Robert Aldrich's elegant "Flight of the Phoenix."

Both films come with an almost overwhelming wealth of extras - an entire extra disc's worth in the case of "High," which as a result lists for $19.95 as opposed to $14.95 for the single-disc "Island." Neither film has been rated.
 
Ghee I haven't posted here in a while, been lurking just not posting. Not too many faces that I recognize. But I got this DVD today, it's a great film I very much enjoyed it for the first time (never seen more then snippets). It's great to see it out of the vault and released.

The scene where John Wayne slaps the Captain is an excellent example of CRM, the navigator said he needed more time, but the Captain was unable to find it, so John Wayne found it. :)

Anyways well worth the $12 I spent on it, I might even pick up the book. The dog liked it too, it would perk up it's ears when ever the whistling started.
 
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