The movie is a straight forward melodrama with acceptable special effects for the time and the film would have slipped into obscurity except for the fact that the writers and director of Airplane used it as the blue print for the 1980 hit comedy. They purchased the rights to the film so they could lift dialogue and shots directly from the film. Essentially Airplane is a remake of Zero Hour played for big laughs.
It is impossible to watch Zero Hour without laughing because the images and lines from Airplane keep coming to mind. The movie itself is well made and Dana Andrews is particularly effective. By this time in his career his alcoholism had given him an aged haggard look that went well with his character.
The movie is based on a play by Arthur Hailey and he also adapted it into his first published novel. he went on to write the bestselling books Hotel, Airport, The Moneychangers and Overload.
At the Movie House rating **1/2 stars.
After Zero Hour I watched The High And The Mighty. This film has been on my must see list for many years. Ever since I first heard the theme song by Dimitri Tomkin.
For a long time it was the holy grail of out of print movies. It was last broadcast in the early 80's at the dawn of the VCR era and then pulled from distribution due to legal issues. Rare VHS copies taped off of AMC or Cinemax were sold on eBay. The movie was tangled up with John Wayne's estate and his production company for years. Even if the legal issues were sorted out there were concerns the movie would never be shown. The negative had suffered from water damage, fading color and there was a full reel missing. But an intense search and restoration was undertaken and the movie was restored and finally released to the public in 2005.
When you watch a movie like The High And The Mighty you can choose to watch it by today's standards and judge the movie accordingly or you can try to place yourself in the era the film was made and watch it by the movie making standards of the day. Either way it will always be an over wrought melodrama. It is also the first Airplane disaster movie made in Hollywood
The film starred John Wayne as a veteran 37 year pilot. He is now serving as a co-pilot on a commercial airliner flying between Honolulu and San Francisco. Robert Stack is his pilot and the remainder of the cast and crew are filled out by Hollywood "A" list and "B" list actors of the day. When an engine fails the plane is in danger of crashing into the sea. There is no turning back so the plane must try to make the perilous five hour flight to San Francisco. As the plane flies into destiny we learn about the lives of each of the passengers through (sometimes lengthy) flashbacks. We learn of lost love, failed dreams and possible new hopes as each passenger and crew member faces death. When the Captain gives into his fear, it is up to Wayne, who has already faced death, to help him snap out of it and bring the plane safely home.
The film is quaint by today's standards and overlong by any standard. But the acting and production values are very good. The film is one of the first to be released in CinemaScope and director William Wellman makes excellent use of the large screen size to make the plane appear small against the vast sky and still make the interior shots confining and a little claustrophobic.
The film was a huge success when it was released in 1954 and received multiple Academy Award nominations and it won an Oscar for the music score. It gave John Wayne a rare ensemble character role even though he had top billing.
At The Movie House rating *** stars
1 comment:
One of my favorite movies is The Killing. Sterking Hayden was in it. I recently gace ot top my Mom and Dad to watch, they enjoyed it too...It's about a race track robbery gone baD. Perhaps you could review it. I believe it is a Kubrick film, so it would go along with Paths of Glory
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