The High and the Mighty (1954)

[Montblack]

John Wayne's "The High and the Mighty" (1954) was on AMC tonight. First time
on TV in over 20 years.

<http://www.amctv.com/show/detail?CID=1493-1-EST>
AMC Cable TV - "The High and the Mighty"

"Islands in the Sky" (1953) was a better movie - shown last night, again,
for the first time in 20+ years.

"The High and the Mighty" was both "Airport" (1970) and "Airplane!" (1980).
Plenty of material for both of those films. (Yes, I know about "Zero Hour"
(1954). BTW, Arthur Hailey has writing credits for all three movies - "Zero
Hour", "Airport" ...and he's got screen credit for "Airplane!")

Tonight's movie was entertaining in a fun, innocent, 1950's way - Heck, they
gave the crazy guy back his recently discharged handgun *before* the flight
ended (Well, it *was* his gun.) Later, John Wayne slaps Robert Stack, to
which Robert Stack replys, "Thanks, I needed that." - now That's
Entertainment.


Montblack

[kontiki]

I enjoyed it.... as usual though I kept noticing annoying little
inconsistancies and innacuracies. :^o

Well worth seeing though, especially to compare the differences
in airline travel atmosphere between then and now.

[Larry Dighera]

On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:44:33 -0500, "Montblack"
> wrote in
>::

>Tonight's movie was entertaining in a fun, innocent, 1950's way

I found the scenes inside the control tower and ATC facilities
revealing of the state of the art in the '50s: no radar screens. In
fact the only radar shown was the aircraft's radar altimeter, a trace
on CRT, and the Coast Guard escort's. Of course, nearly everybody,
crew and passengers alike, smoked throughout the flight.

>- Heck, they gave the crazy guy back his recently discharged handgun
>*before* the flight ended

Right. The fact that the passenger had brought a firearm aboard was a
non issue; the only objection occurred when he attempted to use it.

Perhaps it was John Wayne's* pilot portrayals in so many films that
got Santa Ana Airport named after the "ancient pelican."



* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000078/bio

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

kontiki wrote:
> Well worth seeing though, especially to compare the differences
> in airline travel atmosphere between then and now.


Well, I sat up until 0500 watching it this morning on AMC and enjoyed it as
well. Whoever previously said it was the inspiration for Airplane sure pegged
it.

As for the nature of airline travel in those days, I suspect it wasn't all that
far off. I can sure remember things like flight officers touring the cabin from
time to time and kids (and even not so young types) were regularly invited into
the cockpit.

My earliest memory of an ATC facility was on Lajes Field in the Azores around
1961 or 1962. There were definitely monochromatic CRT screens in the dark
little room under the tower.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

[Larry Dighera]

On Mon, 18 Jul 2005 10:30:39 -0400, Tom Fleischman
> wrote in
<2005071810303916807%bodhijunkoneeightyeightjunkatm acdotcom@junkjunk>::

>The hours of commercials ruined it though.


Commercials are a non issue with TIVO; just fast forward past 'em.

[Darrel Toepfer]

Larry Dighera wrote:

>>The hours of commercials ruined it though.
>
> Commercials are a non issue with TIVO; just fast forward past 'em.

Export the .mpg and we'll remove them...

[Montblack]

("Tom Fleischman")
> Great to see it. The hours of commercials ruined it though.

40. AMC ...."The High and the Mighty"
41. TCM .....Laurel and Hardy night
42. Travel ...America's Orient Express (train)

Commercials not a problem here :-)


Montblack

[Blueskies]

"Larry Dighera" > wrote in message ...
> On Sun, 17 Jul 2005 23:44:33 -0500, "Montblack"
> > wrote in
> >::
>
>>Tonight's movie was entertaining in a fun, innocent, 1950's way
>
> I found the scenes inside the control tower and ATC facilities
> revealing of the state of the art in the '50s: no radar screens. In
> fact the only radar shown was the aircraft's radar altimeter, a trace
> on CRT, and the Coast Guard escort's. Of course, nearly everybody,
> crew and passengers alike, smoked throughout the flight.
>

Sad part was the ILS - state of the art then and still primary approach aid today...

[Paul Hirose]

AMC will reshow "The High and the Mighty" 4 more times, on Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All these showings will be double
features with "Island in the Sky".

http://tvlistings2.zap2it.com/program.asp?partner_id=national&prog_id=2986679&dbKey=MV0025520000

http://tvlistings2.zap2it.com/program.asp?partner_id=national&prog_id=2985266&dbKey=MV1609300000

Both movies will be released on DVD in August. It sounds like
Paramount has done a good job on the discs:

http://www.andyfilm.com/7-19-05.html

--
Paul Hirose >
To reply by email remove INVALID

[Flyingmonk]

Enjoyed both.

Bryan "The Monk" Chaisone