Script , although Wellman later considered it "bulky and unwieldy" during filming After Wayne and
Robert Fellows had formed
Wayne-Fellows Productions in 1952, the duo worked on several films including
Big Jim McLain,
Plunder of the Sun, and
Island in the Sky. It was a widescreen projection process that involved using an
anamorphic lens to widen the image produced by regular
35 mm film. Wellman's experience was that the CinemaScope camera was "bulky and unwieldy", and the director preferred to station the camera in one place. Since
The High and Mighty was set on an airliner with cramped quarters, Wellman did not need to worry about flexibility in composing shots. He hired
William H. Clothier, with whom he had worked on many films, as cinematographer (assigned to the second unit sequences, only; Archie Stout, with whom Wayne had a long association, had already been assigned as primary cinematographer). Ernest K. Gann wrote the original novels on which both films were based, along with both screenplays, of which both films, including dialogue, were closely adapted.
The High and the Mighty depicts a dramatic situation in a civil transport aviation context.
Jack L. Warner initially was opposed to the film, believing that audiences would not stay interested in a plot stretching more than 100 minutes involving the passengers in an airliner. William Wellman had reservations about the "intimate" storylines, which dominate the production, preferring to focus more on the airliner and pilots. Yet, after script deliberations set out the final screenplay, he endorsed the novel approach that harkened back to earlier films such as
Grand Hotel.
The airliner The
Douglas DC-4 (N4665V) used to film the daylight flying sequences and the Honolulu "gate" sequence was a former
C-54A-10-DC built as a military transport in 1942 at
Long Beach, California, by
Douglas Aircraft Company. When the exterior and flying sequences were filmed in November 1953, the airliner was being operated by
Oakland, California-based non-scheduled carrier
Transocean Airlines(1946–1962), the largest
civil aviation operator of converted C-54s in the 1950s, and named
"The African Queen". Ernest K. Gann wrote the original story while he was flying DC-4s for Transocean over the Hawaii–California routes. The film's fictional airline's name "TOPAC" was painted over the Transocean's red, white, and yellow color scheme for filming. Transocean Airlines director of flight operations Bill Keating did the stunt flying for the film. Keating and Gann had flown together and the author recommended his friend for the job. During preproduction filming, Keating was involved in a near-incident when simulating the climactic night emergency landing. After several approaches, Wellman asked for "one more take" touching down even closer to the runway's threshold. Keating complied, taking out runway lights with his nose landing gear before "peeling off" and executing a
go-around. Wellman quipped that the crash would look good in another film. A second former C-54 equipped with a large double cargo door used to accommodate the loading of freight on
pallets, was employed for all shots of the damaged airliner on the ground at San Francisco in the film's closing sequences. A propellerless, fire-scorched engine on a distorted mount, with a 30° "droop", was installed on the left wing of this aircraft to represent the damage which had imperiled the flight. Exterior airport scenes were filmed at the
Glendale Grand Central Air Terminal, east of
Burbank, California, where an outdoor film set was constructed to replicate the terminal gates at SFO in the early 1950s. Additional exteriors shots were taken at
Oakland Municipal Airport, including all boarding, engine run-up, taxiing, and takeoff scenes used in the opening sequences. The external night and damaged in-flight sequences were filmed in a studio where a large-scale filming
miniature was photographed against backdrops. Passenger-cabin and flight-deck interior scenes were all filmed on sets built on a Warner Bros. sound stage.
Filming Filming took place from November 16, 1953, to January 11, 1954, on a
Goldwyn Pictures lot and Warners soundstages in Hollywood. Additional filming took place in San Francisco as well as at the
Royal Hawaiian Hotel and
Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. Despite the initial issues on set, the two otherwise had a positive relationship and worked together on later films, including
Track of the Cat and
Blood Alley. Wellman, an accomplished pilot in real life, purposely maintained the point-of-view of the flight path of the seemingly doomed airliner traveling as the support staff in San Francisco would observe it: flying from the west to the east, from Honolulu to San Francisco, film frame right to film frame left, except during takeoff and landing. Similarly, the U.S. Coast Guard rescue plane was shown flying from San Francisco to towards the stricken airliner, film frame left to film frame right. The film was initially budgeted at $1.32 million, but cost overruns led to a total cost of $1.47 million. For directing, Wellman received $100,000 as well as a portion of the film's profits. Wayne earned $175,000 in addition to a percentage of the film's box office receipts. Wellman ended up casting good but lesser-known actors in some of the roles.
Spencer Tracy was offered the role of Dan Roman but turned it down because, Wellman said, Tracy found the script "lousy"; assistant director
Andrew McLaglen claimed that Tracy's friends told the actor he was "in for an ego-bruising ride." It was thought that Tracy, a liberal Democrat, would receive the 'ego bruising' from Wellman a registered Republican. This led Tracy to excuse himself from the film. Without Tracy, Jack Warner threatened to remove the Warner Bros. funding unless another prominent lead actor could be found. Wellman convinced producer and actor John Wayne to replace Tracy in the role. Wayne later said during and after production that he did not like his performance. McLaglen recalled: "He said, 'Well, it never had any love story.' I said 'It had the greatest love story that had ever been written.'" McLaglen and Wayne argued about Wayne's performance, but Wayne never conceded about his performance. dropped out. For the other major male lead, Wayne had promised the role to his friend
Bob Cummings, who was a pilot and had Wellman's recommendation as well. Stanwyck's refusal was especially galling, as the director had always treated her as a "pet". Tiomkin's music topped
hit parade charts and remained there for weeks, increasing the film's profile. A 1955 national survey of
disc jockeys labeled the song as the "most whistleable tune". Therefore, the song's "haunting strains" were played on the radio and on recordings in the years after the film's release. It was nominated for the
Best Song at the
27th Academy Awards in 1955, but lost to "
Three Coins in the Fountain" from the film of
the same name. ==Impact==