New hope for John Wayne's ''The High and Mighty?''

Cafe Society
1

This is the Holy Grail of John Wayne movies. The grand-daddy of airplane disaster movies, and probably the inspiration for the 1980 parody Airplane.

This movie is owned by the John Wayne Estate, who have steadfastly refused to let it out of their dusty vaults. Money is apparently not an issue, because (I think) Ted Turner made them a very handsome offer.

However, Michael Wayne, the eldest son, and “manager” of all of Waynes proprietary, um, property died recently. Maybe there’s a chance that his successor will let a new generation see this lost classic.

(Black market copies do show up on Ebay occasionally. I’ve seen the items for sale but have never purchased one. I’ve also heard the quality is. . . not.)

2

I sure hope so! Every year at Christmas I lament that I can’t give a copy of this movie to my father.

Why do they keep it from being released and is it ever shown on television?

3

The quality is not extremely good, but whaddya want? An imperfect copy, or none at all? (Erm… Or so I’ve been told… I mean, if I had seen a bootleg tape… :wink: :smiley: )

Let’s hope they release it on DVD. Great film!

4

“Airplane!” was based on an obscure movie called “Zero Hour”. The producers simply bought the old copyright to forestall any infringement complaints.

5

IIRC, they used a couple of lines directly from that movie too. For example, I think the line “We have to find someone who can fly a plane who didn’t have fish for dinner.” is directly from Zero Hour.

6

Aha! Zero Hour!

Good question. Nobody knows. I did read somewhere that the John Wayne Estate said that the film had been damaged. But elsewhere I read that they haven’t given reasons. They just say “No.”

This isn’t unusual, though. Lots of films are just “sat on” by the owners (Song of the South for example). Since its their legal property, that’s their right, and they’re not obligated to give a reason.

Another example is the classic The Conqueror, which Howard Hughes sat on for many years. It’s said that he watched it frequently, but denied movie fans the enjoyment of this thriller. It was not until a number of years after his death that it was made available to the general public, and we were able to see the incredible range of character actor John Wayne. Who can forget that immortal opening line, “Who’s this ridin’ on muh desert?”

7

I LOVED this movie when I was a kid! And I can remember John Wayne slapping some sense into Robert Stack when Stack was ready to ditch the plane.

Perhaps the movie was actually Robert Stack’s inspriation when he did Airplane!

8

Spring 2005

9

I haven’t been able to watch it all yet…Mrs. Plant becomes ill.
He sounds like he’s reading greeting cards:

Greetings, My Mother.
I decide who enters our house.
My Brother amuses himself.

Hmmm…maybe Haiku on acid.

10

I wanted to be a co-pilot when I grew up so I could slap my captain, too!

11

I always wanted to see the movie because it’s apparently based on a book by Ernest K. Gann, who was one of my favorite authors. But I’ll probably be horribly disappointed.

12

I get chills just remembering the theme music. Beautiful piece. Anyone remember a whistled version?

I’ve tried to find this for my mother’s boyfriend who is a retired pilot and a big John Wayne fan.

13

Disney has given a reason: racial sensitivities. But apparetly that’s not a universal concern for Disney: Song of the South was released on home video in Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany, Argentina, and The Netherlands.

Song of the South was in U.S. theatrical release as late as 1986.

14

“And gettin’ footy-prints all over it, too!”