Always a big John Wayne fan. Watched it on TV when I was little and I was confused by the last line. As Wayne walks away from the plane he had just saved, one of the characters says "So Long. So long, you ancient pelican." My dad explained to me it was the man's way of showing respect to Wayne's tough uncompromising character.
I'll remember Jan Sterling's performance always. She literally "let her hair down" for the entire world to see. A great actress. Those were the days, weren't they? The way we were.
Saw this movie in 1954 with my Mom and Dad when I was twelve and have always remembered the end with John Wayne walking toward a plane whistling this song.
I mentioned on the other site I became a pilot in 1968 because of this movie. Sang it for my exam in Acapella in 1967. Even now we break out of the clouds at night on the ILS and when I see the lights of the runway I tilt my cap back and whistle this theme song. The young First Officers don't have a clue, sad. Also "Island in the Sky" was a good one.
"The High and the Mighty" was the first movie I ever saw. I was 5, and my AF family was stationed in the Azores. The opening credits were playing as we walked down the darkened aisle of the theater, and this theme, which is the first tune I ever heard that was played on decent speakers instead of on a small record player, sent chills down my spine. It can still have that effect.
All of these great film score composers had two things in common. They were classically trained composers, mostly in European conservatories, and were influenced by the music of the Immortal Sergei Vasilievitch Rachmaninoff. This
mighty composition is a sui generis example.
