Read a rumor about John Waynes "High and the Mighty" release date anyone?
 

1954 there was a airplane movie with beautiful music and color film. Starred John Wayne (as Whistling Dan) and Robert Stack. The movie was in trouble from the Wayne estate and was never released to video. Can anyone tell me a solid release date, I'd like to buy the DVD, I have a recorded off TV vhs, but it's sure not as good as DVD.

How many here have seen this movie, own this movie, and for the younger members, have ever *heard* of the title.:)

This was just discussed in another forum. It seems the owners of Wayne's estate own the film and are asking too much to restore it. So, it is unlikely it will be released any time soon.

yeah, but the good news is that the next couple of months have ALOT of the duke's movies coming out.

april 29
big jake
rio lobo

june 3
the comancheros
north to alaska
the big trail
the undefeated
cahill
chisum

That's a shame by the time it get's released all that saw in theatres will be dead. 1954 to 2004 is 50 years if they were 18 they would be at least 68 by now.
I was only 7 when they released it I don't remember seeing that movie, but I remember paying 25¢ to see THEM and 20,000 Leagues in 1954 Capital movie theater.

I don't know how much it is to get in last movie at theatre I went to is 1985.
John Wayne will always be whistling Dan until my vhs tape wears out. :)

never heard of this one..is it good?

It is the original disaster airplane love story. Yes, it is a very good movie and is one of the titles I have on my 10 most wanted list.

I am humming the tile melody now---da da da da dah dah

sorry It is late and I am tired, but it is a great movie..

Kevin 75
 

I do own a couple of the Dukes movies on DVD, they are "The Green Berets" with jim Hutton, "Horse Soldiers" with William Holden, and "The Hellfighters" with Jim Hutton and the lovely Katharine Ross before she played Laurel in "The Final Countdown".

Nice to hear some dukes good movies, coming out. I have the 8 song + ending title to 1939 *Stagecoach* soundtrack as my earliest for John Wayne. "The High and the Mighty" Dimitri Tiomkin who also wrote his "The Alamo" in 1960. I have the songs along with other Wayne movies from Silva screen records recorded by The City of Prague Orchestra with Paul Bateman conducting. Stagecoach 1939 had 5 song writers, Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leopold, Leo Shuken, Louis Gruenburg music arranged by Mike Townend.

The City Of Prague Orchestra uses period instruments along with Dolby Surround 4.0 to sound exactly like the original except that the instruments can be indentified like in TDTESStill by Bernard Herrman. If 1951 theater goers could have heard what I have since 1994, the movies music would have made it much more dramatic than the monaural they heard in 1951; and what we hear on DVD disc as 'monaural' 52 years later IMHO. :)

He's a racist. Let's boycott him!

It's a joke you dimwit.

I just love the idea of a person who posted a "joke" that didn't make anyone laugh calling someone else a "dimwit" -

But back to <i>The High and the Mighty</i> .... I remember all through the 80's there were constant rumors about this movie and it's chances of showing up on VHS - of course, it never did, and now a new generation can sit and wait.

marty888
 

I don't know how this guy got it, it's still for sale on dubbed vhs. I have had a copy of the color film 2H4M since 1997.
If the Wayne Estate can't get enough *money* out of their father, it's a real shame Marty. I like to watch it every so often with my HDTV line doubled I see a 480i instead of 240 lines on a analog set


Here's to John Wayne the 'mightiest' of them all, an actor who gave so much. So many characters like Thorn in the John Ford directed "The Quiet Man" 1952. The lovely Maureen `O Hara~Blair was the apple of trooper Thorns eye, in the town of Inishfree (Cong) in Ireland. :)

Okay, I'll be the morbid one here. Michael Wayne, the Duke's son who controlled his estate, died a few weeks ago. (According to some industry friends, he was personally responsible for holding up the TV and video right to such films as Hondo & McLintock in the 1980s-1990s.) Maybe with his passing, the "next generation" of Waynes will go for the quick money and release these films on DVD. (I'm especially hoping the family-controlled original theatrical version of McLintock will be transferred to widescreen DVD, to replace the atrocious Goodtimes P&S version.)

I wonder which of the 7 deadly sins David Wayne died of. I hope the Wayne Family sees the light that a lot of their fathers fans have died. If they don't get the movie out soon hardly no one will remember the film, and it would near worthless like this post. There are but a handful that have responded, unlike a Harry Potter post that would be 10 or above times this posts total.

TheRev -

Other than it being widescreen, is there anything else in the theatrical version of McLincock! that is notable by it's absence from the current abomination out there from Goodtimes?

The major change is the music soundtrack. Michael forgot to renew the film's copyright, so the film went PD; however, he did manage to renew the soundtrack a few months later to keep control of the original version. (If you're unfortunate enough to see the Goodtimes version, aside for one of the worst P&S jobs out there, the print used was pieced together from various sources, so the grain and contrast changes abruptly in the middle of some scenes. As I've never been able to sit through the entire Goodtimes DVD...both my mother and sister own copies... I cannot tell you if it's edited, aside from the music score.) The Wayne estate did license a VHS tape of the original version in the early-1990s (it came out a few months after the PD VHS) and TNT has a broadcast deal for it (They show it pretty often, but never in WS.)

Unfortunately, I have seen it, but it reinforced my initial decision to wait for an OAR version to be released.

I just didn't realize there was such a big issue with the audio portion. The poor quality of the video portion was glaringly obvious.

Just giving danol's thread another bump, to see if anyone knows about this film being released anytime soon, or other John Wayne's films for that matter.

It seems there was a bunch of his movies released in the Spring, but no announcements for any others since then. Thanks for any insight here....

I don't have any information regarding a DVD release, but I was lucky enough to get a chance to watch The High and the Mighty recently. Though I am a big John Wayne fan, I must be candid and say that I didn't care too much for it. Perhaps my expectations were too high based on all the great reviews I've read. Though it might have been one of the first airplane disaster films, I don't think it holds up very well when compared to similar films which have come out since then. Another drawback for me was that Wayne had a relatively small part in the film with not a great deal of dialogue. I did like the stewardess character however. Also I envy the kid from the film for being such a sound sleeper.

A darned shame though that so many Wayne fans don't have the opportunity to judge for themselves. On a somewhat related note, in addition to The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky, the Wayne estate also seems to have a hold on the Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher Western - Seven Men from Now (also starring Lee Marvin). It was produced by Wayne's Batjac Productions. I've got the other six Scott/Boetticher Westerns in my film collection and would be very interested in adding Seven Men from Now. From what I've read on IMDb and other sites, it seems that Seven Men from Now was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive a few years ago. So it seems all set for a DVD release..........I hope.

Are there any other films besides the 3 discussed which are under the control (not released) of the Wayne estate?

Thanks for your views of the film...I only saw it once, but tended to feel the same as you. Didn't seem to hold up as well as say, Airport. The beginning, with the voice-over explanation of who everyone was, I felt, was corny. But I'd still love to get the widescreen DVD, with lots of extras.



McClintock is owned by the Wayne estate, and they hold the rights to the restored presentation of the film. Alas, it's only on VHS in a full-screen format.

Falc....DDD just released the John Wayne vehicle "His Private Secretary" from 1933. The print is pretty shoddy, but it's viewable....and the price is only $5.99

Thanks Ken...I ordered it. Not expecting much quality-wise, but I don't believe I've ever seen the movie....so it'll be worth 6 bucks for that alone.

Anybody know of any other "Duke" films scheduled for DVD release?

A link to a thread about the release of "The High and the Mighty" and "Island in the Sky".