The High and the Mighty (1954)

[first lines]
Ben Sneed: Hey fella, ain't you Dan Roman?
Dan Roman: Yeah.
Ben Sneed: I heard you whistlin' and I said to myself only one guy does that just so.

---

Ken Childs: Keep talking, please keep talking; I'm frightened...
May Holst: Talking? Honey, you dont know what you're asking. Tell you a good joke on me: You know, I always dreaded the idea of becoming an old woman. And the way things look now, I won't have to worry about it any more. You know, I haven't been whistled at in years, and the idea of growing roses for the rest of my life is really beginning to haunt me. There oughta be a home for dames like me. Yup - we shoulda organized. You know, a house somewhere with no mirror in it, far away where we never have to look at a young girl. They have homes for unmarried mothers but everybody forgets about the girls who - who never quite managed to make things legal. I think I could start one! Yeah - I could call it the May Holst Home for Broken-Down Broads. I kind of like that, don't you?

---

[last lines]
Tim Garfield: So Long. So long, you ancient pelican.

---

read more quotes from The High and the Mighty...

Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino, Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, and Dorothy McGuire all turned down roles in this film.
John Wayne's role was first offered to Spencer Tracy. However, Tracy, a Democrat who opposed blacklisting, wanted nothing to do with Wayne's Batjac production company and turned the part down.
The lyrics to the famed title song are only heard at the very end, are sung by a large choral group, and are different than the familiar lyrics heard in the popular-song record releases of the time.
read more facts about The High and the Mighty...