For John Wayne Fans and those that collect DVD's of his movies tomorrow is a big day. On Tuesday August 2,2005 the DVD of The High and the Mighty will be release for the first time. The Movie has never been released on VHS tape or DVD and has not been shown on TV since the 1980's.The film was owned by the Wayne Estate. After Wayne died his son Michael found the best copy of the 1954 film in water in the film vault. After Michael died last year his widow decided to have the film restored and it will be released tomorrow. For Wayne fan's it's one of the films most requested for release on DVD. (Fort Apache is another one of the few Wayne films still not released on DVD in the United States.) I haven't seen the film since I saw it with may parents at a drive in theater in the 1950's. In 1954 I was 8 years old. Some of my favorite memories of growing up were going to the drive in with my folks.(they didn't like going to indoor movies) To a kid growing up in the 1950's a drive in theater was a place to escape from the Back and White world of TV. According to critics who have reviewed the DVD the picture looks good but the story and characters look dated. Hay, it was the 1950's . In any case, I will be at Circuit City tomorrow to get my copy. The film is the story of a commercial airliner on a flight from Hawaii to San Francisco. Each of the passenger has their own story. Wayne is the co pilot. It was an early "disaster movie."The music by Dimitri Tiomkin is very haunting. They are also releasing tomorrow another Wayne film Island in the Sky.
TUESDAY UPDATE: Because of work I couldn't get to Circuit City till noon. They only had two of The High and the Mighty DVD's left and had sold out of Island in the Sky. The clerk said they were selling like hot cakes. Fred's North was out and I got the last Island in the Sky at Fred's South. Fred's North was also out of The High and the Mighty.
