This week on “Picture Perfect,” rise above your earthly concerns and keep looking up, with an hour of music about flight and aviation.
We’ll begin with selections from “The High and the Mighty” (1954). John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, and Robert Stack star in this high-altitude drama about a harrowing flight from Honolulu to San Francisco. Dimitri Tiomkin supplied the Academy Award-winning music for William Wellman’s thriller, a forerunner to the airborne disaster craze of the 1970s.
James Stewart may have been a little long-in-the-tooth for “The Spirit of St. Louis” (1957). Stewart was 22 years older than his subject, Charles Lindbergh, at the time of his historic flight across the Atlantic. But Billy Wilder’s film was a passion project for the actor, who, as a USAAF pilot during World War II, attained the rank of Brigadier General. Franz Waxman composed the ageless score.
“Airport” (1970), after the best-selling novel of Arthur Hailey, kicked-off the most enduring of all-star disaster franchises. Burt Lancaster heads the cast, and Helen Hayes won her second Oscar as a spirited stowaway. It also marked the first appearance in the series by George Kennedy, who rose through the ranks during all the subsequent “Airport” films. The score was the last by Alfred Newman, rounding off an illustrious career. Newman supplied original music for over 200 films – on TOP of his duties as music director at 20th Century Fox, a position he held for 20 years. In all, Newman earned seven Academy Awards.
Finally, we’ll turn to “The Blue Max” (1966). George Peppard, James Mason, and Ursula Andress star in this movie about a German pilot’s quest for glory, as he strives for the titular reward – a decoration for valor – during the First World War. In order to attain it, he must shoot down 20 aircraft. Obviously, in a film heavy with dogfighting, there is much aerial photography and stunt piloting. The score, a comparatively early one for Jerry Goldsmith, has always been a fan favorite.
Get a bird’s-eye view of flight and aviation, this week, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies. Classic film music is the wind beneath our wings, this Saturday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
