John Wayne on DVD: THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY, HONDO, McLINTOCK!, ISLAND IN THE SKY

William A. Wellman's aviation drama The High and the Mighty

Paramount Home Entertainment and Paramount’s Worldwide Television Distribution, in association with John Wayne’s old Batjac Productions, will be distributing several Wayne titles on DVD beginning in spring 2005. The upcoming releases include:

• Island in the Sky (1953), a rarely seen adventure film about a plane crash in sub-Arctic Canada;
• Hondo (1953), a Western based on a story by Louis L'Amour, who was erroneously nominated for an Academy Award in — and was later withdrawn from — the Motion Picture Story category; additionally, Hondo earned Geraldine Page her first Academy Award nomination (as Best Supporting Actress);
• the comic Western McLintock! (1963), partly inspired by Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, and co-starring Maureen O'Hara and Stefanie Powers;
• and a fully restored print of the rarely seen The High and the Mighty (1954), a highly popular panic-in-the-air melodrama that received six Academy Award nominations, including nods for director William A. Wellman, and supporting actresses Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling; the film ended up winning one Oscar, for Dmitri Tiomkin’s score.

Additionally, Paramount will release five other Batjac productions in which John Wayne does not appear:

• William A. Wellman’s psychological thriller Track of the Cat (1954), with Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright, Diana Lynn, and Tab Hunter;
• Plunder of the Sun (1953), an adventure tale set in Mexico, with Glenn Ford, Patricia Medina, and Diana Lynn;
• Ring of Fear (1953), a circus-set mystery yarn involving former Warner Bros. star Pat O'Brien and writer Mickey Spillane, playing himself;
• Man in the Vault (1956), a thriller featuring William Campbell and Anita Ekberg;
• and Bud Boetticher’s Western Seven Men from Now (1956), starring Randolph Scott as a former sheriff in pursuit of the seven men who killed his wife.

The DVDs are supposed to include several extras, including never-before-seen film "memorabilia" from Batjac’s library.