The High and the Mighty (1954)

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

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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?

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[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.

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Spencer Tracy was originally cast as Dan Roman. He backed out of the film, however, after hearing several negative comments about how strict a disciplinarian director William A. Wellman was.
Average Shot Length (ASL) = 11 seconds
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.
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