Island in the Sky (1953 film)
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- This article is about the 1953 John Wayne film. For other uses, see Island in the Sky.
| Island in the Sky | |
|---|---|
 Film poster for Island in the Sky |
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| Directed by | William A. Wellman |
| Produced by | Robert Fellows John Wayne |
| Written by | Ernest K. Gann |
| Starring | John Wayne Lloyd Nolan James Arness Andy Devine Harry Carey Jr. |
| Music by | Emil Newman |
| Cinematography | Archie Stout |
| Editing by | Ralph Dawson |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | 3 September 1953 (premiere) |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Island in The Sky (1953) is an aviation adventure/drama film written by Ernest K. Gann based on his novel of the same name, directed by William A. Wellman, and starring and co-produced by John Wayne. It was released by Warner Bros. Due to its realism depicting the events surrounding an actual aircraft crash, it is considered one of the "classic" aviation films. [1]
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[edit] Plot
The film follows a pilot and crew of a World War II-era Douglas C-47 Skytrain (the military version of the DC-3) who try to survive after a forced emergency landing in the uncharted wildlands near the Quebec-Labrador border. The pilot, Dooley, is a former airline pilot, who, like many others, was pressed into duty hauling war supplies across the northern route to England. Icy conditions forces the aircraft to land, and with the difficulties of navigating far from settled country, they can provide only an approximate position to rescuers.
After finding a frozen lake for a landing field, while waiting for rescue, Dooley must keep his men alive in the extreme winter cold with tempretuures plummeting to -40 degrees F. Back at Air Transport Headquarters, Col. Fuller (Able) gathers fellow airmen (Lloyd Nolan, James Arness, Andy Devine and Paul Fix) who are determined to find the downed crew before hunger and the winter do them in. Wellman provides internal narrative for the stoic characters. There is tension and a fear-filled meeting among the search pilots when no one is quite sure about what to do, since a wrong decision could doom the missing crew.
[edit] Cast
As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):[2]
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| John Wayne | Captain Dooley |
| Lloyd Nolan | Captain Stutz |
| James Arness | Mac McMullan, pilot |
| Andy Devine | Willie Moon, pilot |
| Harry Carey Jr. | Ralph Hunt, Moon's co-pilot |
| Walter Able | Colonel Fuller |
| Paul Fix | Wally Miller |
| Louis Jean Heydt | Fitch, pilot |
| Fess Parker | Fitch's co-pilot (uncredited) |
| Carl Switzer | Stutz's co-pilot |
| Darryl Hickman | Swanson, McMullen's radioman |
| Mike Connors (as Touch Connors) | Gainer |
| William Wellman | voiceover narration (uncredited)[3] |
A full cast and production crew list is too lengthy to include, see: IMDb profile.[2]
[edit] Production
The script was based on a true story about a flight on 3 February 1943, although, unlike the story of the film, the co-pilot did not die. In his autobiography Fate Is the Hunter – on which the movie of the same name is very loosely based – Gann related the true story and his role as one of the search pilots while serving with Air Transport Command at Presque Isle, Maine.
The rights to the story were originally bought in January 1950 by Robert Stillman Productions, and Gann planned to write the screenplay with Seton I. Miller. Frank Rosenberg was scheduled to produce the film, which would star Richard Widmark. When Stillman dropped the film, the rights were picked up in December 1952 by Wayne-Fellows Productions, the partnership of John Wayne and Robert Fellows, as their third of seven eventual productions – including The High and the Mighty a year later, which Wayne also co-starred in. The two movies shared many of the same production staff and crew members, including director William Wellman.
Wellman had been a pilot with the Lafayette Flying Corps during World War I, where he earned the nickname "Wild Bill", and with the United States Army Air Service after the war. He was a veteran aviation movie director whose Wings won the first-ever Academy Award (1927–28). Wellman did the voiceover narration that begins the film, and his two sons, Tim and Mike, who were eleven and five at the time, played the parts of Andy Devine's sons. It is notable that the women in the film, Ann Doran, Dawn Bender and Phyllis Winger, appear only in brief flashbacks or, in Doran's case, in a telephone conversation. The lack of a romantic interest was noted by critics who considered the film a more authentic and gritty drama compared to the usual Hollywood war movie.[1] Wellman, who generally was not well-liked by actors and actresses (a feeling that he reciprocated), was known to prefer to work with men, and many of his films are set in all-male (or nearly all-male) worlds.[4]
The role played by John Wayne in Island in the Sky goes against type, since he does not display the machismo for which he was often criticized. Instead, his portrayal of the downed aircraft's captain had been noted as believable and realistic. A strong ensemble cast of mainly studio B-actors actually contained a number of future stars, including Fess Parker, Darryl Hickman and Mike Conners who all went on to television fame. The film involves many realistic details, such as an ice pick kept handily embedded in a barracks wall so pilots can break the ice sheet on their morning wash water. The black-and-white cinematography by Archie Stout (dramatic scenes) and William H. Clothier (flying scenes) have been praised by critics.
Production began in late January 1953 and was completed on 2 March. Filming took place partly at Donner Lake, near Truckee, California in the Sierra Mountain range. [5] The California Forestry Service cut down trees in that area to make aircraft runways in the four foot deep snow. Some background shooting also took place in San Francisco. Besides writing the screenplay, Gann, who was a commercial pilot for Transocean Airlines, served as the film's technical director and also piloted a C-47 for the second unit.[3][6]
[edit] Production notes
The hand-cranked emergency radio transmitter used by crew members to try to contact the rescuers they assume are looking for them was an actual piece of equipment, a BC-778/SCR-578/AN-CRT3 emergency transmitter affectionately called "Gibson Girl" after the 1890s drawings of Charles Gibson. The narrow-waisted shape of the device allowed the user to hold it between the legs while cranking it – a necessity because it required 80 rpm to produce enough power to be usable, and was hard to crank.[7]
[edit] Similarities with The High and the Mighty
Island in the Sky and The High and the Mighty are unique as they are two of the first all-star disaster films, which paved the way for Airport and its sequels 20 plus years later, as well as the Airplane spoofs. Both films are also two of the early John Wayne co-productions that starred Wayne. This production practice would not become widespread until the 1980s and 1990s, when stars from Robert Redford to Sandra Bullock took control of productions. Both films were aviation dramas and shared many of the same crew members and production staff.
Along with Wayne, six actors appeared in both films: Regis Toomey, Paul Fix, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Ann Doran, George Chandler and Michael Wellman (the director's son). Ernest K. Gann, the author of the books on which both films were based, also wrote the two screenplays.
[edit] Release and re-release
Island in the Sky premiered in Los Angeles on 3 September 1953, and went into general release two days later. The premiere apparently featured the use of stereophonic sound, as an intermission had to be inserted because of problems with it.[3]
Both Island in The Sky and The High and the Mighty were out of circulation for about 20 years because of legal issues. They were restored, returned to television in July 2005 and released as special edition DVDs that August.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Hardwick and Schnepf 1989, p. 66.
- ^ a b IMDB "Island in the Sky" (1953) full credits
- ^ a b c TCM "Island in the Sky" notes
- ^ IMDB William Wellman bio
- ^ Ricci and Zmijewsky 1970, p. 190.
- ^ Transocean Airlines
- ^ IMDB "Island in the Sky" (1953) trivia
[edit] Bibliography
- Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
- Ricci, Mark and Zmijewsky, Boris and Steve. The Films of John Wayne. New York: Citadel Press, 1970. ISBN 0-80665-0222-3.
- Shane, Bob. "The Makings of 'The High and the Mighty': A Former Airline Pilot Remembers the Filming of an Aviation Classic." Airpower, Volume 36, no. 1, January 2006.
- Sike, James R. "Fists, Dames & Wings." Air Progress Aviation Review, Volume 4, No. 4, October 1980.
[edit] External links
- DVD version
- Island in the Sky at the Internet Movie Database
- Island in the Sky at the TCM Movie Database
- Island in the Sky at Rotten Tomatoes
- Island in the Sky at AllMovieGuide
- Island in the Sky movie posters at MoviePosterDB.com
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