Island in the Sky (1953)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

William Wellman's direction of an adaption of Ernie Gann's book of the same name starring John Wayne as "Dooley".Based on a true WWII incident which Gann was party to - the pilots of the Air Transport Command can't believe that "Dooley is down!" - somewhere in the frozen wastes to the North West of track, somewhere in the uncharted mountains. Dooley is their best pilot. If Dooley is down - what hope for the rest of them? Their commander agrees and writes Dooley off. Some of the men almost mutiny and insist on a search for one of their own.The film opens with perhaps one of the best depictions of a DC3 getting iced up till she is too heavy to fly and a desperate descent through cloud - hoping for the best - and miraculously breaking out at "lake minimums" (meaning just time to get the wheels down) before touching down on a frozen lake. While played for Hollywood effect - the wing boots busting off the ice and it clattering down the sides of the fuselage as the plane sinks into the clouds give the opening of the film a real sense of drama.The rest of the film slows right down and portrays just how hard a search and rescue attempt was back in the day - and even is now. The crew have lit a signal fire - but when on top of a hill realize themselves just how pitiful a signal it is.The hand cranked emergency radio uses hundreds of precious calories in order to send out a homing signal. The crews in the aircraft can barely hear it due to thunderstorms, static and competing AM radio stations on the same frequency.John Wayne as "Dooley" plays a remarkably understated "John Wayne" and is quite believable as a vulnerable pilot in command - sure of some of his decisions and instincts about staying put till help finds them while being remarkably unsure of himself. A very unconventional role for John Wayne.The crew on the ice are overflown and overlooked and start to die of the cold. What now for Dooley and his remaining men?

. . . and his child co-stars positioned in a YMCA swimming pool next to him for a scene from ISLAND IN THE SKY feared for their lives, according to Bill Wellman, Jr., son of ISLAND's director (and brother to these two kid actors), in a rogue (as in, not acknowledged on IMDb) DVD extra, DOOLEY'S DOWN: THE MAKING OF ISLAND IN THE SKY. In fact, wee Mikey Wellman was so fearful that Pops Wellman had to rewrite this swim pool scene on the fly. Before joining the air search for John Wayne, who's stranded near the North Pole, Devine's character was supposed to race "his" (that it, director Wellman's) two young sons across the short side of the small "Y" pool. Mikey was so hesitant to flop into the same puddle with a walrus-sized critter that his Daddy-the-Director wrote in a "head start" to get his youngster a little bit out of harm's way. This anecdote is just a small part of DOOLEY'S DOWN. (The Wayne Family's Batjac Company churns out many such efforts, and uses them as pieces of multi-part "Making Ofs" for who knows how many flicks, such as the short about screenwriter Ernie Gann, which is an independent chapter of the "Making Of" for BOTH 1953's ISLAND IN THE SKY, and 1954's THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY.)

I can't say that I'm as pessimistic as most when the temperatures drop. I'm a "seasonal" kind of guy, and I like to viddy my movies accordingly; it really enhances the experience. I have a great fondness for getting cozy with a chilly movie while the weather rages imperiously outside. I also have long had a sort of obsession with all stories survival-related, particularly if they're set in brutal and inhospitably cold environments. Shackleton and his Endurance, the ill-fated Donner party, Hugh Glass' epic journey to civilization, the Jack London canon...I've savored 'em all. So it was with great interest that I hunkered down with the little-seen John Wayne movie ISLAND IN THE SKY.Adapting his book (supposedly one of the finest tomes on aviation there is) for the screen, real-life flyer Ernest K. Gann collaborated with journeyman director (as well as ex-pilot) William A. Wellman and star John Wayne for two movies in the early 50s. This was their first, which was followed by the mega-hit THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY.Based on a true incident that occurred during WWII, an American cargo plane is forced to make a crash landing in the frozen wastelands in the Canadian province of Labrador. Wayne, in an uncharacteristic performance as a beleaguered veteran pilot, must figure out how to ration his meager food supply and keep the morale of his men high if there's any chance of survival. Their increasingly-desperate situation is paralleled with the efforts of his co-pilots, who almost immediately set out to conduct an exhaustive search-and-rescue mission.Many familiar stars and character actors back Wayne up in this dual aviation/survival story that has been praised for its authenticity. Both Gann and Wellman ensured that details would be presented meticulously, and it's easy to appreciate the lingo and camaraderie between the fraternity of sky warriors. Meanwhile, though Wayne and his men never stray from the site of their crash (a lake perimeter), the movie scores points for its location shooting in the California wilderness. It's not the most picturesque setting, but we see the men's breath and believe that it's cold outside. When they say that temperatures are sitting at -70°, it's hard to doubt them. Of the supporting cast, longtime Wayne cohort Andy Devine and Marshal Dillon himself, James Arness, are the standouts.THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY would be the critical darling that made an impressive showing at the Oscars, but most fans today generally agree that the no-frills, well-paced ISLAND IN THE SKY is the superior movie. It's one of my favorite Wayne films, and makes for a good watch this time of the year.

This is a typically adequate John Wayne mid-50s, mid-career action film which will probably last in the memory for just two reasons: a haunting death scene in the snowy wastelands of Canada, and the sight of Andy Devine in swimming trunks. Thankfully, Speedos weren't around in 1953, but it's still certainly a sight to see.John Wayne plays Captain Dooley, pilot of a transport plane who is forced to land in the vast snowy tundra. To make matters worse, the plane's battery is quickly fading, and bad weather is closing in… This kind of plot is such a bulk-standard commodity of 50s Hollywood that it's to the film's credit that it manages top hold the viewer's attention without ever becoming dull. Perhaps the film's biggest drawback is its use of studio sets that look unconvincing, especially when contrasted with the location shots. John Wayne broods and rages against the elements and hides his anxiety from the usual united-nations crew. A young James Arness plays one of the team of pilots searching for Wayne's downed plane and he looks like a kind of John Wayne-lite. Director Wellman, who would work on another Ernest K. Gann story, The High and the Mighty, with Wayne in 1954, manages to manufacture a reasonable level of suspense despite the failure to generate any life-in-peril sense of desperation amongst the stranded crew.