The Crowded Sky (1960)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"The Crowded Sky" joins "Zero Hour," "The High and the Mighty," and others as pre-"Airport" films. Like weddings and road trips, commercial flights make for stories that involve different subplots and characters, so this type of film is done fairly often."The Crowded Sky" has high production values and a decent cast - Dana Andrews, Efren Zimbalist Jr., Rhonda Fleming, Troy Donahue, John Kerr, and Anne Francis. It's an episodic tale about two planes, one a navy jet with a broken radio system, and the other a passenger plane with an arrogant pilot. The two planes are in danger of colliding.The backstory of the characters is told in flashback: Zimbalist, who had a previous air disaster and now is in the midst of a bad marriage; Kerr, an aspiring artist who doesn't want to get married but has an attraction to flight attendant Francis; and some smaller stories that include Keenan Wynn, Jean Willes, Patsy Kelly, Donald May, all passengers.Formulaic and not terribly interesting. Ken Currie as Dick Barnett Jr. is a horror; Patsy Kelly as usual talks like she's projecting from the stage of the Majestic Theater; Troy Donahue is....Troy Donahue. Rhonda Fleming was made for color. But the leads are likable and professional as always.Very soapy with some over the top dialogue. the director, Joe Pevney, was a very experienced TV director.

Crowded Sky, The (1960) ** (out of 4)Extremely boring disaster film takes the worst of the genre and just hammers it into the crowd. Dana Andrew plays the Captain of a commercial flight and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. is the Captain of a Navy jet who find themselves on a collision course but they don't know when they're going to hit due to various issues. Before the crash we get to learn about their issues with a cheating wife and a disappointed son as well as the personal issues of various others on the plane. This so-called disaster movie has very little in terms of that type of drama as the screenplay is clearly more interested in talking about the personal lives of the passengers and Captains instead of what might be going on with the planes. One could argue that it would be the viewers problem if they didn't like the fact that the movie was more soap opera than action, which I'd agree with if the screenplay had actually good or any of the stories interesting. One could really argue that AIRPORT '75 was a remake of this as the type of disaster is the same, although that movie at least centered a lot on the actual disaster. This film here instead just wants to do the personal stuff as Andrews has a hard time connecting to his son, Zimbalist, Jr. has a wife who is cheating on him and then we have John Kerr as an ex-friend of Andrews who is having some female trouble of his own. All three stories are so poorly written and executed that you can't help but be bored by them and even worse is that over 90-minutes of the 105 running time is spent on them. Even worse is that ever-so-often we go to visit other people on the plane where we get an incredibly bad zoom shot to the actors face where we then get a voice-over telling us their thoughts. Why any of these extra characters were even included is beyond me but if you are going to bring them into the story why on Earth are you going to do it in such a campy was as zoom shots and voice-overs? As far as the performances go, they aren't too bad as Andrews brings his usual toughness to the role and he also manages to handle the stuff with his son quite well. Zimbalist and Kerr aren't too bad either and we have a supporting cast that includes Rhonda Fleming, Keenan Wynn, Troy Donahue, Joe Mantell and Anne Francis among others. When the disaster finally strikes in the final minutes the movie really picks up and manages to have some nice tension. The special effects are also better than you might expect but in the end there's no question that this was a wasted opportunity because the screenplay handles the other drama so poorly. As a weird bit of trivia, in this film Andrews and Zimbalist planes collide and they're the same ones who would cause the disaster in AIRPORT 1975.

Warner Brothers had an opportunity to exhibit some of its popular television stars of the period and took it with The Crowded Sky. Though the plot is very similar to the more well known The High And The Mighty, The Crowded Sky definitely has enough merit to stand on its own as good and exciting entertainment.Like The High And The Mighty the crew and passengers of a commercial airline which consists of pilot Dana Andrews, co-pilot John Kerr, navigator Joe Mantell, and stewardess Anne Francis are on westbound flight on one of those old propeller jobs all have their little vignettes and we see their stories.But the danger here isn't from mechanical failure resulting in a dangerously low fuel capacity as in The High And The Mighty. Coming eastbound and heading for them is a navy jet with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and a sailor Troy Donahue who is just hitching a ride with Zimbalist. These guys were starring in popular Warner Brothers television series at the time, Zimbalist with 77 Sunset Strip and Donahue leading the cast of Surfside 6. They too have their stories.Zimbalist's is the most interesting, he's got a neglected wife in Rhonda Fleming who's been seeking love outside the marriage. Donahue is heading to marry a girl he's gotten pregnant. Zimbalist has been down this road before.As for Andrews he's a stickler for protocol and he and Kerr don't get along because a bad report denied Kerr the captaincy he was seeking. Among the passengers I liked Patsy Kelly very much as the agent of a rather vain player in Donald May who also starred in Warner Brothers Colt 45 television series.The climax with the two planes colliding in midair and the aftermath is gripping, you will not want to blink for missing something. The special effects are good for their time and Warner Brothers did accomplish its purpose of getting its television stars on the big screen for exposure.

The disaster does not occur until the last half-hour of this frenzied time capsule. With a motley group of passengers on an aircraft, including a stunning stewardess (Anne Francis) in love with the co-pilot (John Kerr), each time a passenger has thoughts, the camera zooms in for a closeup, with the actor's thoughts voiced in the background. It's a kick! My favorite character is Jean Willes, a beauty in the Ava Gardner mold, portraying a thrice-married woman who sits next to an old boyfriend (Keenan Wynn), who does not recognize her. She still is stewing even after the air disaster. When the aircraft is hit by a smaller plane, Francis advises passengers to get ready for a crash position, and to take false teeth out, even jokingly saying she won't tell anyone. All this when they don't even know that they will live or die! Trivia note: Dana Andrews pilots the big aircraft, while Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. commands the small plane; in 1974 their roles were reversed for the similar "Airport 1975."