The Crowded Sky (1960)

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

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.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I don't care WHAT year this was filmed...it is BAD. The flashbacks within flashbacks are worthy of a Carol Burnett Show. The acting is over-the-top. Seriously, folks, I can't imagine that the audiences of 1960 were able to keep a straight face. There have been MANY excellent "plane-in-dilemma" dramas since the 30s - "Five Came Back" (and its same-director remake), to name a few - so this incredibly LAME "drama" has no excuses for the ludicrous excesses.I could not stop laughing.I'm sure that "Airport 1975" INTENTIONALLY cast the two pilots,as they did, as that film is basically some sort of remake.Stick with "The High and the Mighty" during this time period (well, six years earlier) - it blows this film out of the water.

Pretty nice movie, interesting for the plot and effects of the time. (And the appearance of a prop airliner, this movie coming right at the transition from the age of propeller planes into the jet age.) People have commented on connections between this movie and "Airport 1975" in that Dana Andrews and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. appear in both, with their roles reversed in each. (Andrews is the pilot of the airliner in this one, Zimbalist is the airline pilot in "Airport 1975.") There is another similarity between the movies, as well, which I won't spoil. I was sort of surprised to see that this one isn't out on DVD. So many movies are coming out in that format, and there have to be people who would want to own this one. When I was a kid (1980s, maybe the late 1970s) this was on the local TV stations as an afternoon movie several times. So there are plenty of people besides those who caught the original release who might want to own this one.Also there is something that interests the modern airline passenger in all these airline movies from 20+ years ago.... those larger seats, how polite people were on a plane, and how people used to actually dress up to fly. Ah, as Ray Walston said in "Damn Yankees," those were the good old days!

One of the first modern day airline disaster movies, this 1961 film contains all the elements of suspense, humor and drama that one would expect of its genre. With the only drawback of a weak supporting cast, the story line is a solid one.In this film, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. plays a navy pilot on a collision course with a commercial jet piloted by Dana Andrews. Years later, in one of the later Airport series, the roles are reversed and Andrews plays the pilot of a small plane on a collision course with a commercial aircraft piloted by Efrem Zimbalist.Troy Donahue does a creditable job as a young sailor hitching a ride with Zimbalist to get home. An interesting device in this film is the close-up thought technique, particularly when used with the character played by Keenan Wynn.If you consider this film only among the other members of its generation, it comes out well.

This movie had a lot of things that I enjoy: vintage commercial airplanes, old military airplanes, radios, radar, art, drama, romance, special effects, etc. In some respects, it must have served as a template for future airliner disaster movies. I don't know why, but I really enjoyed the heavy handed use of flashbacks and scenes where there's a close-up of a character, the surrounding lights dim, and we hear the character's private thoughts. Crowded Sky might not be your cup of tea, but it certainly was mine.