Diagonaldi Very well executed

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

edwagreen Absolutely a miserable film in the airplane disaster genre. It's so bad, not because of the cast, but rather the most unbelievably ridiculous writing. Everyone has his own story here, and the plot becomes more ridiculous as the picture goes on.An older looking Dana Andrews found fault with his young son from the time of the latter's birth. You never saw a wife die so quickly in this totally waste of effort film. Jealous of John Kerr, who gave loving attention at the funeral of Andrews' wife, Andrews makes sure that Kerr never becomes a captain.In the other plane, Efraim Zimbalist plays a pilot with a loving young daughter. The latter worships the ground he walks on. He is married to a possessive, manipulative woman. (Rhonda Fleming.) Their marriage has gone nowhere. His passenger is Troy Donahue. We never knew why Donahue had to get home to Washington so quickly. By the end of the film, we couldn't care less.Kerr has a problem. Should he continue as a pilot or become an artist, as his asylum-resident father has been. The latter in a catatonic state has resumed painting. What? The guy doesn't even know what planet he is on.What were the writers thinking when they wrote this garbage? None of the plots or subplots are carefully examined.No wonder that John Kerr eventually quit acting. With a picture like this, forget it.

bkoganbing 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.

Robert J. Maxwell This was written by Charles Schnee from a novel by Hank Searls. They couldn't have had a particularly difficult time concocting this Snow Job. You and I could have written it just as well. All we'd have to have done is watch "The High and the Mighty" a couple of times and make notes. Then dumb-down the dialog. Near the opening Zimbalist, pulling on his uniform, has this exchange with his wife: "Well, is there any chance, Cheryl?" "Chance for what, Dale?" "For picking up the pieces of this marriage." In the course of three sentences, the writer tells us this: (1) Zimbalist is a naval officer; (2) the marriage is rocky; (3) his name is Dale; (4) her name is Cheryl. A moment later, Cheryl admits she was caught "flagrante delictoo." "The High and the Mighty" was released in 1954 and this appeared in 1960. I've sometimes wondered why it took someone six years to cash in on a big hit like the original. (There were some el cheapos in between, one of them the source of the parody "Airplane".) A Navy jet with two men aboard, both leading unhappy lives with treacherous women, crashes into an airliner being flown by pilot Dana Andrews, leading an unhappy life with his son, and co-pilot John Kerr, having an unhappy relationship with the stewardess, Anne Francis. All the passengers are in conflict over their love lives except a method actor who is consumed with the obsession of self.One by one, strictly in accordance with the formula, we are introduced to the characters' back stories. We get to learn why they're in conflict through their voice overs. Although directed by Joseph Pevney, the camera placement and movements seem to have been plotted by one of those robots that plunk out computer chips. Is it time for a character's story to be explored? Before the interior monologue begins, the camera slowly zooms in for a gigantic close up of the ruminative's face. The envelope for the most closeups and fragmentary stream-of-consciousness, or rather semi-consciousness, goes to Jean Willes, whom you will recognize from a dozen B movies of the 1950s. The camera returns to her and her dull and nasty mulling at least three times, more than any of the others'.The performances do nothing to help this hackneyed story. Andrews and Francis are at least competent, seasoned performers, although even they have trouble with the clumsy exposition. John Kerr mopes throughout. The doctor -- this kind of movie must always have a doctor on board -- fades from memory the moment he's absent from the screen. The poor guy who plays Dana Andrews' resentful son simply cannot act. The most enjoyable performance, though not the best, is that of the method actor, trying to find his inner "coward" for a new part, shrugging his shoulders, gesticulating like Brando, and constantly looking pained.If there are movies that are so bad they're funny, this must be one of them.

David Powell 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!