Island in the Sky (1953 film)

Island in the Sky is a 1953 American aviation adventure drama film written by Ernest K. Gann based on his 1944 novel Island in the Sky, directed by William A. Wellman, and starring and coproduced 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.

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 WayneFellows Productions, the partnership of John Wayne and Robert Fellows, as their third of seven eventual productions including, a year later, another Gann story, The High and the Mighty, in which Wayne also costarred. 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 firstever Academy Award 19271928. Wellman provided 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 Devines sons. It is notable that the women in the film, Ann Doran, Dawn Bender and Phyllis Winger, appear only in brief flashbacks or, in Dorans 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. 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 allmale or nearly allmale worlds. ........

Source: Wikipedia