Crowded Sky, The (1960)

An airliner and a Navy jet are on a collision course in this forerunner to the Airport series of 1970s ‘disaster movies’.  There are several stories within the main structure, and some are told retrospectively. Still, competent acting and direction provide an entertaining – if slightly untidy – film, culminating in a spectacular midair collision.

The Navy jet plane with two aboard – Dale Heath (Efrem Zimbalist Jr), the pilot who is trying to save his marriage to sensuous beauty Cheryl (the luscious Rhonda Fleming) for the sake of their young daughter, and McVey (Troy Donahue), a seaman facing girl trouble – flies in the opposite direction to a civilian transport plane, carrying sixty-two people.

The latter’s pilot, Dick Barnett (Dana Andrews), has his problems, too, in bringing up his motherless son. To complicate things, he and his co-pilot, Mike Rule (John Kerr from South Pacific) – who loves the stewardess, Kitty (Anne Francis), a former playgirl – don’t get on.

Barnett is flying higher than he should be to give his passengers an easy ride, and Heath is flying low because of instrument failure. They can’t avoid each other.

The Navy aircraft plummets, but the civilian plane crash lands with only two fatalities!

This aerial melodrama is finely photographed in Technicolor.

Dick Barnett
Dana Andrews
Cheryl Heath
Rhonda Fleming
Dale Heath
Efrem Zimbalist Jr
Mike Rule
John Kerr
Kitty Foster
Anne Francis
Nick Hyland
Keenan Wynn
McVey
Troy Donahue
Louis Capelli
Joe Mantell
Gertrude
Patsy Kelly
Norm Coster
Donald May

Director
Joseph Pevney