The Crowded Sky (1960)

Excellent drama about an airliner, piloted by Dana Andrews, on a collision course with a Navy jet, piloted by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. The bulk of the movie is spent on the personal stories of the pilots, crew, and passengers. In many ways, it's a precursor to the Airport movies of the '70s. Zimbalist and Andrews would play reverse roles in Airport 1975, with Zimbalist playing the pilot of the airliner and Andrews playing the pilot of the smaller plane that collide in midair. Both actors are terrific in this and manage to be two of the only cast members not to have any really silly moments. Rhonda Fleming plays Zimbalist's royal bitch of a wife. I felt bad for their daughter. Wooden John Kerr is Andrews' baby-faced co-pilot who's having a thing with sexy stewardess Anne Francis. She has the best lines in the film ("I'm the ex-champ of tramps and ex-tramps make the best wives."). Joe Mantell provides colorful comic relief and the film's most memorable exit. Troy Donahue is Zimbalist's ill-fated passenger. Keenan Wynn, Jean Willes, and Patsy Kelly are a few of the passengers. Probably what most people either love or hate about this movie are the scenes where we get close-ups of a character's face as we hear their thoughts. It's very cheesy but provides a lot of unintentional humor. The quaint special effects are cute. It's a good suspenseful drama with a lot of comedy, intended and otherwise.

To solve all your problems (or almost all of them) :feeling at peace with yourself (and with your son) ,making a declaration of love when you are shy and not very handsome,learning how to play a part your future career in Hollywood depends on,marrying the air hostess you're in love with,etc ,there is nothing like a good disaster!A crowded sky indeed!So many characters it's a wonder the director can solve all their problems !The disaster movies which became trendy in the seventies were not an improvement on this 1960 work,the only missing character is a young child!It's pleasant to see Patsy Kelly as a manager and there are many more familiar faces on the plane ,although they play cardboard characters.

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!