If you ever find yourself a passenger aboard a US Air Force freighter that's forced to make an emergency landing on a frozen lake in the icy wilds of uncharted northern Canada you better pray like hell that John Wayne's in the cockpit wrestling with the joystick.
Because if he ain't you can bet that his fellow pilots won't get out of bed and risk their own lives to come looking for you and your fellow passengers.
Sounds selfish? Not at all. It's the Hollywood star system at work. John Wayne is not only the sole name above the title of ISLAND IN THE SKY but he's also the producer of this dreary 1953 boy's own adventure and that entitles him to hog all the attention goddamit!
Mac McMullen, Captain Stutz, Willie Moon and the other flyboys almost tear up when they learn of Captain Dooley (Wayne)'s predicament. The other four guys with Wayne they couldn't care less about. They love Dooley more than their wives for heaven's sake. You can always get another wife but there's only one Captain Dooley.
Okay, so male-bonding is a standard theme in many Wayne movies but it's rarely been as badly expressed by such a group of lumpen men. Director William Wellman has clearly spent so much energy trying to get Wayne to emote that he has no energy left for the rest of the cast.
Wayne makes a brave stab at animating his facial muscles to express vulnerability and fear but, really, its not his strong suite. There's a classic moment about twenty five minutes into the story when the camera stays on Wayne's face as he crash-lands his plane on the ice (it's cheaper than showing the actual crash). The Duke's face locks into an expression supposed to convey abject terror which is worth freeze-framing the dvd to study in detail. I'd like it printed on a t-shirt. I'm already imagining a limited edition clothing collection titled "The Many Expressions of John Wayne" and it would be very limited.
Why this film is called ISLAND IN THE SKY confuses me. Sure it's a snappier title than "I'm Waiting for Andy Devine to Find Me" but it's also misleading when most of the action happens on the ground. The rest of it is Dooley's man-crushees flying around looking out of the window trying to find him. If they weren't so infatuated with him they'd split up and each search a different section of the hundreds of square miles of snowy nothingness instead of flying in formation four abreast to ensure no one pilot can claim the honour of having found him.
All of this subtext is, of course, unspoken. Wayne would probably punch in the mouth if he returned from the dead to read what I've written here but he really only has himself to blame. If he hadn't made such a damn boring film I'd have been too preoccupied with the surface action to dig any deeper.
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