Generally excellent adaptation of Ernest Gann's 1944 novel of the same title. A C47 transport plane attached to the Army Air Transport Command, is making a winter return trip, via Iceland and Labrador, to the US. But, over Labrador, heavy icing of the wings necessitates an improvised landing on a small lake in an uncharted region of northern Quebec. Unfortunately for rescuers, there are many many small lakes in this region to chose from. The downed crew manage to get a few very brief messages out before their generator completely fails. These are picked up by the army base on Presque Island, Maine, which repeatedly sends out a rescue squadron of 4 or 5 planes, with only a vague idea of where to look, and knowing that a downed plane will be extremely difficult to spot, without periodic radio contact with the crew. Thus, much of the film deals with desperate attempts to achieve even minimal radio contact, often with merely an emergency 'coffee grinder' transmitter, which cannot receive messages, can only send Morse code, and which requires continuous strenuous hand cranking to generate enough electricity for a transmission. It may have been difficult and uncertain, but that transmitter proved the difference between success and failure.At one point, there was much debate on whether the rescue planes should try to cover the same ground as the day before or explore a new area. The latter choice was finally agreed upon. But, it was wrong, as the next transmission from the downed crew would indicate. For, they had spotted several rescue planes the day previously, not far from them. Although magnetic compass readings were unreliable in this area, and there was a lack of definitive ground markers to help tract their flight course, with the help of several subsequent brief transmissions, the rescue team finally spotted them, but missing one man, who had wandered out in a blizzard and become lost and frozen. The film ends with the rescue planes dropping food and other supplies, before flying off. Unclear to me why they couldn't land and take the men home?? One thing I noticed that bothered me was the inability to see the moisture from their breath at these supposedly -40 to -70 degrees. Also, they didn't look all that uncomfortable without arctic clothes and with minimal blankets. Otherwise, it looked like the landscape and snow was real?This story, based on a real incident, reminds me of a somewhat similar incident occurring in the glacier-filled high Andes, as related in the book "Miracle in the Andes". The pilot got disoriented in a spat of bad weather, went off course, and grazed a mountain top, tearing various parts of the plane away from the main fuselage, which landed relatively intact on a glacier, and which served as their home for the next 2 months or so. Because they had landed off course, and their radio could not transmit, only receive, rescue efforts proved futile. Thus, they were only saved by the coming of warmer weather, allowing the strongest to climb over a mountain and trek down a valley until a person was contacted. The others mostly survived until a rescue mission could be launched. See this film in B&W at You Tube

Island in the Sky stars John Wayne as Captain Dooley who with the rest of his small flight crew of a transport plane are stranded in a remote wilderness in Labrador, Canada. They hope to be rescued and in the meantime they have to suffer harsh icy conditions, lack of supplies and food.While waiting and hoping for rescue we learn more about these guys via flashback. Meanwhile, another search team comprising of Dooley's fellow pilots mount a search and rescue mission but their task is made difficult because of the wintry conditions which makes pinpointing the survivors more difficult. Its a case of whether the stranded men are rescued in time.The film is based on a true incident, Wayne plays it slightly different and way from his tough guy persona as Dooley. However the film is flawed, dull and boring. The drama is tedious, the director tries to inject some humour in the film and variety with flashbacks but the film is not too exciting. This is no Flight of the Phoenix.

I'll start off by saying that I'm no John Wayne fan. I never liked his wooden western portrayals. They were all alike. I didn't know what to expect with this one but what a surprise...it's an absolute winner.I think this one succeeds because John Wayne isn't the "whole" star of this. This film has an incredible cast that outdo Wayne in most scenes. Most of the film the supporting cast is what you see and boy they really get it done...with conviction.The premise is Dooley and his crew are on their way home from a trip and they run into bad weather over northern Canada and have to crash land the plane in a baron area on the Tundra. The other crew's at their home base in Maine find out and they all proceed to try and find where's he's at in time...before they freeze to death. Here's where the meat of the film is.I can't say enough how great the supporting cast is. They are this film. From James Arness right down to ole Alfalfa from Our gang. They all pitch in make this film a worthy watch.Take a chance on this one and you'll walk away cheering at the end.

This story was one of my favorites. The movie was mediocre at best. But, of course it had some of my favorite actors; John Wayne, Andy Devine...I was very surprised to learn that it was closely based on a real story of even more drama and which turned out to be even more of a miracle.The movie depicts the crashed airplane as a C-47, twin engine cargo aircraft. The true story, it was a C-87, cargo version of the famed twin-tailed B-24 "Liberator" bomber. The C-87 was notoriously difficult to fly and it was said by the pilots who flew them it would not carry enough ice to make a high ball...meaning, it would quit flying when just a little bit of ice would form on the wings, which is what brought the aircraft in the story down after getting lost over the Canadian wilderness.One of the things that make the real story more fantastic than the movie was, no one died in the real story, in spite of the fact the survivors had to spend almost two months on the ice before getting evacuated. Also, there was an attempt by another rescue aircraft pilot to land on the frozen lake to bring the crash victims out and that rescue aircraft mired in the deep snow on the ice. Eventually, it turns out everyone was saved, and all the aircraft were repaired before the spring thaw and flown out, including the original four engine C-87 that crash landed on the frozen lake.Some critics have been saying the story is fake because the area of the crash is covered by numerous bush pilots. That was not so in the days of WWII. The area of the crash was so remote there were not even any maps of the area and most of the mountains were not even named…many of them today are named after the pilots who were part of the search team to find Dooley's aircraft, since they were probably the first persons to see them and locate them on navigation maps.Read Gann's book, Fate is The Hunter for the best details of this story. It is really an excellent read. Gann was an amazing writer with some unusual and delightful ways of gripping the mind of the reader.