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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Island in the Sky (1953) is
a John Wayne programmer elevated by the rough and
tumble, no nonsense approach in direction by
William A. Wellman.
Wayne is Captain Dooley, a pilot of a transport
plane that unfortunately crash lands in the middle
of a frozen nowhere -- actually billed as
Labrador. Faced with imminent starvation and
death, Dooley has to keep his wits and the spirits
of his crew and cargo passengers alive until they
are rescued. The plot, relatively trivial and
rather unremarkable (considering the subject
matter) is greatly elevated by strong performances
from Lloyd Nolan (Stutz), Walter Abel (Col.
Fuller) and Andy Devine (Moon). There's some great
tidbits of human suffrage, the prerequisite "we're
all going to die" panic scene and the even more
prerequisite "we shall overcome…look, we're saved"
finale. It is to Wellman's credit that none of the
kitsch and cliché never amount to anything more
than a moderately predictable scenario under which
he is able to flesh out some truly inspiring
performances.
Despite being advertised as 'meticulously restored
and remastered' the black and white image is
riddled with film grain and age-related artifacts.
Contrast levels sometimes appear a tad too low.
Blacks are generally deep but fine details get
lost in them. Whites are rarely clean, but at
least they don't bloom or appear excessively
muddy. The audio is mono but nicely balanced.
Extras include a few featurettes, theatrical
trailers, audio commentary and stills gallery.
Over all, nicely put together from Paramount but
we still could have used more reverence and
attention to detail on the actual film transfer. |
