Review of Island in the Sky

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.