Crash Landing

Director: Fred Sears, Fred F. Sears Fred Sears

Overview

Captain Steve Williams (Gary Merrill) is piloting a commercial airliner across the Atlantic when he loses two engines in mid-ocean. With the real prospect of ditching at sea, we see his dedication and perfectionism at work, as he tries to safeguard his plane and passengers -- those attributes have made him one of the best men in his field, but have also alienated most of the people around him, including his wife (Nancy Davis) and young son (Kim Charney). As Williams faces the life-and-death decisions in front of him, he, the crew and passengers try to come to peace with their consciences and their respective pasts.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/16/2010
UPC:	0043396359819
Original Release:	1958
Rating:	NR
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Sales rank:	61,376

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gary Merrill	Captain Steve Williams
Nancy Davis	Helen Williams
Irene Hervey	Bernice Willouby
Roger Smith	John Smithback
Bek Nelson	Nancy Arthur
Jewell Lain	Ann Thatcher
Sheridan Comerate	Howard Whitney
Richard Keith	Arthur White
Celia Lovsky	Mrs. Ortega
Lewis Martin	Maurice Stanley
Hal Torey	Calvin Havelick
John McNamara	Phil Burton
Dayle Rodney	Adele Burton
Rodolfo Hoyos	Carlos Ortego
Kim Charney	Barrie Williams
Robin Warga	Teddy Burton
Robert Whiteside	Red
Ronald Green	Mel
Richard Newton	Jed Sutton
Rodolfo Hoyos Jr.	Carlos Ortego

Technical Credits

Fred Freiberger

Sam Katzman	Producer
Fred F. Sears	Director
Fred Freiberger	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Could William Wellman have ever dreamt of what he was starting when he made The High And The Mighty in 1954? Aerial disaster films, all populated by characters with enough back-stories to fill any number of literary pot-boilers, started turning up from other studios and lots of lesser filmmakers. Crash Landing was one of the latter, from Columbia Pictures by way of Sam Katzman's Clover Productions -- and while the low-budget shows through everywhere, from the black-and-white non-anamorphic photography to the near television-level cast (all except for Gary Merrill, Nancy Davis, and Irene Hervey), and the short running time, the results aren't bad. Gary Merrill, now a long way from his days at 20th Century-Fox as the husband of Bette Davis, but still a good actor, is convincing in his portrayal of the perfectionist airline pilot whose professional and people skills are pressed hard by an emergency over the ocean. And rest of the B-level (or lower) cast follows along solidly, but without any real inspiration, till the crisis hits. Director Fred Sears, one of producer Katzman's most oft-used hands behind the camera, does his best with the script and the actors. Unfortunately, this isn't The High And The Mighty -- the total budget was probably a fifth (if that) of that movie's -- and the movie isn't one-tenth as engrossing, just an hour and change that would be wasted on modern audiences, except as an artifact of what air-travel was like in the 1950s, and for a sincere and affecting performance by future first-lady Nancy Davis as Merrill's compassionate wife. But to get there, one also has to get past the near-laughable special effects depicting the plane.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder