The Crowded Sky (1960)

On the West coast, a Navy jet with a pilot (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and an enlisted man as a passenger (Troy Donahue) heads East. On the East coast, a commercial flight with 62 passengers with a pilot (Dana Andrews) and co-pilot (John Kerr) who can't stand each other is flying to Los Angeles. Their meeting is inevitable and suddenly, it's a crowded sky. Based on the novel by Hank Searls and directed by Joseph Pevney. One of the many wannabes that the success of THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY spawned in its wake. It lacks the tight structure of William Wellman's MIGHTY as well as the fully developed characters. Most of the minor characters are telegraphed to us via voice overs so that we're not attached to them enough to really care about their fate. Unlike the passengers in THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY who are given time enough so that we can know them and care about them, most of the passengers here have just a few minutes of screen time. The quality of the acting is also all over the place but it's entertaining enough. I thoroughly enjoyed it. With Rhonda Fleming, Anne Francis, Keenan Wynn, Joe Mantell, Jean Willes, Patsy Kelly and Frieda Inescort.