| Title | The Top Of The World |
| Studio | United Artists |
| Date of Release | May 1955 |
| Producer | Michael Baird and Lewis Foster |
| Director | Lewis R. Foster |
| Actors | Dale Robertson, Evelyn Keyes |
| Aerial Coordinator | Paul Mantz |
| B-17 Filming Locations | Ladd AFB, Alaska |
B-17s Used
Unidentified SB-17Gs (4)
The Movie...
Correspondent John Boyle saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies and passes along the following:
"It's a 1955 planes and romance film starring Dale Robertson as a fighter pilot sent to command a weather station on the arctic ice cap (Gee, I wonder what he did wrong to deserve that?). Turns out his commanding officer (Frank Lovejoy, the guy who played the Curtiss LeMay clone in Strategic Air Command) is dating Robertson's ex-wife (he was assigned the job before anyone knew that, so there goes the only plausible explanation of why they'd send a jet jock to a weather station).
To make a long story short, the ice cap breaks up and their C-47 is lost (gee, they parked it right outside their tent and were going to fly it home after six weeks) so the base mounts a rescue mission. So we see the SB-17s flying in formation. It features not less than four SB-17s operating out of Ladd AFB, Alaska."
Anecdotal
- Comments noted in several places that though the film was released in 1955, the principal footage was shot not later than 1953 when the featured F-82 Twin Mustangs were retired from active USAF service.
- Reportedly, a 1950s aviation clunker with some nice 'nifties fifties' USAF footage.
Buy this Movie!
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Links
Acknowledgements
- John Boyle, for letting me know.
(Check out the poster link here.)
This is the only photo I could find for Top of the World. Looks like an ice station to me. I'm thinking this is Evelyn Keyes dressed in a Hollywood parka but can't be sure. I also think the four SB-17Gs can just be seen making a low flyby right outside the window in the background. If you look hard enough and squint just a bit, you can just see their shadows. And, from careful study, it looks like the third SB-17G is inverted and, though hard to tell, it might be s/n 44-83722. Beer really helps here.
Another photo comes along, this one showing, from left, B-25 flight engineer Cort Johnston, cinematographer Bill Clothier, Paul Mantz, and Warner Bros. guy Poneroy (?). This photo was taken near Fairbanks, Alaska, in April 1952, with B-25H N1203 in the background.