Red Skies of Montana (1952)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Joseph M. Newman

Writers:

Art Cohn (story)
Harry Kleiner (screenplay)

Release Date:

February 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance

Plot:

When a large forest fire breaks out in the mountains of Montana, a squad of 'Smoke Jumpers', the paratroop-corps of fire-fighters in the U...

Plot Keywords:

Ranger | Montana | Mountain | Forest Ranger | Coward

Cast

Richard Widmark	...	Cliff Mason
Constance Smith	...	Peg Mason
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Ed Miller
Richard Boone	...	Richard 'Dick' Dryer
Warren Stevens	...	Steve Burgess
James Griffith	...	Boise Peterson
Joe Sawyer	...	Pop Miller

Also Known As:

Smoke Jumpers (USA) (review title)

Runtime:

USA:99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | West Germany:12 (f) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #15408)

Filming Locations:

Davis Point, Lolo National Forest, Missoula, Montana, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Film debut of Gregory Walcott.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Boom! Hollywood's Greatest Disaster Movies (2000) (V)

The Real Story

This film is based on an actual event, the Mann Gulch Fire, documented by the late Norman MacLean in his deeply moving book, "Young Men and Fire", where a team of smoke jumpers landed, confidently, on a hillside but were suddenly confronted by a firestorm, chasing them up a steep hill. One of the group, the team leader, lit a grass fire, jumped into the ashes, and survived. All but two of his comrades were burned to death in their futile attempt to escape.

MacClean wrote his book in his last years. He actually saw the Mann Gulch fire as a younger man, I would recommend this book to anyone. There are no braver people in the world than smoke jumpers.