John Wayne's incredibly realistic disaster movie based on World War 2 true story

Back in 1953, John Wayne starred in Island in the Sky, based on the 1944 novel of the same name by aviator Ernest K Gann.

Both are based on his true story of a World War 2 flight, when he successfully searched for a lost pilot in wild northern Canada.

In the movie, Duke plays Captain Dooley, who is forced to make an emergency landing at the Quebec-Labrador border while transporting war supplies to England.

Stranded and starving, it's his duty to keep his men alive amid -57 C conditions as they await rescue.

Island in the Sky was praised for its documentary-like accuracy, from survival procedures to radio operations.

Pilots and aviation historians hail the film as one of Hollywood's most accurate portrayals of air search and rescue.

A year later, Wayne would team up once again with director William A Wellman for The High and the Mighty, based on another one of Gann's novels. Featuring members of Island in the Sky's cast and crew, this Oscar-winning film followed Duke's airline first officer piloting a plane experiencing catastrophic engine failure over the Atlantic. Both are considered two of the earliest examples of disaster movies with all-star casts.