Arctic Flight (DVD)

Welcome to western Alaska, where bush pilot Mike Wein (real-life flyboy Wayne Morris) operates a puddle jumper flying passengers to remote locations -- and where one false move traversing the dateline can bring you up close to the Red Menace. Russian sentries patrol the border that separates the U.S. side on Little Diomede Island from the Soviet-controlled Big Diomede territory -- and Mike takes no chances when a schoolteacher (Lola Albright) arrives to accept her new position and he opts to complete their journey over land via dogsled. That caution -- and the ex-Army man's resourcefulness -- will come in handy when his newest client, a boisterous businessman (future Gilligan's Island skipper Alan Hale, Jr.) on the hunt for polar bears, reveals a more sinister intention. Directed by B-movie veteran Lew Landers (The Raven, The Magic Carpet), Arctic Flight was shot largely on location and captures appealing footage of native Eskimos and a wilderness territory both harsh and beautiful -- to stalwart Americans and treacherous commies alike.