Desperate Search
1952 film by Joseph H. Lewis
Desperate Search is a 1952 American adventure film directed by Joseph H. Lewis and starring Howard Keel, Jane Greer, Patricia Medina and Keenan Wynn.
Plot
After departing from Vancouver, a Canadian Western Airways Douglas DC-3 airliner catches fire and crashes in the Canadian north. On board are two young children, Don and Janet Heldon, who are the only survivors. Their father, pilot Vince Heldon and his wife Julie join forces with family friend and bush pilot Brandy and Nora Stead, the children's birth mother, to mount a desperate aerial search before incoming bad weather arrives.
Tensions mount as the children face the danger of exposure and a mountain lion that begins to track them. The searchers are in conflict, as the hotshot pilot Stead creates problems with her constant efforts to take command of the search.
A reconciliation and a successful rescue occur in the nick of time.
Cast
Production
Although authentic props are shown in Desperate Search, including a Douglas DC-3, most of the aerial scenes are composed of stock footage. Although director Joseph H. Lewis was offered the opportunity to shoot on location, almost all of the film takes place on MGM's backlot. Selected scenes from Captains of the Clouds (1942) are used, matching the action shot on the studio stage.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5264950. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952 and 1942.
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This entry incorporates text from “Desperate Search” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.