Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies
“The story of Ace Eli... when planes were young and the world was innocent... except for Ace's son Rodger... Rodger of the Skies.”
Synopsis
The story of Ace Eli Walford, a 1920s stunt flyer who barnstorms around the country, taking his eleven-year-old son Rodger with him as he goes from town to town. The place is rural Kansas, and the time is midsummer in the early nineteen-twenties, not long after World War I. Eli (Cliff Robertson), a barn storming pilot who has the emotional make-up of an 11-year-old, and Rodger (Eric Shea), his 11-year-old son who possesses the wisdom of the ancients, set off to see the world, which means flying all the way to San Willow. To Eli, San Willow seems to be as fabled as Xanadu and quite as remote. In essence, "Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies" is about the adventures of Rodger and Eli getting from nowhere to nowhere. Eli, a killer with the ladies at first, always leaves them unsatisfied. He seems to have a sex problem. Rodger spends a lot of his time getting his dad out of scrapes. He also drinks, smokes and goes to sleep at night crying for his deceased mom.
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Principal cast & crew: 20
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
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This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Lou LombardoShot by David M WalshScored by Jerry Goldsmith
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Cast & Crew
20 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Cliff Robertson
as Ace Eli Walford
Pamela Franklin
as Shelby
Royal Dano
as Jake
Eric Shea
as Rodger Walford
Rosemary Murphy
as Hannah
Bernadette Peters
as Allison
Alice Ghostley
as Sister Lite
Kelly Jean Peters
as Rachel
Don Keefer
as Mr. Parsons
Patricia Smith
as Mrs. Wilma Walford
Cliff Robertson Nm0731772
as Ace Eli Walford
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
2Other crew
4Parents Guide
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