Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973)
Director:
John Erman (as Bill Sampson)
Writers:
Claudia Salter (screenplay), Steven Spielberg (story)
Stars:
Cliff Robertson, Pamela Franklin, Eric Shea
When Cliff Robertson was toasted by Ralph Edwards on the TV series This is Your Life in 1972, Robertson was standing on the set of Ace Eli and Roger of the Skies. This production was announced as an "upcoming release"-though as it turned out, the film lay on the shef for several years thereafter. Robertson plays a barnstorming stunt flyer of the Roaring Twenties. Accompanying him from job to job is his 11-year-old son, ERIC SHEA. Despite having a child in tow, Robertson has no trouble scoring with the local lovelies wherever they go. 20th Century-Fox had so little faith in Ace Eli and Roger of the Skies that the company changed many of the names in the production credits: producer "Boris Wilson" was really Robert Fryer, director "BILL SAMPSON" was actually JOHN ERDMAN and screenwriter "Chips Rosen" was known to friends and family as Claudia Salte. Only poor Cliff Robertson was denied the opportunity to cloak himself in an alias.