ICE STATION ZEBRA

Basically the story here (from an Alistair Maclean novel) is of a race against time between the good guys (Yanks and Brits) and the bad guys (the Russkies), to get to the Arctic and secure a vital film that has been dropped there from a Russian satellite.  To spice things up further it's a Maclean story so you know there's going to be a traitor somewhere along the line. 

This might sound exciting on paper, but on film (well, this film anyway) it's terribly dull. 

Problem number one is that we spend what seems an interminable amount of time on an American nuclear sub (under the command of Cdr. Ferraday, played by Rock Hudson at his most wooden).  For a long time nothing much happens (until the inevitable act of sabotage) other than being introduced to the other main characters.

There's British intelligence officer Jones (Patrick McGoohan) who spends a lot of his time on board drinking scotch.  His only character trait is that he's acerbic to all and sundry, except for his good chum Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine, with a dodgy accent) who is a Russian who defected many years ago and who can certainly be trusted (or can he?).

Last and very much least there's Capt. Anders, the taciturn and rather mysterious commander of the US marine platoon who are also on board (how big is this sub?).

Eventually we get to the Arctic and an expedition sets off overland to Ice Station Zebra, which is a meteorological station.  For some reason the Russians decided to drop the film near it, where it was fought over by two agents (one British, one Russian) with the latter killing the former, and then hiding the film.  (What then happened to the Russian agent is just one of many unanswered questions raised by a screenplay which is not exactly watertight).

It's a strange aspect of this film that none of this potentially exciting stuff at the station is shown, which is a pity because it would have got the film off to a better start and might have made it more engaging.  

Instead the opening scene is of the film being parachuted down onto the ice, but it's so clearly just a model landing on a tabletop that it's laughably amateurish.  I'm guessing that so much of the production budget was allocated to all the scenes in and around the sub that there wasn't much left over for anything else, with the result that the film looks flat and cheap.

When the expedition does arrive at the station it's rather an anti-climax, since it's badly damaged by a fire, with everyone dead or badly injured.  Presumably the fire was deliberate, not that it really matters. 

The climactic scenes include Russian paratroopers arriving, leading to a standoff between the two sides.  Also Vaslov has revealed himself to us as the traitor, who is trying to find a way of getting the film to the Russians without exposing himself.

In theory this could have been suspenseful and dramatic, but it isn't, for which most of the blame must lie with the director John Sturges and the writers of the screenplay.

You would think Jones would be the one to identify Vaslov as the traitor and generally be the one to save the day, but no he is virtually a bystander at the end, his main contribution being to kill Anders under the mistaken impression that he is the traitor.  Perhaps Jones should have kept off the scotch.

But it's an American film so Instead the heroics are performed by Ferraday, although ‘heroics’ is overstating it since all he does is press a button to cause the film to be blown up.

A rare Maclean misfire.