"Ice Station Zebra" is itself a 1963 Cold War intrigue novel, adapted in 1968 as a better-known film directed by John Sturges starring Rock Hudson and Ernest Borgnine. Commander James Ferraday, captain of the American nuclear attack submarine USS Tigerfish stationed at Holy Loch, Scotland, is ordered by an Admiral Garvey in Naval Intelligence, not an upline in the submarine service, to rescue the survivors, with confirming orders through regular channels to follow. [15] In July, Ernest Borgnine replaced Harvey. The screenplay is by Alistair MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink, and W. R. Burnett, loosely based on MacLean's 1963 novel. They are an evenly matched pair, I would not like to be playing poker with.Ice Station Zebra is far better than the reviews it got at the time. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Commander James Ferraday, USN, has new orders: get David Jones, a British civilian, Captain Anders, a tough Marine with a platoon of troops, Boris Vasilov, a friendly Russian, and the crew of the nuclear sub USS Tigerfish to the North Pole to rescue the crew of Drift Ice Station Zebra, a weather station at the top of the world. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? "Ice Station Zebra" lyrics. It is not to be confused with, "TV Studios Turn to Theater Films‐Reply to Movie Competition With Bid for New Market", "The Screen: 'Ice Station Zebra' at the Cinerama", "Harper's magazine : Alden, Henry Mills, 1836-1919 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming", "Ice Station Zebra (1968) - Trivia - TCM.com", "The guilty pleasures of great directors", "National Reconnaissance Office Review and Redaction Guide, Appendix F", "Moments that shocked North Wales: The sinking of HMS Thetis in 1939", The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ice_Station_Zebra&oldid=1018741866, Films about the United States Marine Corps, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 19 April 2021, at 16:40. The plot has parallels to events from April 1959 concerning Discoverer 2, a missing experimental U.S. Corona satellite capsule that inadvertently landed near Spitsbergen, Norway, in the Arctic Ocean on April 13. It was believed to have been recovered by Soviet agents. West coast (of Michigan) rawk!! During World War II, several oddly assorted military experts are teamed in a mission to raid and destroy a bridge vital to enemy strategy. The original music score is by Michel Legrand. [26], At the time of the film's release Variety's brief review praised it, highlighting the performances: "Film’s biggest acting asset is McGoohan, who gives his scenes that elusive ‘star’ magnetism. A U.S. sub commander, obsessed with sinking a certain Japanese ship, butts heads with his first officer and crew. Paddy Chayefsky, who had just written The Americanization of Emily for Ransohoff, was hired to write the script. Jones and Vaslov start questioning a few hypothermic survivors about what happened. Ice Station Zebra - (Original Trailer) "A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship in Ice Station Zebra (1968), starring Rock Hudson & Jim Brown." However, the satellite also recorded all the Soviet missile sites as well. For submerging and surfacing scenes, the Diesel-electric Guppy IA USS Blackfin (SS-322) was used, near Pearl Harbor. [20], During filming, Patrick McGoohan had to be rescued from a flooded chamber by a diver who freed his trapped foot, saving his life. McGoohan is very good as 'David Jones' an arrogant British spy. Nothing could distract me from that screen, not even several minutes of confused story-telling at the end of the film... Buy some popcorn and see the movie. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. The mission takes on new and dangerous twists as the crew finds out that all is not as it seems at Zebra, and that someone will stop at nothing to prevent the mission from being completed. Ice Station Zebra is a flawed movie, but I would jump at the chance to see this in its original format to feel the scope of those arctic sets and John Sturges' high caliber directing. [35] The story has parallels with the CIA's Project COLDFEET, which took place in May–June 1962. 94 of 111 people found this review helpful. Its mission: rescue the imperiled members of weather outpost Ice Station Zebra. Ice Station Zebra. [24], The escalating production costs of this film, along with the poorly-received The Shoes of the Fisherman at the same time, led to the transfer of MGM President Robert O'Brien to Chairman of the Board, though he resigned that position in early 1969, after both films were released and failed to recoup their costs.[19]. Was this review helpful to you? An imperious British intelligence agent, "Mr. Jones", and a U.S. marine platoon join the Tigerfish while in dock. [23] It premiered at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles on October 23, 1968 and opened to the public the following day. Borgnine's characterization is a nicely restrained one. Its commander produces a detonator, and tells Ferraday he can explode the capsule, film and all, even inside the submarine, if the Americans try to leave with it. The special effects, of deep water, submarine and ice, are convincing enough—a special Super Panavision, Metrocolor, Cinerama claustrophobia... (The cast) are all stock types, but the absolute end of the movie—when the press version of what happened at a Russian-American polar confrontation goes out to the world—has a solid, non-stock irony that makes this another good, man's action movie, (there are no women in it) to eat popcorn by."[25]. The canister is sent aloft by weather balloon for recovery by aircraft. Certificate: M More. Both have parallels to real-life events that took place in 1959. Water entered at the rate of one ton per second and Thetis sank with the loss of 98 lives. [18], Filming began in June 1967. On the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during World War II, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency N.A.T.O. Ferraday instead orders a torpedo launched, to be detonated remotely, to fracture the ice. In 1968 it was loosely adapted into a film of the same name. What Happens to It Now That the Chain Is Closing? Action. FSM's premiere release of the complete score runs 79:20 (including deleted cues), is resequenced into film order, and remixed from the original master elements for significantly improved sound. Rock Hudson is convincing as the submarine captain. Allied agents attempt to infiltrate the Nazis' rocket research site. If this had been a routine Saturday-afternoon thriller, it might have been fun. 193 likes. The extra weight forward causes the submarine to nose dive, which is only arrested before the boat reaches crushing depth. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. MUSIC. Due to a malfunction it ejected its film delivery capsule near Ice Station Zebra in the Arctic. Get unlimited DVD Movies & TV Shows delivered to your door with no … The fictional nuclear-powered submarine Tigerfish (SSN-509) was portrayed in the movie by the Diesel-electric Guppy IIA class sub USS Ronquil (SS-396) when seen on the surface. The screenplay is by Alistair MacLean, Douglas Heyes, Harry Julian Fink, and W. R. Burnett, loosely based on MacLean's 1963 novel. (1968). RELEASED 1 Jan 1991 IMDB 6.6 Jim Brown, Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan. Commander James Ferraday, USN, has new orders: get David Jones, a British civilian, Captain Anders, a tough Marine with a platoon of troops, Boris Vasilov, a friendly Russian, and the crew of the nuclear sub USS Tigerfish to the North Pole to rescue the crew of Drift Ice Station Zebra, a weather station at the top of the world. Ferraday suspects Vaslov, while Jones fingers Anders. The underwater scenes used a model of a Skate-class nuclear submarine. This article is about the film. Commander James Ferraday, captain of the nuclear submarine USS Tigershark, is dispatched to the polar ice region on a rescue mission when an emergency signal is received from a research station, Ice Station Zebra. The mission takes on new and dangerous twists as the crew finds out that all is not as it seems at Zebra, and that someone will stop at nothing to prevent the mission from being completed. A dramatization of Nazi Germany's final Western Front counterattack of World War II. Hudson has an Enterprise like mission and later on leads an away team on a polar icecap where a Russian spy satellite has been busy photographing all of the U.S. missile launching sites. The submarine sails beneath the thick Arctic pack ice but is unable to break through with its conning tower. Addeddate 2020-07-12 20:02:20 Identifier ice.station.zebra.1968 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.4. plus-circle Add Review. Review: "Tobruk" (1966) Starring Rock Hudson And George Peppard; Kino Lorber Blu-ray Edition, What's the Worst Possible Experience You Could Have in the Snow. View the TCMDb entry for Ice Station Zebra (1968) You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. A large force of Soviet paratroopers arrive and demand the film. I wouldn't be surprised if Hudson took a few cues from William Shatner in his performance. After completing this novel, whose plot line parallels real-life events during the Cold War, MacLean retired from writing for three years. It currently holds a 36% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. [11], Due to scheduling conflicts, the original cast was no longer available when filming began in the spring of 1967. Jones discovers a tracking device but is knocked out by Vaslov, a Soviet double-agent and the saboteur. "[33], As of August 2020, Ice Station Zebra holds a 47% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[34]. [3], Second unit cameraman John M. Stephens developed an innovative underwater camera system that successfully filmed the first continuous dive of a submarine, which became the subject of a documentary featurette, The Man Who Makes a Difference. Ferraday has Vaslov use the tracker to locate the capsule, which is discovered buried in half a foot of ice. Allied agents stage a daring raid on a castle where the Nazis are holding American brigadier general George Carnaby prisoner, but that's not all that's really going on. In January 1967 MGM announced the film would be one of 13 movies it would make during the next year. It marked a return to MacLean's classic Arctic setting. Navarone stars Gregory Peck and David Niven were initially attached to this film, with Peck as the sub commander and Niven as the British spy, plus Edmond O'Brien and George Segal in the other key roles. Filming was set to begin in April 1965, but scheduling conflicts and United States Department of Defense objections over Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay, because they felt it showed "an unfair distortion of military life" that would "damage the reputation of the Navy and its personnel"[10] delayed the start. Even with the Cold War over, it's still an exciting and suspense filled film. A cold war race to the North pole for spy satellite film. The film was budgeted at $8 million. In 2006, the United States National Reconnaissance Office declassified information stating that "an individual formerly possessing Corona access was the technical adviser to the movie" and admitted "the resemblance of the loss of the Discoverer II capsule, and its probable recovery by the Soviets" on Spitsbergen Island. Pacific Theatres Also Owns the Cinerama Technology. [13] By the time it was finished the cost had risen to $10 million. [3] Principal photography lasted 19 weeks, ending in October 1967. A Canadian POW major is rescued by a special British military unit made up of Germans to help lead an attack on a major Nazi fuel depot in Tobruk, Libya. frequency, and is received by scientific vessel Morning Rose. The film was nominated for special effects and color cinematography.Watching Rock Hudson in command of the U.S.S. The film rights to the 1963 Alistair McLean novel were acquired the following year by producer Martin Ransohoff, who hoped to capitalize on the success of 1961's blockbuster adaptation a 1957 McLean novel into The Guns of Navarone,[5] Hollywood's #2 grossing picture that year. He expressed disappointment that the special effects did not, in his opinion, live up to advance claims, comparing them unfavorably to the effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The origin… John Sturges was borrowed from The Mirisch Company to direct.[9]. [28] (MGM pulled the hugely successful 2001: A Space Odyssey from Cinerama venues in order to make way for Ice Station Zebra. Tigerfish was like watching James T. Kirk in charge of the Enterprise. HoloLens PC Mobile device Xbox 360 Trailer. It was shot by an advanced experimental camera designed by the British, which uses special film developed by the Americans, both of which technologies were stolen by the Soviets and sent it into orbit to photograph locations of American missile silos. They've all got varying agendas and one in his crew is a double agent.The highlight of the film is the standoff with Hudson and Russian colonel Alf Kjellin. 1968 Ice Station Zebra. When the inner torpedo hatch is opened to load it, sea water rushes in flooding the compartment. An American nuclear sub.. a sky full of Russian paratroopers--and a race for the secret of Ice Station Zebra!. He expected the film to cost around $5 million. Jones asserts it was no accident. Ice Station Zebra is a 1968 Metrocolor Cold War era suspense and espionage film directed by John Sturges and starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown. Ice Station Zebra (1968) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. You certainly won't regret watching it once. A person approaches, guided by a homing beacon, while a second person secretly watches from nearby. "[31], In the September/October 1996 issue of Film Comment, Director John Carpenter contributed to the magazine's long-running Guilty Pleasures feature. Ice Station Zebra was nominated in two categories at the 41st Academy Awards, for Best Special Visual Effects (won by 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Best Cinematography (won by Romeo and Juliet). Ice Station Zebra is a 1963 thriller novel written by Scottish author Alistair MacLean. [17], There were no women in the cast. BAND. Rent $2.99. The film was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Daniel L. Fapp and presented in 70 mm Cinerama in premiere engagements. In the confusion, Vaslov tries to take the film but is wounded by Jones. 'Ice Station Zebra' is a 1968 action film directed by John Sturges, starring Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Ernest Borgnine, and Jim Brown. Commander Ferraday and the crew of the US submarine Tigerfish are assigned to ferry British agent David Jones to the North Pole to rescue the staff of Ice Station Zebra, a deep-arctic weather outpost. Stay up to date on Ice Station Zebra's latest announcements! After being summoned by Ferraday through a hole in the ice the Tigerfish erupts immediately adjacent to the camp. On board is a civilian and likely spy, David Jones, whose orders are secret. In the March 1969 issue of Harper's Magazine, Robert Kotlowitz wrote: "... a huge production, one of those massive jobs that swallow us alive... For action it has crash dives, paratroopers, Russian spies, off-course satellites, and a troop of Marines, the average age of whom seems to be fourteen. Ferraday andhis crew, several unexpected arrivals with secret orders' and enough suspicions, suspense and twists to make Ice Station Zebra an engrossing espionage thriller. As a result, McGoohan had to leave filming of "The Prisoner" in late 1967 for several weeks, in order to appear in "Ice Station Zebra". There are beautiful abstract patterns made by the sub as it cuts its way through the North Sea, all the gleaming, meticulous, finely wrought, intricate machinery inside the sub, and huge chunks of mountainous ice hanging down from the roof of the ice cap like molars. SHOP. [29]), Writing for TCM, Lang Thompson calls the film "a nifty thriller of spies, submarines and saboteurs that captivated no less a personage than Howard Hughes, who reportedly watched it hundreds of times. Hudson reportedly never went to another premiere. Immediately afterwards distress calls begin to be broadcast from Ice Station Zebra. Commander James Ferraday, USN, has new orders: get David Jones, a British civilian, Captain Anders, a tough Marine with a platoon of troops, Boris Vasilov, a friendly Russian, and the crew of the nuclear sub USS Tigerfish to the North Pole to rescue the crew of Drift Ice Station Zebra, a weather station at the top of the world. Both Soviet and British agents were deployed to recover the capsule. Anders confronts Vaslov and the two men fight before the dazed Jones shoots and kills the American Captain. Even a letter boxed version doesn't do the vast polar landscapes justice nor the underwater shots neither. After Ferraday hands over an empty container, the deception is discovered and a brief firefight occurs. Title: On board are Cmdr. A Russian defector scientist Ernest Borgnine, British agent Patrick McGoohan (wasn't that ever natural casting) and spit and polish Marine captain Jim Brown. 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