Ice Station Zebra (1968)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

Alistair MacLean (novel)
Douglas Heyes (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

23 October 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

It's a race for the secret ... or TOTAL DESTRUCTION

Plot:

Commander James Ferraday, USN, has new orders: get David Jones, a British civilian, Captain Anders, a tough Marine with a platoon of troops...

Plot Keywords:

North Pole | Nuclear | Ice | Marine | Cinerama

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Rock Hudson	...	Cdr. James Ferraday
Ernest Borgnine	...	Boris Vaslov
Patrick McGoohan	...	David Jones
Jim Brown	...	Capt. Leslie Anders
Tony Bill	...	Lt. Russell Walker
Lloyd Nolan	...	Admiral Garvey
Alf Kjellin	...	Col. Ostrovsky
Gerald S. O'Loughlin	...	Lt. Cdr. Bob Raeburn
Ted Hartley	...	Lt. Jonathan Hansen
Murray Rose	...	Lt. George Mills
Ron Masak	...	Paul Zabrinczski
Sherwood Price	...	Lt. Edgar Hackett
Lee Stanley	...	Lt. Mitgang
Joseph Bernard	...	Dr. Jack Benning
John Orchard	...	Survivor
William O'Connell	...	Survivor
Michael T. Mikler	...	Lt. Courtney Cartwright
Jonathan Lippe	...	Russian Aide
Ted Kristian	...	Wassmeyer
Jim Dixon	...	Earl MacAuliffe
Boyd Berlind	...	Bruce Kentner
David Wendel	...	Cedric Patterson
Ronnie Rondell Jr.	...	Lyle Nichols
Craig Shreeve	...	Gafferty
Michael Grossman	...	Kohler
Wade Graham	...	Parker
Michael Rougas	...	Fannovich
Jed Allan	...	Peter Costigan
Lloyd Haynes	...	Webson
Buddy Garion	...	Edward Rawlins
T.J. Escott	...	Lt. Carl Mingus
Buddy Hart	...	Hill
Gary Downey	...	Lorrison
Robert Carlson	...	Kelvaney
Don Newsome	...	Timothy Hirsch
Jim Goodwin	...	Survivor
William Byron Hillman	...	Philip Munsey (as Bill Hillman)
Dennis Alpert	...	Gambetta
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ty Haller	...	Pvt. Grey (uncredited)

Directed by
John Sturges

Writing credits
Alistair MacLean		(novel)
Douglas Heyes		(screenplay)
Harry Julian Fink		(story)
W.R. Burnett		uncredited

Produced by
James C. Pratt	....	associate producer
Martin Ransohoff	....	producer
John Calley	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Michel Legrand

Cinematography by
Daniel L. Fapp		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Ferris Webster

Art Direction by
George W. Davis
Addison Hehr

Set Decoration by
Henry Grace
Jack Mills

Makeup Department
William Tuttle	....	makeup artist
Peter R.J. Deyell	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Ralph W. Nelson	....	unit production manager
Lindsley Parsons Jr.	....	assistant production manager: MGM (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Thomas J. Schmidt	....	assistant director
Lynn Guthrie	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Franklin Milton	....	recording supervisor
Glenn E. Anderson	....	boom operator (uncredited)
Van Allen James	....	sound editor (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Earl McCoy	....	special effects
Henry Millar	....	special effects (as H.E. Millar Sr.)
Ralph Swartz	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Robert R. Hoag	....	optical effects
J. McMillan Johnson	....	special visual effects
Carroll L. Shepphird	....	special visual effects
Clarence Slifer	....	special visual effects
Matthew Yuricich	....	matte painter (uncredited)

Stunts
Phil Adams	....	stunts (uncredited)
Roydon Clark	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gary Downey	....	stunts (uncredited)
Lee Faulkner	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gary McLarty	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Moio	....	stunts (uncredited)
Ronnie Rondell Jr.	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Wilson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dick Ziker	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
John M. Stephens	....	additional arctic photographer
Nelson Tyler	....	additional arctic photographer
Doug Byers	....	underwater electrician (uncredited)
Owen Marsh	....	underwater camera operator (uncredited)

Music Department
Michel Legrand	....	conductor

Other crew
John M. Connolly	....	technical advisor (as Capt. John M. Connolly U.S.N Ret.)
Norman Stuart	....	dialogue coach

Production Companies

• Filmways Pictures

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1968) (USA) (theatrical)
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1969) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1972) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere) (pan/scan)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1992) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Gibraltar Productions  Rock Hudson courtesy of

Runtime:

148 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:G (Manitoba) (original rating) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) (video rating) (1991) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:16 | Australia:PG | USA:TV-PG | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-12 | Norway:11 | Norway:12 (1970) | Sweden:11 | USA:G | Singapore:PG | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Filmways Pictures

Trivia:

This was Rock Hudson's favourite film of his own.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the sub spends several minutes at an impossible angle, the dishes in the wardroom are neatly on the shelves.

Quotes:

David Jones: Where were you stationed, Captain, before you were picked up in transit?
Capt. Leslie Anders: Asia
David Jones: Ah, then you haven't been on the ice before either.
Capt. Leslie Anders: No, Sir. A bullet goes just as fast up here as it does down there.
David Jones: Not quite. An insignificant difference, perhaps, but I think you'll find the operational characteristics of the M-16 indicate that a bullet will decelerate as much as 40 feet per second per second faster in these climate conditions. It's denser air, you know.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Get Smart: Ice Station Siegfried (#5.13)" (1969)

Big buget, top cast, great music, super-wide screen - Wow!

Big-budget, all-star, action-packed adventure about an American submarine sent to the North Pole to retrieve a downed satellite which contains a roll of film. The Russians want it as badly as the Americans because the film contains high-orbit pictures of BOTH country's missile sites.

Rock Hudson is the sub commander, Patrick McGoohan is the cynical secret agent with a dry wit (a roll he made famous in two famous British TV shows, `The Secret Agent' and `The Prisoner'), Jim Brown is a hard-nosed Marine captain, and Earnest Borgnine is a Russian defector working with McGoohan and the Americans to retrieve the valuable film.

The special effects of the Russian jets could have been much better, even in 1968. But the fantastic exterior arctic sets create a stylized North Pole as appealing as the sets of Altair 4 in `Forbidden Planet'. Sure they don't look `real' -- but that's doesn't mean they don't look good. And brother, they sure look BIG. Furthermore, these sets don't just sit there, they actually DO neat stuff: hugh blocks of ice converge and threaten to crush the sub's conning tower, and the conning tower raises and lowers through cracks in the ice!

Dynamite score by Michel LeGrand. Sterling screenplay by Douglas Heyes, riddled with sharp dialogue that the fine cast delivers perfectly (I love it when McGoohan tells Hudson that the film invented by America's German scientists was put into the camera invented by Britain's German scientists and sent up in the satellite invented by the Russian's German scientists. Funny.

Based on Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel. A genuine techno-thriller that predated Tom Clancy's work. And it was originally released at Cinerama theaters! Gotta love it . . .