Prior to watching the movie, I knew exactly two things about Ice Station Zebra: there were no women it, and it was Howard Hughes’s favorite movie. I can, after seeing it, attest that there were no women to be seen anywhere unless there was one hiding in the background of a scene set briefly in a bar. As for Howard Hughes, I can neither confirm nor deny that. The personal interests of Howard Hughes are not on my general radar.
Now, I wouldn’t say Ice Station Zebra is going to be going on my list of personal favorites, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t care for it.
A satellite, monitored by both the Americans and the Soviets, comes down in what looks like the Arctic. That’s close to Ice Station Zebra, a British scientific weather station. A message out of there comes up, something about a fire and casualties. American submarine commander Captain James Ferraday (Rock Hudson) is tasked to take his ship, the Tigerfish, up there to find and rescue any survivors. However, he has another task, a top secret one that he isn’t given all the details on. To that end, he’s also carrying some passengers. There’s a British agent known only as “Jones” (Patrick McGoohan), Russian defector Boris Vaslov (Ernest Bourgnine), and Marine Corps Captain Leslie Anders (Jim Brown). When someone sabotages the ship, it’s clear there’s a Soviet agent onboard. Ferraday knows it can’t be one of his regular crew. So, it must be one of the newcomers. Jones is secretive and has a hair trigger response when even slightly surprised. Anders is stand-offish and isn’t know by the other two. And Vaslov is, of course, Russian. Who is the spy? And what do they even want?
It turns out the satellite has something on it that could greatly upend the Cold War in a way that would not be good for whatever world power doesn’t get it. I actually liked where the movie went with this idea. The prize, once revealed, made a lot of sense as to why everyone wanted it. Sure, its a Macguffin, but it’s an interesting Macguffin. And the film’s solution here also worked in a way that said a lot about the public view of the Cold War in the late 60s for possibly both sides.
I’d only ever really seen Hudson before this in Giant, and he didn’t work much for me there, but that movie isn’t really my general cup of tea. He fits in better here, but he likewise doesn’t have a more vivacious co-star like Elizabeth Taylor or James Dean here either. Bourgnine is the closest, and his character comes across as something of a scene-chewer mostly due to the character’s Russian accent. But this here is basically a 60s spy thriller with some military aspects. It isn’t until the end of the movie where Ferraday and his people come across Soviet military, and even then, it’s more of a stand-off than a shoot-out.
All things being equal, this one was a tense thriller, one where the characters’ biggest moment of danger is trying to keep the sub from sinking when someone sabotages a torpedo tube. It’s a movie where tough professionals do what they have to do and the lead character isn’t even sure what that is. It shows contrasting personalities, one where it is uncertain who the spy is as even the Russian fellow has a good reason to not be the spy, namely that he voluntarily came to the West and has been on missions like this before. It’s not my favorite movie, but then again, I am not Howard Hughes.
Grade: B+
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