Ice Station Zebra (1968)

Editor's Note John Sturges's adaptation of Alistair MacLean's novel stars Rock Hudson as submarine commander James Ferraday. When a weather-monitoring station near the North Pole is nearly destroyed by fire, he's ostensibly sent to find out what went wrong. But since he's been ordered to bring along Capt. Leslie Anders (Jim Brown) and a platoon of Marines, British agent David Jones (Patrick McGoohan), and Russian defector Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine), he realizes he's being kept in the dark about the true nature of the mission. Eventually it becomes clear that the USS Tigerfish is in a race with a Russian sub to recover reconaissance film crucial to national defense that was being carried aboard a spacecraft that crashed near the polar ice cap. When the sub is sabotaged--causing it to sink perilously close to a depth that would lead to an explosion--it becomes clear that a double agent is on board, but Ferraday doesn't have enough evidence to arrest anyone. Although the film is often remembered as the one chosen for ad nauseam viewing by Howard Hughes, it's a well-made combination of action and suspense, boasting a fine score by Michel Legrand.

	Ernest Borgnine
	Jim Brown
	Lloyd Nolan
	Patrick McGoohan
	Rock Hudson
	Ted Hartley
	Tony Bill
	Alistair MacLean - Based On Novel By
	Daniel L. Fapp - Cinematographer
	Douglas Heyes - Screenplay
	Ferris Webster - Editor
	John Sturges - Director
	Martin Ransohoff - Producer
	Michel Legrand - Original Music By

This exciting cold war action-adventure film focuses on an American sub commander who is ordered to a desolate outpost at the North Pole and there becomes involved in a deadly struggle with the Soviet military. Los Angeles Times
"[An] exciting 1968 popcorn flick." 01/09/2005 p.E14

Uncut
"[A] Cold War thriller that relies on claustrophobic tension." 06/01/2005 p.148