Review of Ice Station Zebra (1968) by Allan C — 10 Jun 2016

Solid if overlong cold war thriller from director John Sturges, from a story by Alistair MacLean. Rock Hudson is the commander of a US sub on a race to the North Pole to rescue scientists at Ice Station Zebra, which is actually a cover for a top secret mission.

The dirty commies are also after the scientists, so it's a race to find them, though Hudson's job isn't made any easier when it's discovered there is a mole within their midst. Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, and Tony Bill all co-star in the film, which features an all male cast (no passing the Bechdel Test here).

Michel Legrand provides a more masculine of score than usual, which is kind of cool, and the film had uncredited script doctoring by W.R. Burnett, but in general this film felt way too long at nearly three hours.

Still, it's a pretty entertaining bit of cold war entertainment.