Hell Below Zero *** (1954, Alan Ladd, Joan Tetzel, Basil Sydney, Stanley Baker, Jill Bennett) – Classic Movie Review 6988

Alan Ladd had his second stay in Britain for director Mark Robson’s 1954 murder-at-sea mystery in which, as Duncan Craig, he becomes first mate on a whaler to find out why Judie Nordhal (Joan Tetzel)’s father died by falling overboard from his Antarctic whaling ship.  Captain Nordahl, an associate in the Norwegian whaling company Bland-Nordahl, is supposed to have committed suicide. But our Ladd thinks he knows better when he evidence that seems to implicate new skipper Erik Bland (Stanley Baker) in a conspiracy.

Basil Sydney and Stanley Baker play father and son captains John and Erik Bland, who are probably no nicer than they seem, and the young Jill Bennett plays a whaling skipper too – Captain Gerda Petersen.

The wholly British and Irish support cast have a whale of a time fishing for pearls in the mundane and muddled action adventure story developed in the weakly written script by Alec Coppel, Max Trell (screenplay) and Richard Maibaum (adaptation), based on Hammond Innes’s novel The White South. They initially planed to call the film White South and then changed to White Mantle before the much more exciting Hell Below Zero.

It was advertised as being ‘actually filmed with the whaling fleet in the raging Antarctic’, so there is location footage shot in Antarctic waters and good footage of whaling fleets in action. Producer Albert R Broccoli accompanied a second unit crew to the Antarctic for over three months. However, much of Hell Below Zero is made at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, UK. This explains why during scenes set in the Antarctic, at supposedly below zero Celsius temperatures, breath vapour in not seen.

It is great that the budget splashed out to actual Antarctic footage and colour cinematography, and the Technicolor filming by John Wilcox is a real asset. The movie has to get an extra star for its whaling scenes. Ladd is fine, while Baker, Bennett and Niall MacGinnis (as Dr Howe) are all strong and feisty, making up for a lacklustre Tetzel.

Also in the cast are  Joseph Tomelty, Peter Dyneley, Susan Rayne, Philo Hauser, Ivan Craig, Paddy Ryan, Cyril Chamberlain, Paul Homer, Edward Hardwicke, John Witty, Brandon Toomey, Gennie Graham, Basil Cunard, Fred Griffiths, John Warren, Philip Ray, Paul Connell and Glyn Houston.

Hell Below Zero is directed by Mark Robson, runs 90 minutes, is made by Warwick Film Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures Corporation, is written by Alec Coppel, Richard Maibaum and Max Trell, is shot in Technicolor by John Wilcox, is produced by Irving Allen and Albert R Broccoli, is scored by Clifton Parker, and is designed by Alex Vetchinsky.

During filming, Ladd badly wounded his hand playing football but insisted on not stopping production and keeping working. Perhaps it was an incentive that he was paid $200,000 against 10 per cent of the profits. The budget was about $1 million. Ladd gave mounted whale teeth to special guests at the 1954 Hollywood premiere.  He was on the ship during some of the filming. It was the Southern Truce whale catcher, built in England in 1945 and used for whaling in Antartica until 1963. The Class-1 icebreaker Kista Dan was built in 1952 and used in the Antartica region

Eugene Pallette turned down a role as he was unhappy with its small size.

Tetzel (1921–1977) was married to Viennese star Oscar Homolka (1898–1978) from 26 May 1949 till her death on 31 October 1977.

Alan Ladd in 1953.

It is the middle movie of Ladd’s trilogy of films with Warwick Films in the UK, following The Red Beret [Paratrooper] (1953) and followed by The Black Knight (1954).

Ladd’s biggest hits were in film noir movies such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942) and The Blue Dahlia (1946) and Westerns like Shane (1953) and Whispering Smith, as well as Two Years Before the Mast (1946) and The Great Gatsby (1949).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6988

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