Scott of the Antarctic ***** (1948, John Mills, James Robertson Justice, Derek Bond, Diana Churchill, Kenneth More, John Gregson, Christopher Lee) – Classic Movie Review 2828

Director Charles Frend’s 1948 British historical adventure classic provides the showcase for one of John Mills’s most admired, tightly reined-in heroic performances as the quixotic British explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

Mills’s great performance brings distinction to this very worthwhile true story account of Captain Scott’s tragic Antarctic expedition in 1910-12 and his ill-fated efforts to try to be the first man to discover the South Pole. It also stars James Robertson Justice as P.O. ‘Taff’ Evans RN, Derek Bond as Captain L.E.G. Oates and Diana Churchill as Kathleen Scott.

Made by director Frend on location in Greenland, Norway and Antarctica and at the Ealing Studios, it all looks and sounds stunning thanks to the glorious photography in beautiful Technicolor of master cinematographers Geoffrey Unsworth, Jack Cardiff and Osmond Borradaile and the vibrant score of classical composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

He wrote nearly 1,000 bars of music, much of it before filming had even started. Less than half was used. He  later transformed the score into his seventh symphony, the Sinfonia Antartica. The scene where the explorers land at the Bay of Ross was extended to accommodate his score.

The difficult studio filming in fake snow was a technical nightmare and unfortunately the result isn’t entirely convincing. It is actually the film’s only real drawback.

Scott of the Antarctic was chosen as the Royal Command Performance Film of 1948. It was nominated at the 1949 Baftas for Best British Film but failed to win.

It is co-written by Ivor Montagu, Walter Meade and Mary Hayley Bell (additional dialogue), who was Mills’s wife. Also in the stalwart cast are Harold Warrender, Reginald Beckwith, Kenneth More, James McKechnie, John Gregson, Barry Letts and Clive Morton. Christopher Lee plays Bernard Day in his first year of film-making at 26. He was the last surviving cast member.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2828

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