The Unmutual Reviews: "Ice Station Zebra"
Review by Clemens Brenans.
This Spring/Summer 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the filming of the great
and underestimated Ice Station Zebra. To afficianados of PMG this is a must-have
film. It may be hard to find on DVD but is an essential asset beside the Danger
Man and Prisoner box sets. There is even a case to be made for Ice Station
Zebra being Part 2 of a John Drake trilogy. He served with honours in the
secret service in Part 1: Danger Man ... until being sent on special assignment
to the North Pole in Part 2: Ice Station Zebra. There
he more or less accomplishes his mission but mis-identifies the double agent
and mistakenly kills the wrong man. In a rage at being sent on a virtually
impossible, sabotaged mission he dramatically hands in his resignation at
the start of Part 3: The Prisoner.
Ice Station Zebra as a movie in its own right has so much to recommmend it. It's a kind of Star Trek in a submarine, but there is no CGI or childish storytelling as in the Star Trek movies. The mood is concentrated and gripping, the look is realistic, the technology believable. The plot and setting hold parallels with the contemporaneous 2001 A Space Odyssey and Where Eagles Dare (also MGM blockbusters), and the later The Thing. The characterization is rivetting. Rock Hudson has a Captain Kirk style role, and an appropriate air of authority and competence ... until his increasingly disconcerting encounters with 'the passenger', David Jones. A nondescript name like this could be a bland made-up name as adopted by No. 6 at times (was it Peter Brown?)
At any rate, McGoohan is in blistering form and all but wipes the floor with Rock Hudson both as actor and character. Not to be missed. Seek it out!
"Ice Station Zebra" is available below from Amazon .