Production Information on "Ice Station Zebra" |
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| Written by: MGM, 1969. Text cleaned up from a vintage MGM Exhibitors Campaign Book by Anders M Olsson, Sweden | Date: 25.03.2026 |
 ICE STATION ZEBRA is
producer Martin Ransohoff's magnum opus to date, a spectacular production
filmed in Super Panavision and Metrocolor for MGM, based on the adventure
novel by Alistair MacLean, author of "The Guns of Navarone," and directed by
John ("The Great Escape") Sturges.Starring Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan, ICE STATION ZEBRA unfolds an absorbing and suspenseful drama of the dangerous journey of an American nuclear submarine under the Arctic ice cap from Holy Loch, Scotland, on a momentous mission climaxed by a brink-of-war confrontation with a Russian task force at the North Pole. Spectacular scenes include the ice cap, photographed within 200 miles of the actual North Pole; Arctic seas, glaciers, lichen-covered tundra, the ocean depths, a space capsule followed in its plunge from an orbiting vehicle into the atmosphere and down to earth, the blowing up of the ice station, men turned into human torches, the submarine torpedoing its way up through the ice, and the descent of the Russian parachute troops from roaring jets. ICE STATION ZEBRA also induces a chillingly intimate type of audience involvement in such scenes, for example, as that in which the submarine personnel is trapped in a flooded compartment and the vessel is being carried down to depths in which it faces collapse. For interior scenes of the submarine, USS Tigerfish, a special submarine was constructed measuring 300-feet over-all and as tall as a five-story building. For matching close shots in the Polar sequences, the studio built its own "top of the world," a five-acre reproduction of what was photographed from the nuclear submarine, USS Skate, when she surfaced at the North Pole in 1958. THE STARS Rock Hudson portrays Commander Ferraday, on whose shoulders in the climax of ICE STATION ZEBRA rests the responsibility of setting off or preventing a nuclear World War III. To get the feel of life and human relationships aboard a nuclear submarine, Hudson prepared for his role by cruising under the Atlantic aboard the USS Shark as the guest of her skipper, Commander Robert Kelsey, who in 1958 had traveled under the ice cap to the North Pole in the USS Nautilus, first of the nuclear submarines. Rock Hudson, year after year, has been listed among the Top Ten Box-office Stars and won an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal opposite Elizabeth Taylor in "Giant." Ernest Borgnine appears as the mysterious Russian, Vaslov. An Academy Award-winner for his portrayal of the title role in "Marty," Borgnine has established himself as one of the screen's finest actors in such films as "From Here to Eternity," "Bad Day at Black Rock" and "The Last Command." His recent films include "The Dirty Dozen," "Chuka," "The Oscar," "Flight of the Phoenix" and "The Split." Patrick McGoohan makes his Hollywood film debut in ICE STATION ZEBRA as Jones of British Intelligence. McGoohan has made his name a household word both in England and the United States as the result of his performance as John Drake in the British television series, "Danger Man," titled "Secret Agent" in this country. His film credits include two Walt Disney pictures, "Dr. Syn" and "The Three Lives of Thomasina," both made in London. Jim Brown, the famous football-star-turned-actor, is seen as Anders, captain of a Marine detachment aboard the USS Tigerfish in ICE STATION ZEBRA. Prior to his role in the current picture, Brown had scored an outstanding personal success in MGM's "The Dirty Dozen." Tony Bill is cast the fledgling lieutenant, Russell Walker, who plays a pivotal part in the story's exciting climax, with Lloyd Nolan portraying Admiral Garvey. Co-starring in ICE STATION ZEBRA are Alf Kjellin as the Colonel leading the Russian paratroopers, Gerald S. O'Loughlin as Executive Officer on the USS Tigerfish, and Ted Hartley as the submarine's Operations Officer; with former Olympics swimming champion Murray Rose heading a group of 26 featured players. |
More in 70mm reading: “Ice Station Zebra”: The North American Roadshow and 70mm Engagements in70mm.com's Super Panavision 70 / Panavision System 65 Page in70mm.com News Peripheral Vision, Scopes, Dimensions and Panoramas in70mm.com's Library Presented on the big screen in 7OMM 7OMM and Cinema Across the World Now showing in 70mm in a theatre near you! 70mm Retro - Festivals and Screenings |
 THE PRODUCERMartin Ransohoff, chairman of the board and chief executive of Filmways, is the youngest chief executive of any company listed on the American Stock Exchange. He has won the honor of being named "Producer of the Year" by the Allied States Association of Motion Picture Exhibitors and has produced such widely successful hits as "The Sandpiper," "The Loved One," "The Cincinnati Kid" and "Don't Make Waves." THE DIRECTOR John Sturges is a recognized master of the grand-scale action film, with such modern classics as "Bad Day at Black Rock," "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape" among his credits. Another of his memorable films was Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea," starring Spencer Tracy. ART DIRECTION According to George W. Davis, head of the MGM art department, the construction of the submarine USS Tigerfish for ICE STATION ZEBRA was the biggest shipbuilding feat for a motion picture since "Mutiny on the Bounty," for which a seagoing replica of Captain Bligh's square-rigged ship was built. Entailed in the construction of the Tigerfish was the assembling of such units as a periscope, diving controls, instrument panels, hatches, directional compass, plotting table, ice fathometer, pipes, steel beams, closed circuit TV apparatus, bunks, tables and a galley stove. The Tigerfish was built in six sections, including her 16-feet-high, 24-feet-long conning tower superstructure, and was divided among three MGM sound stages. Her sections were mounted on hydraulic rockers for tipping to a 23-degree angle and plunging into water. Thus were filmed the scenes in which water bursts into the submarine through a sabotaged torpedo tube, carrying her nearly to her doom. The water was shot through the tube under pressure of 1,100 pounds per square inch. PHOTOGRAPHY Daniel L. Fapp, director of photography on ICE STATION ZEBRA, is an Academy Award-winner for his work on "West Side Story," and won Oscar nominations for four motion pictures. John Stephens, action photographer on ICE STATION ZEBRA, is the expert who got shots of the racing cars in "Grand Prix" from right in the middle of the pack. |
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CREDITS |
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 TENSE
SUBMARINE SABOTAGE SCENE IN "ICE STATION ZEBRA"A sabotaged torpedo tube causes the flooding of a compartment of the atomic submarine USS Tigerfish on its voyage under the Arctic ice cap toward a confrontation with a Russian task force at the North Pole in the suspenseful adventure-drama "Ice Station Zebra," a Martin Ransohoff Production presented by MGM in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. Here, Ernest Borgnine risks death in helping a sailor shut a hatch to seal off the rest of the submarine. Rock Hudson, as the commander of the vessel, heads the cast of the spectacular picture, from the novel by Alistair MacLean, with Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan. Still 1840-25 Ice Station Zebra Mat 3-B Produced by Martin Ransohoff. Directed by John Sturges. From the Novel by Alistair MacLean. Screenplay by Douglas Heyes. Screen Story by Harry Julian Fink. Director of Photography: Daniel L. Fapp, A.S.C. Filmed in Super Panavision. Metrocolor. Music Composed and Conducted by Michel Legrand. Associate Producer: James C. Pratt. Art Directors: George W. Davis and Addison Hehr. Set Decoration: Henry Grace, Jack Mills. Recording Supervisor: Franklin Milton. Assistant Director: Thomas J. Schmidt. Technical Adviser: Capt. John M. Connolly, U.S.N. Ret. Unit Production Manager: Ralph W. Nelson. Special Visual Effects: J. McMillan Johnson, Carroll L. Shepphird, Clarence Slifer, A.S.C. Optical Effects: Robert R. Hoag, A.S.C. Additional Arctic Photography: John M. Stephens, Nelson Tyler. Special Effects: H.E. Millar, Sr., Ralph Swartz, Earl McCoy. Make-Up by William Tuttle. Dialogue Coach: Norman Stuart. Film Editor: Ferris Webster. A Filmways Picture. A Martin Ransohoff Production. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. |
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THE PLAYERS |
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PLAYING ADVENTUROUS ROLES IN "ICE STATION ZEBRA," ALISTAIR MacLEAN'S
DYNAMITE-PACKED THRILLER A brilliant all-star cast was assembled by
producer Martin Ransohoff for his spectacular MGM production, "Ice Station
Zebra," filmed in Super Panavision and Metrocolor from the widely-read novel
by Alistair MacLean. The suspenseful adventure-drama revolves about the
personnel aboard a U.S. nuclear submarine sent on a perilous mission to an
Arctic weather station toward an ultimate confrontation with a Russian task
force at the North Pole. In top row are: Rock Hudson as Cdr. James Ferraday, skipper of the USS Tigerfish; Ernest Borgnine as the mysterious Russian, Boris Vaslov; Patrick McGoohan as David Jones of British Intelligence; Jim Brown as Marine Capt. Leslie Anders; Tony Bill as fledgling Lt. Russell Walker. Bottom row: Lloyd Nolan as Admiral Garvey; Alf Kjellin as Col. Ostrovsky, commander of a Russian paratroop detachment; Gerald S. O'Loughlin as executive officer Lt. Cdr. Bob Raeburn; Ted Hartley as operations officer Lt. Jonathan Hansen; and Murray Rose as Lt. George Mills. "Ice Station Zebra" was directed by John Sturges. One of the year's outstanding entertainments which every movie fan will enjoy! Stills 1840-113, 60, 51, 107, 114, 139-E, 109, 67, 69, 68 Ice Station Zebra Mat 5-A |
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JAMES FERRADAY...ROCK HUDSONBORIS VASLOV...ERNEST BORGNINE DAVID JONES...PATRICK McGOOHAN CAPT. LESLIE ANDERS...JIM BROWN LT. RUSSELL WALKER...TONY BILL ADMIRAL GARVEY...LLOYD NOLAN COL. OSTROVSKY...ALF KJELLIN LT. CDR. BOB RAEBURN...GERALD S. O'LOUGHLIN LT. JONATHAN HANSEN...TED HARTLEY LT. GEORGE MILLS...MURRAY ROSE PAUL ZABRINCZSKI...RON MASAK LT. EDGAR HACKETT...SHERWOOD PRICE LT. MITGANG...LEE STANLEY DR. JACK BENNING...JOSEPH BERNARD SURVIVOR...JOHN ORCHARD SURVIVOR...WILLIAM O'CONNELL LT. COURTNEY CARTWRIGHT...MICHAEL T. MIKLER RUSSIAN AIDE...JONATHAN LIPPE WASSMEYER...TED KRISTIAN EARL MacAULIFFE...JIM DIXON BRUCE KENTNER...BOYD BERLIND CEDRICK PATTERSON...DAVID WENDEL LYLE NICHOLS...RONNIE RONDELL JR. GAFFERTY...CRAIG SHREEVE KOHLER...MICHAEL GROSSMAN PARKER...WADE GRAHAM FANNOVICH...MICHAEL ROUGAS PETER COSTIGAN...JED ALLAN WEBSON...LLOYD HAYNES EDWARD RAWLINS...BUDDY GARION LT. CARL MINGUS...T.J. ESCOTT HILL...BUDDY HART LORRISON...GARY DOWNEY KELVANEY...ROBERT CARLSON TIMOTHY HIRSCH...DON NEWSOME SURVIVOR...JIM GOODWIN PHILIP MUNSEY...BILL HILLMAN GAMBETTA...DENNIS ALPERT |
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THE NORTH POLE COMES TO STUDIO |
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 One of the two rarest sights on earth, seen by only a handful of men in all history, was authentically reproduced for "Ice Station Zebra," Martin Ransohoff production for MGM, thanks to an expedition that taxed the resources of the U.S. Navy. It is the North Pole. The 350 x 300-ft. set, built on MGM's Studios' Lot 3, was copied from photographs taken by personnel of the Navy's atomic submarine, Skate, when it surfaced at the top of the world on August 12, 1958. On the same day they scattered to the blowing snow the ashes of Australian explorer Sir Herbert Wilkins, who had struck out for the Pole by submarine in 1931 but had been turned back. Starring Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Tony Bill, Jim Brown and Lloyd Nolan, "Ice Station Zebra" is based on the best-selling adventure-espionage novel by Alistair MacLean, author of "The Guns of Navarone," and was directed by John Sturges. Hudson commands the Navy's atomic submarine, Tigerfish, in a race with a Russian task force to reach the North Pole and recover a downed space capsule containing the key to victory in a possible nuclear war. The picture is in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. ROCK CELEBRATES 20 ACTING YEARS Rock Hudson celebrates his 20th year as an actor with the release of "Ice Station Zebra," MGM's big picture in Super Panavision and Metrocolor, in which he stars with Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan. In the new Martin Ransohoff production, Hudson portrays the commander of a nuclear submarine. Wanting to present his star with an anniversary present, Ransohoff pondered for some time as to what would be most appropriate. He finally came up with the answer. Hudson was presented with a fountain pen which was not only handsome - but wrote underwater! |
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Rock Hudson Heads Big Cast Of "Ice Station Zebra,"
Opening This Week
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 "Ice Station Zebra," MGM's
spectacular screen version of Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel,
opens.... at the.... Theatre. The big picture in Super Panavision and
Metrocolor stars Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown,
Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan, with a large supporting cast of featured players.Hudson is cast in the Martin Ransohoff production as the commander of the USS nuclear submarine Tigerfish, bound under the Arctic ice cap to the North Pole on what his orders tell him is a mission to rescue survivors at a weather station shattered by explosion and fire. He suspects a hidden objective because of his passengers, two close-mouthed men from British Intelligence whom he is to assist in any way they desire, and a contingent of heavily armed U.S. Marines. Then his vessel is sent hurtling below her theoretical implosion depth by sabotage. But it isn't until just before the story's climax that the sub commander learns what his orders do not mention. The agents are after a downed space capsule containing the key to the balance of power in event of a nuclear war, and the Russians are coming by plane and parachute after the same prize. The climax is the confrontation on the top of the world. To bring MacLean's exciting novel alive for the cameras, Ransohoff signed director John Sturges, an old hand at the grand-scale action film, with such classics of the genre as "The Great Escape," "The Magnificent Seven" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" among his credits. It was on the strength of Sturges' name that Patrick McGoohan, star of the widely successful "Secret Agent" TV series, agreed to make his Hollywood debut in "Ice Station Zebra," and he remains right in character as one of the two intelligence men. Ernest Borgnine plays his teammate, with Jim Brown as a U.S. Marine captain, Tony Bill as a fledgling lieutenant, and Lloyd Nolan as Admiral Garvey. Famed cinematographer John Stephens, who got those conversation-piece shots of the racing cars in "Grand Prix" from right in the middle of the pack, is responsible for some of the spectacular scenes in "Ice Station Zebra." These include panoramas of fjords, glaciers and tundra filmed in Greenland and of the vast ice cap itself, photographed within 200 miles of the North Pole. But you don't take an entire movie company to that clime for five months. So, for matching close shots, the top of the world was reproduced from photographs taken by the crew of the Navy's nuclear submarine, Skate, when she surfaced at the Pole in 1958. MacLean called his submarine the Dolphin but, because the Navy has a real one by that name, Hudson's craft was christened the Tigerfish. She was "played" by the USS Ronquil in exterior scenes both on the surface and below. For interiors, the studio built its own Tigerfish in six sections which, if put together, would have measured 300-feet in length, or a tight fit for the Rose Bowl, and reaching the height of a five-story building. She was built largely of real parts bought at a marine salvage yard, MGM's biggest shipbuilding job since "Mutiny on the Bounty" for which a seagoing replica of Captain Bligh's square-rigger came off the way and was sailed to location in Tahiti. And, although the Tigerfish wouldn't float, she was genuinely submersible - piecemeal. Her sections, mounted on hydraulic rockers, could be tipped to a 23-degree angle and plunged into the water. Capt. John Mitchell Connolly, U.S.N., ret., a veteran submariner, acted as technical adviser. On his return from the Arctic, Stephens got shots from the Ronquil's point-of-view, diving, proceeding submerged, and surfacing, by means of double-camera units mounted at various points on her hull. Each unit consisted of a motion picture and a TV camera, the latter reporting to him on a closed circuit inside the submarine. Both were operated electronically by remote control. Stephens also got action shots underwater in the torpedo room of the Tigerfish, flooded by sabotage. |
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62 Stuntmen |
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"Ice Station Zebra," MGM's big picture in Super Panavision and Metrocolor,
starring Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan and Jim Brown, was a
boom film for Hollywood's stuntmen. Sixty-two of them worked in the Martin Ransohoff production and piled up a total of 4,300 man-hours during the five months of shooting. Individual stunts ran the gamut from immersion in a flooded nuclear submarine to parachute jumping to being doused with napalm and set afire! |
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Office Boy Into Stage Director |
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Producer Martin Ransohoff, dictating an urgent memo to director John
Sturges on the set of MGM's "Ice Station Zebra," was informed that the
office boy had quit. "Why?" he demanded. "He's taken a job in Switzerland," he was told, "as stage director of the Zurich Opera House." It was no gag. Robert De Simone, a 28-year-old USC, Juilliard and Manhattan Music School alumnus, was engaged as a director after submitting a resume of his background to leading European opera houses. This included musical studies in Rome under an Italian government grant, a tour of South America and the East Coast of the United States as a concert pianist, and three years of teaching in the Los Angeles school system. Omitted from the resume was the fact that De Simone had worked as an office boy for Filmways as a summer job "for the experience." |
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Nuclear submarine "USS Tigerfish" unique setting for underwater thrills and suspense in "Ice Station Zebra" |
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 A space
capsule, containing film that could be the key to victory in an atomic
war, has just been pinpointed in the ice at the North Pole by Rock
Hudson, commander of a U.S. nuclear submarine, and intelligence agent
Ernest Borgnine, when they hear the approach of planes bringing a
Russian task force to dispute possession of the strategic capsule. The
tense scene is from the suspenseful adventure-drama, "Ice Station
Zebra," a Martin Ransohoff Production presented by MGM in Super
Panavision and Metrocolor. The all-star cast of the spectacular picture,
from the novel by Alistair MacLean, also includes Patrick McGoohan, Jim
Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan, under the direction of John Sturges.
One of the year's outstanding and noteworthy film entertainments!Still 1840-125 Ice Station Zebra Mat 3-E RUSSIANS VS. AMERICANS IN QUEST FOR VITAL SPACE CAPSULE! A sophisticated new kind of leading lady makes her acting debut with Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan in MGM's "Ice Station Zebra," filmed in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. The lady is a nuclear submarine, a type never before given a role in a feature motion picture The "nuke," as they call her in the Navy, represents the greatest advance in going to sea since the raft. Powered by the controlled fission of a small atomic pile, she is capable of circumnavigating the globe without refueling, can do it all underwater, needs neither sextant nor compass nor fresh air to charge her batteries, and can go faster submerged than a destroyer on the surface. She can "see" where she's going underwater by means of a searchlight and closed-circuit television. Sonar gives her sensitive long-range "hearing," radar a highly-developed "ESP" for pinpointing enemies at great distances, and the rush of water created by her fleetness baffles their own electronic detection devices. USS Tigerfish, the attack-type nuclear sub which Rock Hudson commands in this Martin Ransohoff production, carries no missiles, so-called, but can either send her 15-ton torpedos speeding on controlled firing missions underwater or lob their atomic warheads through the surface and into the air on artillary-like trajectories for miles. How can she be independent of celestial navigation? Because of her top-secret inertial navigating system, which records her slightest movement in any direction and navigates precisely by dead reckoning while a stylus traces her changing position on a chart. She can also "scrub" and renew her air supply. A heavy lead shield surrounds a nuclear sub's reactor. Her men wear film badges to measure the radiation they receive through it, and that is checked regularly. It is never more than the amount they would get from a chest X-ray. Crews are all volunteer, but relatively few volunteers are chosen. They are given stiff tests in psychology, emotional stability, IQ, knowledge, mechanical aptitude, physical fitness and ability to adapt to pressure changes. Those who pass are trained in a diversified "basic" which virtually teaches them to do with a submarine what an infantryman must be able to do with his rifle - take it apart. As "Ice Station Zebra" director John Sturges put it, "You practically need an MIT degree to swab the deck on one of these boats." However, life aboard the "nukes" is the Reilly type compared to the cramped and Spartan existence from which there is no escape on lesser submarines. The chain-reacting atomic pile, eliminating all need to tote bulky stores of oil, gives more room, and the Navy has used that additional space for such luxuries as a library, a juke-box, a tape player, a coke machine, a motion picture projector with a rollaway screen and a supply of movies. There is even a great big walk-in refrigerator with fresh-frozen meats and vegetables. Naturally, there also has to be a garbage disposal unit. You just put the stuff in a plastic bag with a brick in it to weigh it down and fire it out a special tube, torpedo-fashion. 300-Feet Long In "Ice Station Zebra," adapted from the novel by Alistair ("The Guns of Navarone") MacLean, the Tigerfish, 300-feet long and as tall as five-story building, is dispatched on a voyage impossible to submarines until the first of the nuclear breed, USS Nautilus, pioneered it in 1958 - a voyage under the Arctic ice cap, where compasses are useless, to the North Pole. The point of departure for Hudson's craft is Holy Loch, Scotland, and in her case a secret mission is involved. Out of it comes a confrontation with a Russian Task force at a British weather station on top of the world. The Tigerfish carries two civilians - Patrick McGoohan, a British agent, and Ernest Borgnine, a Russian sent along as his teammate. Jim Brown plays a U.S. Marine captain, with Tony Bill as his fledgling lieutenant, Lloyd Nolan as Admiral Garvey, Gerald S. O'Loughlin as Hudson's executive officer, Ted Hartley as the operations officer, and Alf Kjellin as a Russian colonel who swoops out of the frozen sky with his paratroopers at the climax. Among spectacular scenes are action shots made of the ice cap within 200 miles of the actual North Pole, underwater shots by special cinematographer John Stephens, and the flooding of the Tigerfish through a sabotaged torpedo tube. Daniel Fapp, who won an Academy Award for his work on "West Side Story," was director of photography on the big picture. |
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Patrick Mcgoohan does own "Zebra" stunts but this one almost failed! |
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 Patrick
McGoohan, as the mysterious British secret agent who joins the crew of a
U.S. nuclear submarine sent on a momentous mission to the North Pole in
the suspenseful adventure-drama, "Ice Station Zebra."Ice Station Zebra Still 1840-14 Mat 1-A Actor Eric Fleming, killed while shooting Peruvian rapids for a motion picture scene on September 28, 1966, returned to haunt Patrick McGoohan during the making of his Hollywood film debut one year later. Due to Fleming's death, America's Screen Actors' Guild imposed a rule by which producers who let their players perform hazardous feats would do so at their own (financial) peril. And McGoohan, Britain's highest-paid television star, imported to share top billing with Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Bill, Jim Brown and Lloyd Nolan in "Ice Station Zebra," MGM's big picture in Super Panavision and Metrocolor, was a man with a reputation for doing his own stunts. "I've always said that using a double is cheating," the hero of the "Secret Agent" series informed producer Martin Ransohoff flatly, "and everybody in the British Commonwealth knows it. "On the other hand, as producer of my own show I sympathize with your position so I concede we've got a problem. As I see it, we'll have to make some hairline decisions and decide, with Guild concurrence, just which hazardous feats come under the rule in the particular case of an actor who is professional stunt man himself." And that was what was done. The athletic McGoohan, a trained boxer whose strength is attested by his addiction to the Scottish sport of "tossing a caber" (tree trunk), did his own fighting and most of the falls. Then came the scene that chillingly recalled the death of Fleming. McGoohan was supposed to dive to the rescue of a naval officer in the flooded torpedo room of the picture's nuclear submarine. A strong swimmer, he insisted on doing that scene also. But a slight alteration was made in the script to permit Olympic swimming champion Murray Rose, originally cast in another part to do the scene with him in case anything happened. The scene went off beautifully. Not until it was over did Rose reveal that while they were standing up to their necks in the rising water just before the "take," McGoohan had whispered to him, 'Now I've done it. My foot's stuck.' Rose, diving, had freed the foot from the torpedo rack in which it was tightly wedged. |
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Why Bold Men Go Beneath The Sea In A Submarine |
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 Rock Hudson, commander of a U.S. nuclear submarine, aided by a sailor,
tries to revive his lieutenant, Murray Rose, after Arctic seas have flooded
the torpedo compartment of the sabotaged submarine. The tense scene is from
the suspenseful adventure-drama "Ice Station Zebra," a Martin Ransohoff
Production presented by MGM in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. Ernest
Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan also star
in the spectacular picture, from the novel by Alistair MacLean. One of the
year's outstanding movie attractions!Still 1840-38 Ice Station Zebra Mat 2-G"Chances are you won't live as long as the lads who surface but you'll live better." And that, explains Capt. John M. Connolly, U.S.N., ret., is why men go down to the sea in submarines, especially the nuclear kind like the one in "Ice Station Zebra," MGM's big picture in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. Capt. Connolly was technical adviser on the Martin Ransohoff production, starring Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan. A 24-year Navy veteran, he won the Silver Star serving aboard the submarine, Gato, in the Pacific during World War II, and at one time commanded the five-boat Submarine Division 31. "In war time the mortality rate aboard the subs is higher than any other branch of the armed services," he stated. "But no insignia is worn with more pride than the dolphins. "Besides, there's extra pay and the best chow in the Navy, and I remember that aboard the Gato, for instance, every man would be given two weeks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu after each patrol of 60 days, which was typical. "Of course, life aboard the diesel subs is pretty cramped. But the big roomy 'Nukes' (nuclear) have all the conveniences, even walk-in refrigerators, and because they practically never have to surface, storms are no problem." A native of Bisbee, Arizona, Capt. Connolly was teaching history at Midway High School in San Diego, where he has made his home since boyhood, when signed for the technical adviser post on "Ice Station Zebra." Rock Hudson plays the sub's commander on a voyage under the Arctic ice cap to foil a Russian coup at the North Pole. Patrick McGoohan and Ernest Borgnine are seen as agents sent along by British Intelligence and Jim Brown plays a Marine captain. Tony Bill portrays a fledgling lieutenant and Lloyd Nolan, Admiral Garvey. |
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Rock Hudson Has Dramatic Role He Long Looked For |
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 Rock Hudson, commander of a
U.S. nuclear submarine en route on a secret mission to the North Pole,
enters the flooded torpedo compartment after sabotage has nearly sent
his vessel to the bottom of the sea. The scene is from the suspenseful
adventure-drama, "Ice Station Zebra."Ice Station Zebra Still 1840-49 Mat 1-D "I'm not ordinarily a superstitious man," Rock Hudson said to the director of "Ice Station Zebra" when they met for the first time before a camera turned on the big MGM picture, a Martin Ransohoff production, "but your name scares me." And he told John Sturges this story: "I was just starting in this business and attended my first premiére. The picture was called 'Tomahawk.' They pushed me on stage and told me to say a few words. I opened my mouth and didn't recognize my voice. I squeaked. Then - paralysis. Jack Oakie had to come out and lead me off again. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. Nearly scared me clean out of pictures. "The town," he added, "was Sturges, Arizona." The director laughed and said, "Just call me Smith." "Ice Station Zebra," filmed in Super Panavision and Metrocolor, stars Hudson with Ernest Borgnine, Patrick ("Secret Agent") McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan. It marks Rock's 20th anniversary as an actor and finds him looking almost as youthful as when he began, but a far different personality from the gangling kid who set out for Hollywood from Winnetka, Ill., hoping to be "discovered" for pictures. "I'd been movie-struck most of my life," he recalls. "I used to write fan letters and all that. And the legend in my day was that the stars were 'discovered.' You didn't have to work, it seems. You didn't even have to know anything about acting. It just happened like magic. So, some years later, there I was in a brand new $35 suit standing in front of the studios and waiting to be discovered. "When nothing happened I went to work driving a truck to support myself and another driver put me wise. 'Get an agent,' he said. So, after a lot of trying I finally got one and it began. It was a long, hard pull, believe me, but that's another story. Looking back, I'm glad the process was slow. It gave me time to learn and didn't throw me off balance." Hudson today is as "balanced" a personality as you'll find in pictures. That he has come a long way professionally since "Tomahawk" is attested by the Academy Award nomination he won for his performance opposite Elizabeth Taylor in "Giant." And also by his repeated successes in that most difficult medium, comedy. Just now, however, he feels that he has a surfeit of the latter. "Those pictures did so well that producers behaved as if I couldn't do anything else," he says. "All they offered me was more comedy. So I had to take the situation in hand. I determined that my next role would be a dramatic one." |
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After Winning An "Oscar," It's Ok For Ernest Borgnine To Play Villain |
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 Ernest Borgnine has the drop on
Patrick McGoohan on the ice cap at the North Pole in one of the
high-voltage moments from the suspenseful new MGM adventure-drama, "Ice
Station Zebra."Still 1840-122 Ice Station Zebra Mat 2-L "Then I got the gentle butcher part in 'Marty.' Suddenly people loved me and when I got the Oscar they were pleased. They'd call out, 'Hi, Marty' and grin. Man, what a relief, what a grand and glorious feeling. Now I can play a villain and nobody holds it against me. They know I'm just acting. Because to the public, I'm still Marty." In "Ice Station Zebra," based on the adventure-espionage novel by Alistair MacLean, Borgnine counterpoints his good-guy behavior with a touch of the old menace. "I play a Russian sent on a secret mission with Pat McGoohan by British Intelligence," he explains. "We're on a nuclear submarine bound for the North Pole and a confrontation with a Soviet task force, and all of a sudden there's sabotage aboard. Somebody is a saboteur. "Rock Hudson, the skipper, suspects me because I'm a Russian. But my British teammate, McGoohan, with whom I've been on missions before, swears by me and suspects the Marine captain, Jim Brown. Which one is it? It's our job, Jim's and mine, to keep the audience guessing off-balance until the very end. And to me, for that reason, this Boris Vaslov was one of the most interesting parts I'd ever played." How did he acquire the accent? "The accent is an illusion," he answers. "I don't really use it consistently. I only make you think I do. If I did, a lot of what I say would be unintelligible. So, in a short sentence I may use the accent on just one word, a word like in-ter-estink. The rest is all done with intonation, but it makes the whole thing sound like an accent." A trick of the trade. In the words of Jimmy Durante, 'Marty' Borgnine's got a million of 'em. |
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 Marine Captain Jim Brown presents his orders to Rock Hudson,
commander of the nuclear submarine, USS Tigerfish, in the suspenseful
adventure-drama, "Ice Station Zebra," a Martin Ransohoff Production
presented by MGM in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. Ernest Borgnine,
Patrick McGoohan, Tony Bill, and Lloyd Nolan also star in the
spectacular picture, from the novel by Alistair MacLean. One of the
year's outstanding movie hits!Still 1840 2 Ice Station Zebra Mat 2-B Breaks "Image" "Well, that's one way of breaking my image," declared Murray Rose, the Olympic swimming champion turned actor, after his big scene in "Ice Station Zebra," Martin Ransohoff's spectacular production for MGM in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. The scene depicts Arctic seas flooding into a nuclear submarine through a sabotaged torpedo tube. Rose drowns. The holder of six Olympic medals and winner of nine AAU and three NCAA championships really had to "act" in that sequence of "Ice Station Zebra," in which he appears with Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill, and Lloyd Nolan. O'loughlin Says: Goodbye B'dway, Hello Hollywood Now it's Hollywood talking down to Broadway. Gerald S. O'Loughlin has moved to movieland, parked his two "Obie" (off-Broadway) awards on a Beverly Hills mantle, and set himself to stalking the Oscar in the hot little veldt below. The young Cagney-like actor's actor didn't arrive without recommendations. His acting had added to the stature of such Broadway plays as "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," "The Shadow of a Gunman," "A Touch of the Poet," "Calculated Risk," and "Happily Never After." And prior to taking up his recent citizenship in Hollywood, O'Loughlin had taken temporary quarters there for such films as "A Hatful of Rain," "Ensign Pulver" and "A Fine Madness." Currently he plays a leading role with Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan in "Ice Station Zebra," Martin Ransohoff's big production for MGM, in Super Panavision and Metrocolor. Why the permanent move to the colony? O'Loughlin explains it both for artistic reasons and in terms of dollars-and-cents. "A lot of Hollywood pictures figure they can get a New York stage actor at cut-rate prices. They know the Broadway boys all want to get into pictures, so they offer them less money and the guys grab it. Negotiating on their own ground, they're second-class citizens." It was in Hollywood that O'Loughlin negotiated for his last movie role, a detective in "In Cold Blood," and for his current one as the executive officer aboard Rock Hudson's nuclear submarine in "Ice Station Zebra." He not only upped his billing but doubled the salary he had received for his previous five pictures for which he had signed in New York. But money wasn't the only thing that brought him west. "The Broadway theatre is in terrible shape," he says. "Most of the good plays there are from England. I think the main reason is we're suffering from a dearth of good, new American playwrights. After Albee, who? Movies and television on the west coast is where the action is, these days. The really interesting things are being done out here." O'Loughlin won his "Obies" for his performances in "Machinal" and "Who'll Save the Plowboy?" Now an executive director of Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio West, he figures he's in Hollywood to stay. And film producers can start dusting off some of those Jimmy Cagney roles. He is just the actor who can play them. |
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 Jim
Brown, as the heroic Marine captain who accompanies a mission sent to the
North Pole via a U.S. nuclear submarine in the suspenseful adventure-drama,
"Ice Station Zebra," a Martin Ransohoff Production presented by MGM in Super
Panavision and Metrocolor. With Rock Hudson portraying the submarine's
commander, the cast of the picture, from the novel by Alistair MacLean, also
stars Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan. John
Sturges directed.Ice Station Zebra Still 1840-73 Mat 1-G Jim Brown's Philosophy On Acting: You Got To Be Ready At Right Time "A man's got to be ready. It's not just a matter of getting the breaks. They're going to do him no good at all unless he's ready." Big Jim Brown, who retired from pro football while a champion to carve himself a career as a movie actor, was explaining his philosophy of achievement and why he is already doing homework for a scene in which it probably has never occurred to a producer to cast him. In his spare time, big-brawned Brown, with a 45½-inch chest and 32-inch waist, is teaching himself to cry. "If I make it in this business, some day I'm going to have to cry and you can't fake it," he said. "If you're dishonest the camera will give you away. You got to CRY." He didn't attempt to explain how he's going about this sensitive task. By nature a taciturn man, Brown does not wear even his thespic emotions on his sleeve. "I close myself in a room with sad music going and just try to get in the mood," was all he said. "But as yet I'm not ready for a scene like that." The man who for eight of his nine years with the Cleveland Browns (including his final year, 1965) led the National Football League in yards gained rushing, and who made All-Pro fullback in all the lists every year he played, was wearing a white parka on the blinding-white North Pole set of "Ice Station Zebra," MGM's big picture in Super Panavision and Metrocolor, with the temperature hitting 90 in the shade. He was the only man not wearing dark glasses ("I don't mind a little sun") and only a minimum of perspiration beaded on his broad face. Fortunately, as a captain in the U.S. Marines, he is mainly called upon to register toughness in the exciting new Martin Ransohoff production and seemed to be having no more trouble doing that than he did as the murderous G.I. in "The Dirty Dozen." On the strength of his smash hit in the earlier film, producer Ransohoff gave him full-star status in "Ice Station Zebra," along with Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Tony Bill and Lloyd Nolan. "But I'm not trying to push this," he said. "Mostly I'm concentrating on acting naturally. You can't be stiff or right away the audience knows that you're not with it. But I'm studying. And I talk with all the pros I can — not only actors but directors, cameramen, editors, all kinds. I pick up a little technique tip here, a little one there. Then I try what I think I can handle and check it out. If it looks okay in the rushes, I know I've got THAT." Brown went at football the same way. He didn't become the greatest runner in gridiron history by virtue of physical gifts and courage alone. He analyzed himself and his chances from the beginning and developed his best bets. For he is not primarily the physical man most people take him for. He is first the mental man. "I always figure that if I know my potential and work toward that, I'll have the best chance to be succesful," he said. "But a man's got to apply himself totally. He's got to put himself in a position to be successful and he's got to be ready when opportunity comes. Otherwise he'll never make the grade." |
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 • Go to Production Information on "Ice Station Zebra" |
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