Hölle unter Null

Duncan Craig and Judie Nordhall meet on a plane heading out to the Antarctic and win each other over during the flight. He has come for a business opportunity, she has come to disprove claims that her father, a whale ship captain, died by accident or by suicide – she believes it was murder and intends to prove it. When his business deal goes bad Duncan signs up with Judie's ship as first mate to help her in her quest. The ship in question is owned by John Bland – a hard man but nothing compared to his scheming son Erik, whom Duncan hears has had a hand in the death of Judie's father, a rumour that Duncan is very keen to quash.

Every inch the typical period adventure movie you expect it to be, this film opens with women in distress and a big strong man with a big wide chest there to help her in a big manly world of whaling. That it was this genre was no surprise but I had hoped it would be a good film rather than just being rather average and par for the course but sadly that is just what it was. The plot is fairly obvious and shuns logic and tension in favour of a more steady and predictable path that produces romance, stand-offs and the sort of fights where the bad guys line up with boxes raised just so that they can be hit by the hero and fall over. The characters seem to offer complex depths but unsurprisingly we stay on the surface of everything and really go nowhere with them as people. The story just about cuts it for a wet Saturday afternoon but don't expect any more than that.

What it does do well is use outdoor locations pretty well, although given that much of it is whale being cut up that may not be a good thing to everyone. The backdrops and sets are poor but the ice flows are convincing and bits of it do make the film stick in the mind but this is not enough to make it worth seeing for alone. The cast are actually outdone by the location use and most of them are too stiff to convince. Ladd does just what you expect and if that is enough for you then fine – I accepted him as part of the genre. Tetzel is poor, failing to have chemistry Ladd, failing to produce a real person and being outdone by Bennett, who makes a much more interesting and energetic female role. Sydney is stiff but Baker is good and it is just a shame that he didn't have more screen time (or a character whose motivations made sense).

Overall this is a solid but average adventure yarn with nothing particularly remarkable to recommend it for. Perhaps the use of real whaling ships is of interest to some but everything else is by the numbers stuff that did enough to meet what I had been expecting but nothing more than that.

Hell Below Zero finds Alan Ladd as an American flying to Capetown to see about some mining investments. He meets Joan Tetzel on the plane and is intrigued by her. She's going there to investigate her father's death for herself, she doesn't like the initial verdict of suicide.

Ladd's investment has gone up in smoke and after he metes out a justified beat down to Peter Dyneley. He looks up Joan Tetzel at the Capetown equivalent of the Merchant Seaman's Hall. She's now half owner of a whaling vessel with Basil Sydney and his son, Stanley Baker and she's not happy with their explanation of things. On a flip of a coin since apparently Ladd has nothing else to do, he signs on their vessel as the first mate.

Though the personal story takes a melodramatic turn, I have got to hand it to the folks at Shepperton Studios. Other than using some establishing color cinematography to depict Capetown, the Ocean, the whaling, and the Antarctic, the film was shot in the United Kingdom. But you would never realize it, that's how good the sets are. There is a film Bear Island with Richard Widmark and Donald Sutherland that is also a polar location and that was done in North Labrador to simulate the Arctic. You can't tell the two apart, viewed side by side during the Antarctic sequences.

Best performance in the film however is Jill Esmond as a female Norwegian whaling ship captain, a part that is obviously a lesbian. Filmed today Jill's character would be quite open about her sexual orientation.

This is one of three British made films that Alan Ladd did for Columbia release in the USA during the Fifties. Hell Below Zero is easily the best of the three because of its production values. Very similar to the studio recreation of the Himalayas in Black Narcissus.

Mark Robson must have remembered he directed in 1943 the absolutely remarkable "ghost ship " ,one of his VaL Lewton productions,all of which worth seeking out.

that's why the second third is arguably the best : a delightful villain (Stanley Baker,who else?),a mystery , a disturbing atmosphere in the depths of the ship;Robson can make the best of the hold and of the engine room.

More than the bland heroine ,Gerda is for the time a very modern character that should have been more developed ;it's her that should have accompanied Ladd in the final chase,not the frail clueless girl.

The last third seems a bit botched anyway ,but it's an entertaining adventures movie.

In the 21st century, this film is remarkable and valuable for one thing- as an archive of mid 20th century whaling, when the industrial killing was at its height. You will never again see so many blue whales together at one time. Pity they're all dead, next to the factory ship ready for processing. The whaling fleet was British (yes, we did that!). As a marine biologist I had seen many scenes of harpooning, but I had never seen the scenes of flensing and the industrial moving of such huge objects. I have never had a better illustration of the mass of a blue whale than when I saw it turned on the deck of the factory ship. Also, the blackboard chalking up what were presumably genuine daily scores for each whaleship was amazing. The attitudes of the leading characters at the successful capture of a blue whale were also stunning to see. If you have an interest in the whaling debate, see this film. I doubt there is a better film record of industrial whaling anywhere.

6 you say after reading all the other,very negative comments. Yes 6,I watched this this afternoon on UK channel 4,I watched it because I have never heard of it before and I like some of the work of the director Mark Robson. It is not an undiscovered classic but it was quite enjoyable and interesting for what it says about society at the time it was made. The film features some beautiful old aeroplanes,Constellations I think. There is a flight to South Africa,it looks beautiful,very rich.you don't see many black people in the background,the characters don't see to meet any Afrikaners,that is dutch speaking south Africans either. The scenes at the docks main feature British working class types. The action then moves to the whaling fleet,studio shots are mixed with film of real whaling operations. Few people in those days cared much about the whales and parts of the film are like a promo film for the whaling industry. Everybody looks macho except the women who just look nice,Jill Bennett plays a cute little Norwegian whaling skipper and everybody has a great time killing whales. I like Alan Ladd in this film,I like Alan Ladd in every film,he plays more or less the same part in each film,ordinary guy pushed into extraordinary situations. I won't give away the plot but the film looks great,I know that the look of the film looks tacky now but I like the bright colours and the fight scenes,its Tuesday afternoon and I am waiting for the gas man,I do not expect too much. Slagging off this film with 2005 eyes is stupid,it is just a piece of fun,sit back and marvel at the radios the size of fridges and the whaling ships which no longer exist. I am from Edinburgh Scotland and we used to send whalers to that part of the world,hope some of the old fellows who used to go south were watching this and recognised the old boats. How many films did Alan Ladd make where he was an ex soldier/sailor/airman down on his luck?