The director was sacked, the leading lady was sacked and the film was held back from a US release for 10 years. Food for thought perhaps, before devoting time to seeing this (relatively) early John Hurt vehicle. He plays a self-absorbed biology student sent for an extended solo research project on penguins in the Antarctic. It's really not spoiling to add that at the conclusion of the exercise, he returns to his London home, a changed man.
Even though the penguin footage is some 50 years old, most viewers will still enjoy, perhaps even marvel at the birds' varied and comical behaviour at their rookery. They are eternally fascinating creatures and here we see them both at play and in a battle to survive (in some respects) with the large skua-gulls, which tend to prey on penguin eggs and hatchlings.
The trouble with the film is the awkward framing template cobbled together to give Mr Forbush a back story. Make no mistake, Richard Forbush is very much a fictitious character based on no one, certainly no scientist. As a university student, the last thing that appears to be on his mind, is his studies. Instead we see him primarily engaged in the hapless pursuit of the Hayley Mills character, Tara St John Luke (if you don't mind). This is a complete nothing role for the very capable Mills, who was brought in by her producer husband Roy Boulting, who sacked the previous leading lady, after she'd virtually completed the part. We get multiple scenes of Tara sitting in a London flat with her current boy friend, listening to tapes sent to her by Forbush ... as you do. Whoa! Be still my beating heart! While he was at it, Boulting decided to sack director Al Viola and replace him, with himself. Go figure!
Hurt does his best, with what for much of the movie is a pretty unsympathetic, unrealistic part. Don't even begin to think he plays a David Attenborough or Jane Goodall type scientist. No, he's of the vintage that manage to build (albeit cleverly) a Roman ballista, in the Antarctic, to attack the poor old gulls, who after all, are just out for a feed too.
The more successful movies of this type (E.G. Gorillas in the Mist, Born Free, Never Cry Wolf) are usually based to some extent on real scientists' lives and experiences, which serve as natural framing devices to accompany the animal content. In this film the very lame human's story pales in dramatic comparison to the birds' real life adventures and the whole movie is hobbled permanently as a result.
