L'isola della paura

The UK-Canada co-production treaty of the late Seventies produced a lot of dross. "Bear Island" is better than some of its companions but still no classic.

Alistair MacLean's novel was a turgid affair, written at the start of his long decline as a writer. The film-makers wisely ditch most of his plot but the story they substitute, about an icy hunt for wartime Nazi gold, is no masterpiece of originality. Vanessa Redgrave's Norwegian accent comes and goes (at times, she sounds like the Swedish chef from "The Muppets") and Donald Sutherland tries for depth by speaking - very - very - slowly. Anybody who has seen a few of these films won't take long to guess the identity of the "mystery" villain.

On the credit side, the locations are spectacular and Robert Farnon's music score is appropriately portentous. Don Sharp knows how to direct action (he had been brought in a few years earlier to ginger up another MacLean adaptation, "Pupper On a Chain") and the fights are well-staged.

German scientist Otto Gerran (Richard Widmark) leads an expedition to icy Bear Island - which was also a base for Nazi U-boats in WWII - for some kind of environmental research. Included in the group are fellow scientist Frank Lansing (Donald Sutherland), nurse Heddi Lindquist (Vanessa Redgrave), Russian Lechinski (Christopher Lee) and boat captain Smithy (Lloyd Bridges) among others. When they arrive at the titular location, the group discovers one of the three folks stationed there has gone missing. Before you can say TEN LITTLE INDIANS, folks start getting offed in an effort to hide the island's secret.

This is a pretty enjoyable action-mystery adaptation of Alistair MacLean's snowbound novel. The cast is all game, which is good as this must have been a hell of a production to shoot as 70% of it looks shot on location (Alaska and Canada). Director Don Sharp keeps things moving fast and, while you'll probably solve most of the mystery early on, there are still some nice twists. The production is nicely mounted, with great sets and some nice Bond-esquire snow chases. One great scene has Sutherland discovering a German U-boat and he finds the dead crew aboard it, shackled to their posts.

One interesting thing my friend who sent this to me pointed out is that this totally has a vibe of John Carpenter's THE THING. Now, of course, THE THING is a remake but I'd wager that film's screenwriter Bill Lancaster or John Carpenter saw this before setting about their version. The opening - where a lone guy runs across a snow-covered plain while being chased by a snowboat - sounds exactly like the opening of Carpenter's film. Look for Bruce Greenwood in his first big screen roll as Tommy the Technician, sporting an epic beard.

Film with good scenes from Alaska and good actors. He holds attention until the end of the film

As usual with Alistair McLean, it's a great story, but this time they fooled around with it a little too much, overdoing it into almost a parody, drowning the thriller in deafening music and exaggerated technical effects, waltzing around with snow scooters in wild goose chases, and so on. Everything is good until the stormy night, when everything collapses and relapses into chronic confusion, and on top of it all the actors can't speak clearly. Donald Sutherland is clear enough and sticks to his role all the way, Vanessa Redgrave is fair enough also in her acting as always, Richard Widmark also excels in honesty as usual, and who already in 1979 grapples with the problem of climate change and global warming, Christopher Lee is the greatest actor here though, playing an honest Russian for a change, Lloyd Bridges is queer enough, but in the resulting confusion of the sabotages coming in tautologies, it's not quite clear who fired on whom and who caused all those fires and ruined the generator, the radio mast, mixed up the books and so on. Many seem to have messed with many things, and what about poor Larsen? Was his body ever found? Who killed him and why? What did he try to communicate? Sorry, there is too much confusion in this hullabaloo of intrigues and counter-intrigues.

Still it's worth seeing, if not for anything else then at least for the story and Donald's discovery of his father. Here is the real mystery and central plot of the story – the mysterious fate of the last German u-boat captain, and the scene revealing the u-boat is a thriller in itself you'll always remember.

The similar theme music, Arctic setting, Norwegians and group alone left wondering who the antagonist is. This is a neat little film I found cross referencing Donald Sutherland films I haven't seen before. The Nazi U boat subplot is also great for its atmosphere. Another bonus is that it offers a pretty good line up of old school actors such as Richard Widmark, Loyd Bridges and Christopher Lee. There aren't many great films about the Arctic but this is one that you will enjoy.