Hell Below Zero (1954)

This movie is better than the Maltin movie book rates it. Ladd does well with a poorly written role, Niall MacGinnis and Stanley Baker are fine too. The weak link is a plot that doesn't make sense and Joan Tetzel as a not very interesting love interest.But a couple of other features push the movie up a notch. The beautiful color shots of whales being caught and slaughtered (in 1954! On a British ship!) are things you won't see elsewhere. I had no idea we were still killing whales on this scale at that time. Some scenes are right out of Moby Dick.Another surprise is the role of a feisty whaling woman (played by Jill Bennett) captaining a whale catching vessel. You don't often see women in such action roles, even today.And as others have noted, the mix of studio and arctic shots is pretty darn smooth. Much better than "Ice Station Zebra" for example. I was surprised and impressed.So if you're an Alan Ladd fan, go ahead and catch this one. Or if you're curious about how they caught whales in the mid-twentieth century, this is better than any documentary.

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?

The story of a whale factory captain who has allegedly committed suicide but to the disbelief of his daughter who is going to travel to the Antartic to prove otherwise. Not a bad start but then Alan Ladd enters and it goes downhill from there.It's not all bad. Stanley Baker plays the bad guy well and the climax is worth waiting for...just. On the way you will endure some graphic scenes of a whaling operation in action. This was probably far more palatable in 1953 than it is now. Also there is a fight scene that really reminded me of the 60's Batman TV series - but perhaps naffer.Approach with caution.....and not at all if you like whales.

In all Alan Ladd films when Alan stood up everyone else immediately sat down. Why? Well, my son, he was more of a laddie in stature than even a lad. In those days there were Rules. If, heaven forbid, a leading man hadn't a hairy chest or was vertically challenged, the other male cast members were depilated [Clark Gable MOGAMBO] or either sat, or stood in holes [male & female in all Alan's pictures].The Rules also stipulated that however macho [Rock Hudson], or articulate [James Dean] a leading man might appear, audiences regarded diminution as effeminate; this nancy distinction Hollywood felt firstly financially and secondly morally bound to cinematically correct. Regardless of history [Napoleon, Churchill] Hollywood knew best: A short man was short of something. At 5'6,' 'Tiny' Ladd seemed too short for a screen career.A pot boiler like HELL BELOW ZERO is the best measure of an actor- where, as here, the producer was a crook [Cubby Broccoli, later owing Sean Connery a packet- one small talent robbing another], the name support non-existent, and the star makes or breaks. Ladd, a former radio actor, with screen presence and persona to die for, makes in this execrable Hammond Innes drivel.Made in Britain [favourable currency exchange rates] ostensibly about whaling, it mutates to a British drawing room murder mystery with incomparable Britlish drabness- characters saying 'ken't' for 'can't' etc.Promoted to skipper of a whaling hell-hole where every crewman is putatively vital, [Joseph Tomelty, ham and equally atrocious playwright, having been thankfully concussed], Ladd has time to go 'investigating,' predictably ending up on the only South Atlantic, Lillian Gish ice floe where breath is not emitted as steam.But Ladd, on the inevitable downward spiral from SHANE, manages a coolness this refrigerated British turkey doesn't, and elucidates by example among Old Country antecedents that there is another way. One of the few great movie stars in the Hollywood firmament, no one noticed he was small at the time. Because, -Wallbridge - his middle name suggests and his talent confirms, he was a giant in 1950's Lilliput.