Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Cool Sean, please pop in and let me know what you think of it.

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Director: John Sturges
Writers: Alistair MacLean (novel), Douglas Heyes (screenplay)
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller

About: A mystery at the North Pole has occurred. The scientists at Ice Station Zebra have radioed a garbled message for help!...Then comes only radio silence....Meanwhile the Soviet Union has a spy satellite with stolen high tech camera technology that has fallen from orbit and landed at the North Pole, on the drift ice. The U.S. sends a nuclear sub, the USS Tigerfish on a secret rescue mission. On board is an ex Russian who's defected to the west and a British SAS officer, along with a bunch of Marines. One of them might be a saboteur.


Background: Reportedly Ice Station Zebra was Howard Hughes favorite movie. As he owned a Las Vegas TV station the reclusive millionaire would call and request the movie to be played over and over. That was in the days before DVDs and VCRs. It ran over 100 times thanks to Hughes!

Rock Hudson who plays the submarine captain considered this his favorite movie of his own. Originally Charlton Heston was offered the role of submarine captain, but he turned it down, saying there was no characterization in the script. Indeed the movie has little characterization, and all the actors appear wooden even Rock Hudson. So it's odd that this is his favorite film when Rock has done much better movies and had much better roles.

The fault isn't with any of the actors but with a script that's heavy on intrigue but light on character motive. I guess Chuck Heston knows how to read a script!


The star of the movie is the cutting edge, underwater camera cinematography. That's a real sub you see diving under the water, and those ground breaking scenes were done with a special underwater camera designed and operated by the 2nd unit cameraman and cinematographer John M Stephens. The underwater scenes and the sub look amazingly real, because it is real! That alone makes the film well worth watching.


I found the first two acts that took place on the sub to be the best. Once the crew gets to Ice Station Zebra the movie becomes a standard fare story.

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Charlton Heston turned down the role to a lack of characterization...seriously? Heston is no Olivier.

Heston is a pretty good actor, have you ever seen him in Soylent Green?

I quite enjoy Ice Station Zebra, couldn't watch it more than once every decade tho'

You're no Howard Hughes

Ok, it's a fair cop ... what gave it away?

No jars of urine in the closet

That's called fiction. TV shows, literature, manga, even some lyrical songs, also work in the exactly same fashion.

The question is another: why obsess over a very specific form of fiction, that is "live action 2 hour long American films, usually made between 1940 and 1990?", since this is the specific form of film you review in here. Why it is so appealing to you? I will explain exactly why.

Historically fiction was mostly done in theater plays, since Ancient Greece each small town had its own theater. The Greeks were obsessed with it. In the 20th century with development of film, theater plays were filmed to be more easily distributed and consumed and these are called movies. They were 2 hours long because that is the amount of tine people found optimal to spend sitting in a movie theater.

Today TV shows are the dominant form of fiction in the Western world, while in Asia, manga and videogames are also extremely popular. The 2 hour long live action videoclip is an increasingly obsolete format of fiction. I guess movies might appeal to some older people more than TV shows because they are older and reflect more the spirit of the time and place. I guess middle aged Americans are attracted to mid 20th century American movies because it was "their" time and place.

People's sensibilities are formed in most cases in their youth, from the ages of 5 to their early 20s. Older people like the stuff made at the time their sensibilities were formed. That is why 70 year old film critics' top picks are from the 1950-60s, when they were 5-20 year olds. And they are also determined by the place where that stuff came from: if a person that is 5 to their early 20s years old only consumes North American film as their main form of fiction, that is what will determine their preference for fiction: 2 hour long American live action.

Hence, this obsession is pure social conditioning. After the brain's sensibilities are formed, the stuff that is different from the stuff it was conditioned to is automatically rejected. There, however, exists very few people that are intellectually curious, they are different in the sense their brains are more plastic and can accommodate greater variability from what they grew up with.

Director: Preston Sturges
Writer: Preston Sturges (screenplay)
Cast: Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee
Genre: Screw Ball-Dark Comedy, Romance

About: A flamboyant, misogynistic symphony conductor (Rex Harrision) brow beats everyone around him and then becomes jealous when he envisions his lovely wife (Linda Darnell) having an affair with his male secretary, thus prompting the mad genius to conceive of multiple scenarios for dealing with his wife's imaged infidelity.

Review: Hell, that mini synopsis sounds pretty good doesn't it? To bad the film is a confusion of different styles and drags in the third act. I've seen some pretty good work from Preston Sturges too, but this sure isn't one of them.

Problem 1, Rex Harrison is way over the top, with zero charm and maxim annoying-ability. The man grates on the nerves. A little Rex can be good thing, but a lot of Rex and I need ear plugs.

Problem 2, The film doesn't know what it wants to be? Is it a dark comedy? Rex Harrison is as dark as they come in this and that might have work if they hadn't then did the next problem. Or is it a zany screwball comedy?

Problem 3, Is the completely insane, slap stick third act...where for what feels like an eternity, Rex Harrison stumbles around trashing his apartment in a scene reminiscent of a Three Stooges movie. He stands on a chair but then his foot goes right through the wicker material (good grief)... then he 'tries' to open a high cupboard and the knob breaks off (a real knee slapper) and then he falls over and everything he touches breaks or falls over...and he's left setting in a big mess in his living room. I thought Preston Sturges was known for biting social observant commentary, delivered in a witty comic style...not here!

Do yourself a favor and instead watch the remake with Dudley Moore, Unfaithfully Yours (1984).

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I think it is a fairly decent movie. I like Paulette in there, and Ray Milland is pretty good in a more comedic role. It is a Pygmalion story. And I have never minded those just so long as they differ enough from each other. I would give it a try, if I were you. I think it is worth it.

I liked it, too.

I have always felt that Kenneth Branagh was great at playing Nazis.
But then again, I have always felt that Branagh was very good at playing anything. So I suppose you can't really listen to me when I can't find any fault with his performances. Ever.


Another one of the top films on my list that I considered for the HoF. I think it is a very good film.


Getting some 1930's out of the way already for that potential countdown? I haven't seen this movie in so long, but I know it is one that I really, really like. I don't have the slightest idea why, but I remember this film being one of the first VHS tapes that was owned in my house when I was a kid. Of ALL movies.


Never had any interest in the remake.

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Yes, it's my favorite Heston performance, but, still, he's no Olivier.

so disappointed you didn't like this...after seeing A Letter to Three Wives I had been curious about the rest of Linda Darnell's resume and was thinking of starting here, but from what you say, I guess not.

You're not missing much. There is a Of Human Bondage (1946), with Paul Henreid, Elanor Parker and Alexis Smith....but damned if I could find a copy. Anyone know where? PM if you do.

But...Unfaithfully Yours is highly rated at IMDB so if you want to see a film with Linda Darnell, you might like it. She does have a lot of screen time.

One of my favs of her movies is Summer Storm (1944) A movie adaptation of a work by Chekhov, and directed by one of the greats Douglas Sirk.

Director: Jim McBride
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder, John Doe
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music

The meteoric rise and fall of one of rock's greatest performers, The Killer...Jerry Lee Lewis. 1989's Great Balls of Fire is based on a book written by Myra Lewis who was Jerry Lee Lewis' cousin and married him at the tender age of 13.

The movie chronicles the early career of Jerry Lee from his bid to become a rock legend in his own time....to his wildly successful music and stage shows...and his highly controversial marriage to his 13 year old cousin, that would ultimately lead to his downfall.


Director Jim McBride takes us on a visually stunning film that is packed with stunning period piece sets, so rich that one thinks the crew had a time machine back to the 1950s. The movie is really a thing of beauty to look at.

Even more impressive is the free flowing overlapping scene style that is reminiscent of a music video. Normally that might be a bad thing but here it's a huge plus! Instead of the usually style of film making, the scenes are more fluid and impart an emotion, that emotion is pure unbridled joy coupled with a reckless energy all wrapped up with the high energy sounds of Jerry's music as the soundtrack.

Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder as Jerry lee and Myra...burn up the screen with their charisma. Which is odd as we're watching a 22 year old man sweep a 13 year old girl off her feet...and yet it works!


Quaid embodies Jerry Lee, it's an amazingly entertaining and vicious performance. And talk about vicious liveliness, Winona Ryder lights up the screen with her enthusiasm. I don't know if the real
Myra was this fun loving and colorful, but who cares! this isn't trying to be a documentary or even a serious biopic....It's a 98 minute joy ride at break neck speed, all wrapped in authentic songs recorded for the movie by that bad boy himself, Jerry Lee Lewis. Yahoo!

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i have seen this and you just reminded me to rewatch it. I remember to have a good time with this movie.

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So glad you enjoyed the film, Citizen...Quaid has rarely been better.

I've heard talk of a third version with Eleanor Parker but I'll be damned if if it's available anywhere or know anyone who's ever seen it.