On the remote Norwegian Bear Island, used as a submarine base by the Germans during WW2, U.N. scientist Larsen sends a distress signal using an emergency NATO frequency and is received by scientific vessel Morning Rose. A group of people converge on a barren Arctic island. They have their reasons for being there but when a series of mysterious accidents and murders take place, a whole lot of darker motives become apparent. Could the fortune in buried Nazi gold be the key to the mystery? Donald Sutherland and Vanessa Redgrave investigate. 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.<br/><br/>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. This is a confusing film that makes very poor use of an all-star cast. Widmark, Redgrave, Sutherland, Bridges, Lee and more plod their ways through a story which has little explanation until the very end, which is reached after far too long a time.<br/><br/>None of the cast seem very enthusiastic, and much of the action is of the 'fast and furious' type, accompanied by loud music, often adopted in films with little to really shout about. The majority of the film makes little real sense with people being killed off but no one doing much about it except, of course, the hero played by Sutherland. People race around over the snow, over the ice and over the water, making maximum use of assorted vehicles, but to what purpose ? <br/><br/>In the end, it's just another story about those pesky Nazis doing what Nazis always do - hiding in the shadows, murdering and stealing. Yawn ! It's 2 hours of very underwhelming and, frankly, largely boring stuff, made all the worse by the ridiculously overblown casting.<br/><br/>Worst is that I'll never get those 2 hours back.
Peaksakar replied
295 weeks ago