The captain of an Antarctic whaling ship falls overboard in mysterious circumstances and his daughter, aided by a sympathetic American, decides to investigate the accident. Duncan Craig signs on a whaling ship, partly because his own business deal has fallen through, partly to help Judie Nordhall find her father. Rumor has it that her father may have been murdered by Erik Bland, son of her father's partner and her one-time lover. Duncan and Erik find themselves on rival whaleboats and, ultimately, on an ice floe. HELL BELOW ZERO is a tough adventure starring Alan Ladd, although the real star of the show are the icy Antarctic locations. It's something of a murder mystery in which Ladd becomes involved with a woman who believes her father, the captain of a whaling ship, was murdered by a rival. The two end up travelling to the Antarctic themselves in order to solve the mystery.<br/><br/>This is a pretty well paced little film with some exemplary fight scenes to enjoy; that early bust-up in the hotel room is a fitting introduction to Ladd's character and great fun. The stuff that takes place on the whaling ship is also highly suspenseful, benefiting from two solid performances: a young Stanley Baker as Ladd's rival, and the excellent Niall MacGinnis as the drunken ship's doctor.<br/><br/>What follows is a solid adaptation of the novel by Hammond Innes, featuring men fighting both the inhospitable locations and traitorous murderers. Ladd is a serviceable rather than remarkable lead, but the quality supporting cast make up for him. The one thing that blighted HELL BELOW ZERO, for me, was the whaling sequence featuring real-life footage of whales being harpooned over and over again while characters celebrate the massacre. It's pretty sickening stuff, although thankfully it only occurs in a single part of the movie. If you want to learn how to skin a whale, and if you like Alan Ladd, Hell Below Zero is what you've been looking for. It's the story of Duncan Craig (Ladd) who winds up in South Africa to straighten out his partner in a would-be gold mine. Craig has lost a bundle, there is no gold mine, and he straightens out his partner, now former partner, with his fists. On the flight down from London he met Judy Nordhal (Joan Tetzel), a young woman whose father, a partner in a big whaling operation and skipper of a mother ship, has been reported missing overboard during a storm in the Antarctic seas. She has been accompanied by John Bland (Basil Sydney), the very British co-partner, whose son, Erik Bland (Stanley Baker), was second in command when Judy's father went missing. At one time Judy and Erik had been engaged, but that is now over. Judy and John Bland plan to go to the mother ship and hold an inquiry. Duncan, in order to be with Judy, has managed to become second in command on the ship taking them to the mother ship. They can smell the mother ship before they see her. "That's the smell of money," John Bland points out to Duncan. Soon we're on the mother ship, the big whale processing plant which picks up and cuts apart the whales the smaller catcher ships harpoon. The flotilla also includes an ice-breaker. Up to now we've had the time to settle in with Alan Ladd into one of his competent adventure movies. We've gotten to know the main characters, except for Erik. We've seen for ourselves how cold and stormy are the Antarctic waters. We've been given a short and visual course on the importance of whaling and on how whales are caught and turned into oil and dog food. <br/><br/>Now, however, with all on board the mother ship, we learn that it was highly unlikely Judy's father just lost his footing during a gale. We discover that a seaman is being held for no apparent cause in the brig, deep in the shadowy bowels of the ship. We see the true nature of Eric Bland. We take part in an exhilarating chase on a catcher ship after whales and the harpooning of several of them, using a gun that blasts out harpoons which carry explosive charges. (Remember this; one of these big harpoons comes in handy later.) We find ourselves in fist fights (Ladd usually wins); there's a brutal murder; and then we're stuck on a freezing Antarctic ice shelf, our catcher ship carrying Craig and Judy rammed by the ice breaker captained by Erik. It all comes down to a vicious fight on the snow between Duncan Craig and Erik Bland, with both using heavy, sharp pick axes. <br/><br/>The movie's not bad, at least if you close your eyes during the whale murdering…I mean, whaling scenes. The movie is a solid Alan Ladd adventure, made at a time when the whale population was on no one's radar except whaling ships. Take the movie as something of its time and don't judge it entirely by today's sensitivities. <br/><br/>Hell Below Zero was based on the adventure novel The White South by Hammond Innes (real name: Ralph Hammond-Innes). He was a successful writer of adventure novels that combined detailed descriptions of interesting places with solid story lines. They feature decent, honorable heros who turn out to be more resourceful than we might expect. Hammond- Innes and his wife would typically go journeying for six months, then he'd write a novel featuring the place they'd been to. He was a first-class travel writer and a superior adventure writer. He had a long career but probably is largely forgotten now. In my opinion, he still is readable. Over the years I've gone through most of his books at least twice. If you're interested in sampling his work, try Air Bridge, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, Campbell's Kingdom, The Land God Gave to Cain or The Doomed Oasis. Summer reading, perhaps, but good summer reading.
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