Scott of the Antarctic (1948)

Though not exactly the kind of picture that one would choose as a spirit-raiser, Scott of the Antarctic is nonetheless a moving and thoroughly captivating account of the ill-fated and tragic attempt by Captain Robert Falcon Scott to head the first team to reach the South Pole. It’s a story filled with human drama, not leas because Scott and his men fail in their quest and pay for this failure with their lives. Indeed, there’s so much potentially fascinating material here that it would be hard to NOT make a decent film from it, but director Charles Frend and writers Mary Hayley Bell, Walter Meade and Ivor Montagu have done far more than that. They have crafted a gripping, rending tale that demands the viewer’s attention, even when it is recounting the tediousness of parts of the journey. Indeed, so well have the creators done their job that it’s hard to tear one’s eyes away from the screen at all. The writers have done an especially fine job with the dialogue, much of it taken from Scott’s actual journal, which manages to delineate character and maintain personality without falling into excessive speechifying or archness. Scott is portrayed to a fare-thee-well by the tremendous John Mills, who work here is unimpeachable. Gorgeous if bleak cinematography is an invaluable part of the film’s success.

John Mills, Derek Bond, Harold Warrender, Christopher Lee

1948, colour, 111 minutes