Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

snicewanger Ice Palace strives to be a blockbuster movie. It boasts an eye catching cast, a wonderful musical score,and some impressive cinematography....and IT STINKS!!! Awful adaptation from the book. Laughably bad script! Poorly edited with a plot that moves so slow that it is almost comatose.Pedestrian direction by Vincent Sherman.Dickie Burton is totally miscast in the lead role. Robert Ryan's performance has all the subtle nuance of a kick in the groin. Carolyn Jones is in way over her head in a role that was supposed to have gone to Jean Simmons. The younger talent doesn't fare much better.Burton latter admitted that his principle interest in taking the role was in bagging his leading ladies in the film. He scored the trifecta and bedded Jones, McBain, and in the case of Shirley Knight claiming her maidenhood. He didn't mess with Martha Hyer because, according to George Takei, she was involved producer Hal Wallis and Wallis could have destroyed Burton's career. It certainly wasn't an interest in the film production that kept Burton in front of the camera.Ice Palace is sort of a dinosaur. Big, lumbering, clumsy, and out of date. You'll laugh, you''ll cringe ...at all the wrong times. Its 143 minutes of your life you will not be able to get back.

williwaw I like this movie due to the fact it celebrates the statehood of Alaska and it features Richard Burton pre Cleopatra when he was a solid journeyman Actor before all the hype of the Taylor/Burton affair. Vincent Sherman who made many fine films at Warner Bros. directs this film and it is a very easy going picture with great photography. Sherman did fine work at WB (and is noted for his relationships -at different times with feuding divas Joan Crawford and the Queen of the Lot Bette Davis)Am also a fan of the Warner Bros stock company of the 1960's and several players of that group are cast here including the fine actor Ray Danton, and the lovely Diane McBain. Both Danton and McBain were groomed for stardom and Warners kept both busy in both movies and TV. Luscious Diane McBain was so beautiful but got lost at WB standing behind glamour girls Natalie Wood, and Connie Stevens. Warners would shunt their stock players between various TV shows and movies filming on the lot. There is a great picture which I wish someone would find that showed J L Warner with the dozens of players under contract at the time shot on the back lot: Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, Edd Byrnes, Roger Smith, Peter Brown, Chad Everett, Dorothy Provine, Tony Eisley, Gary Vinson, Diane McBain, Ty Hardin et al, names that conjure up wonderful memories of a bygone era)Is "Ice Palace" a great movie? no! Is it enjoyable to watch? Yes!

jpdoherty ICE PALACE was a failed 1960 Warner Bros. minor blockbuster! Rather poorly adapted for the screen by Harry Kleiner from the best selling novel by Edna Ferber it was stodgily directed by Vincent Sherman on one of his off days! This would-be sprawling saga about Alaska statehood and the feud between two men in the fisheries industry did however have rich colour Cinematography by Joseph Biroc and a magnificent score by the studio's legendary Max Steiner!The picture, set in Alaska just after WW1, turned out to be a wearisome 143 minute soap opera! Like most Ferber stories, which tend to be overlong and tediously generational, ICE PALACE as a film suffers from an unremarkable screenplay, flabby direction and most importantly an unimpressive cast. Firstly, Richard Burton as the main protagonist is wholly wrong for the part! His "just mustered out regular U.S. soldier" character is simply at odds with Burton's own personality! His stern Englishness (does he ever smile) renders his playing totally unconvincing! You keep waiting for the actor to break into a reading from "Richard The 3rd" or use something from "Romeo & Juliet" in the love scenes! Secondly, Robert Ryan, in one of his rare sympathetic roles and sporting the colourful name of Thor Storm, isn't much better! He just doesn't suit the part of a bible quoting goody-two-shoes moralist! And the female lead has to be the casting director's idea of being humorous! Carolyn Jones - a second rate actress of little account - is amazingly cast here as the object of desire for both Burton and Ryan! Miss Jones - trying to look and act like Bette Davis - never struck me as the ideal woman that could set a fire alight in a man - let alone two! But I guess that's life.... in the movies anyhow! C'est La Vie!!The best thing about this near Turkey is Max Steiner's wonderful music! This was the composer's fourth score for a Ferber story following "Cimarron" (1931), "Saratoga Trunk" (1946) and "So Big" (1953). The composer's magnificent Anthem-like main theme for ICE PALACE - first heard over the titles - was purposely based on "Maryland My Maryland" and was once considered by Alaska for its state song. After the main title it segues into the music for the Prologue which can be heard under the splendid on-screen poem "Alaska" by Robert W. Service.............Wild And Wide Are My BordersStern As Death Is my Sway,And I Wait For The Men Who Will Win meAnd I Will Not Be Won In A Day,And I Will Not Be Won By WeaklingsSubtle, Soft And Mild,But By Men With The Hearts Of VikingsAnd The Simple Faith Of A Child. The score also boasts two beautiful love themes and a haunting Eskimo cue where the intuitive composer conveys a compelling ethnic impression. Also heard are exciting variations on the main theme for a montage of some fishing sequences and a terrific frenetic cue for a dog-sled as it races across a snow covered landscape.ICE PALACE never made the grade as even a competent movie! It could have been and should have been a whole lot better. If it is worth anything it is for Steiner's music! The esteemed composer once said that great music could never save a movie. In the case of ICE PALACE he was right on the button!

owlsgo-1 If this is the movie where there is a great granddaughter all grown and the two men are still battling and she says she is still 1/4 Eskimo. This happened at the end and there is a big parade - probably the state hood. I saw this back in 1961 and have remembered it for over 45 years and never seen it again. I've been frantically looking for this movie. I hope this is the one I am looking for. I loved the movie. And I want to see it again and again only this is the first time I've even come close to seeing if this is the right one or not. I found this movie to be educational, yet entertaining. I would recommend this movie to all young people who would like to hear about it. Rhonda Hill