Scott of the Antarctic (1948 film)
Encyclopedia
Scott of the Antarctic is a 1948
film
about Robert Falcon Scott
's ill-fated expedition
to be the first to the South Pole
in Antarctica in 1910-12. John Mills
played Scott, with a supporting cast which included James Robertson Justice
, Derek Bond
, Kenneth More
, John Gregson
, Barry Letts
and Christopher Lee
.
Produced by Ealing
Studios, the film was directed by Charles Frend
largely on location in Norway
. It was filmed in Technicolor
. The script was by Ivor Montagu
, Walter Meade and the novelist Mary Hayley Bell
, Mills' wife. The film is also known for its score
by Ralph Vaughan Williams
that was later reworked into his Sinfonia Antarctica
.
Shot mostly on location, the film is largely faithful to the real events of the ill-fated polar trek, with emphasis on the heroic character of Scott and the significance of their expedition.
, who insists that a polar expedition must use dogs. Scott goes on a fundraising campaign, and despite popular skepticism, manages to raise enough money to fund the expedition.
After a stop in New Zealand, the ship sets sail for Antarctica. Once there, a camp is set up at the coast, and a small contingent of men, horses and dogs begins the trek towards the pole. About halfway, the horses are shot and some of the men are sent back with the dogs. At the three quarter mark, Scott selects the five-man team to make the push to the pole. They reach the pole only to find the Norwegian flag already planted there and a letter from Roald Amundsen
asking Scott to deliver it to the King of Norway.
Hugely disappointed, Scott's team begins the long journey back. Scott is very concerned about the health of two of his men: Evans, who has a serious cut on his hand, and Oates, whose foot is appallingly frost-bitten. Evans eventually dies and is buried under the snow. Just 11 miles short of a supply depot, the rest of the team dies soon after Scott writes the famous "I do not regret this journey…" entry in his log.
The film was lampooned in the Monty Python Series 2 episode 'Scott of the Antarctic'.
1948 in film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
about Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
's ill-fated expedition
Terra Nova Expedition
The Terra Nova Expedition , officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910, was led by Robert Falcon Scott with the objective of being the first to reach the geographical South Pole. Scott and four companions attained the pole on 17 January 1912, to find that a Norwegian team led by Roald...
to be the first to the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
in Antarctica in 1910-12. John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
played Scott, with a supporting cast which included James Robertson Justice
James Robertson Justice
James Robertson Justice was a popular British character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.-Biography:...
, Derek Bond
Derek Bond
Derek William Douglas Bond MC was a British actor.-Life and career:Derek Bond was born 26 January 1920 in Glasgow, Scotland. He attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hampstead, London. He saw active service with the Grenadier Guards in North Africa during the Second World War, for which he...
, Kenneth More
Kenneth More
Kenneth Gilbert More CBE was a highly successful English film actor during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman.-Early life:Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the...
, John Gregson
John Gregson
John Gregson was an English actor.He was born Harold Thomas Gregson, of Irish descent, and grew up in Wavertree, Liverpool, where he was educated at Greenbank Road primary school, later St Francis Xavier School...
, Barry Letts
Barry Letts
Barry Leopold Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and for producing the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
and Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
.
Produced by Ealing
Ealing
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...
Studios, the film was directed by Charles Frend
Charles Frend
Charles Frend was an English film director.Charles Frend started his career at British International Pictures in 1931 and after editing Hitchcock's Waltzes from Vienna moved to Gaumont British Pictures in 1933 where he worked as an editor on Alfred Hitchcock's movies Secret Agent , Sabotage and...
largely on location in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. It was filmed in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
. The script was by Ivor Montagu
Ivor Montagu
The Honorable Ivor Goldsmid Samuel Montagu was a British filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, film critic, writer, table tennis player and apparent Soviet spy...
, Walter Meade and the novelist Mary Hayley Bell
Mary Hayley Bell
Mary Hayley Bell, Lady Mills was an English actress, writer and dramatist.Mary Hayley Bell was born in Shanghai, China, where her father served in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, and the family later moved to Tianjin . It was there that she first met John Mills, although exactly when is not...
, Mills' wife. The film is also known for its score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
that was later reworked into his Sinfonia Antarctica
Sinfonia Antartica (Vaughan Williams)
Sinfonia antartica is the Italian title given by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams to his seventh Symphony. - History :...
.
Shot mostly on location, the film is largely faithful to the real events of the ill-fated polar trek, with emphasis on the heroic character of Scott and the significance of their expedition.
Plot summary
Captain Scott is given the men, but not the funds, to go on a second expedition to the Antarctic. As his wife works on a bust of him, she tells him that she's "not the least jealous" that he's going to the Antarctic again. The wife of a scientist whom Scott hopes to recruit has a very different opinion from Scott's wife, but the scientist agrees to go. Scott also visits Fridtjof NansenFridtjof Nansen
Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In his youth a champion skier and ice skater, he led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, and won international fame after reaching a...
, who insists that a polar expedition must use dogs. Scott goes on a fundraising campaign, and despite popular skepticism, manages to raise enough money to fund the expedition.
After a stop in New Zealand, the ship sets sail for Antarctica. Once there, a camp is set up at the coast, and a small contingent of men, horses and dogs begins the trek towards the pole. About halfway, the horses are shot and some of the men are sent back with the dogs. At the three quarter mark, Scott selects the five-man team to make the push to the pole. They reach the pole only to find the Norwegian flag already planted there and a letter from Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....
asking Scott to deliver it to the King of Norway.
Hugely disappointed, Scott's team begins the long journey back. Scott is very concerned about the health of two of his men: Evans, who has a serious cut on his hand, and Oates, whose foot is appallingly frost-bitten. Evans eventually dies and is buried under the snow. Just 11 miles short of a supply depot, the rest of the team dies soon after Scott writes the famous "I do not regret this journey…" entry in his log.
The film was lampooned in the Monty Python Series 2 episode 'Scott of the Antarctic'.
Cast
- John MillsJohn MillsSir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
as Captain R.F. Scott R.N.Robert Falcon ScottCaptain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13... - Diana ChurchillDiana Churchill (actress)Diana Churchill was an English film and stage actress.She was born Diana Josephine Churchill in Wembley, Middlesex on 21 August 1913. On leaving school she begged her father to let her train for the stage...
as Kathleen ScottKathleen ScottKathleen Scott, Baroness Kennet, FRSBS was a British sculptor.-Early life:Born Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce at Carlton in Lindrick, Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, she was the youngest of eleven children of Canon Lloyd Stuart Bruce and Jane Skene Kathleen Scott, Baroness Kennet, FRSBS (27 March... - Harold WarrenderHarold WarrenderHarold Warrender was a British film actor.His father was Sir George Warrender, 7th Baronet.-Selected filmography:* Leave It to Blanche * Lady in Danger * Mimi * Lazybones...
as Dr. E.A. WilsonEdward Adrian WilsonEdward Adrian Wilson was a notable English polar explorer, physician, naturalist, painter and ornithologist.-Early life:... - Anne Firth as Oriana Wilson
- Derek BondDerek BondDerek William Douglas Bond MC was a British actor.-Life and career:Derek Bond was born 26 January 1920 in Glasgow, Scotland. He attended Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Hampstead, London. He saw active service with the Grenadier Guards in North Africa during the Second World War, for which he...
as Captain L.E.G. OatesLawrence OatesCaptain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates was an English Antarctic explorer, known for the manner of his death, when he walked from a tent into a blizzard, with the words "I am just going outside and may be some time".... - Reginald BeckwithReginald BeckwithReginald Beckwith was a British film and television actor, who made almost one hundred film and television appearances in his career.-Filmography:* Freedom Radio * Scott of the Antarctic...
as Lieutenant H.R. Bowers - James Robertson JusticeJames Robertson JusticeJames Robertson Justice was a popular British character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.-Biography:...
as Petty Officer 'Taff' Evans R.N.Edgar EvansPetty Officer Edgar Evans was a member of the Polar Party on Robert Falcon Scott's companions on his ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole in 1911–1912... - Kenneth MoreKenneth MoreKenneth Gilbert More CBE was a highly successful English film actor during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman.-Early life:Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the...
as Lieutenant E.G.R. 'Teddy' Evans R.N.Edward Evans, 1st Baron MountevansAdmiral Edward Ratcliffe Garth Russell Evans, 1st Baron Mountevans, KCB, DSO , known as "Teddy" Evans, was a British naval officer and Antarctic explorer... - Norman Williams as Chief Stoker W. Lashly R.N.William LashlyWilliam Lashly was a Royal Navy seaman who was a member of both of Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expeditions.-Early life:The son of a farm worker, Lashly was born in Hambledon, Hampshire, a village near Portsmouth, England...
- John GregsonJohn GregsonJohn Gregson was an English actor.He was born Harold Thomas Gregson, of Irish descent, and grew up in Wavertree, Liverpool, where he was educated at Greenbank Road primary school, later St Francis Xavier School...
as Petty Officer T. Crean R.N. - James McKechnie as Surgeon Lieutenant E.L. Atkinson R.N.Edward L. AtkinsonEdward Leicester Atkinson DSO AM RN was a Royal naval surgeon and Antarctic explorer who was a member of the scientific staff of Captain Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. He was in command of the expedition's base at Cape Evans for much of 1912, and led the party which found the tent...
- Barry LettsBarry LettsBarry Leopold Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and for producing the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
as Apsley Cherry-GarrardApsley Cherry-GarrardApsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard was an English explorer of Antarctica. He was a survivor of the Terra Nova Expedition and is acclaimed for his historical account of this expedition, The Worst Journey in the World.... - Dennis VanceDennis VanceDennis Vance was a British television producer and director.Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, he began his career as an actor in the late 1940s, appearing in small parts in various films before switching to become a producer with BBC Television in the early 1950s...
as Charles S. Wright - Larry Burns as Petty Officer P. Keohane R.N.Patrick KeohanePetty Officer Patrick Keohane was an Irish member of Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition of 1910–1913, the Terra Nova Expedition.-Biography:Patrick Keohane was born in Courtmacsherry, County Cork, Ireland in 1879....
- Edward Lisak as Dimitri
- Melville Crawford as Cecil MearesCecil MearesCecil Henry Meares was the chief dog handler and Russian interpreter on the Terra Nova Expedition, the British expedition to Antarctica that took place from 1910 to 1913...
- Christopher LeeChristopher LeeSir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
as Bernard Day - John Owers as F.J. Hooper
- Bruce SetonBruce SetonMajor Sir Bruce Lovat Seton of Abercorn, 11th Baronet , better known as Bruce Seton, was a British actor and soldier....
as Lieutenant H. Pennell R.N. - Clive MortonClive MortonClive Morton was an English actor who made many screen appearances, especially on television. In 1955, he appeared in Laurence Olivier's Richard III and is recalled by fans of Doctor Who for his role as Trenchard in The Sea Devils in 1972...
as Herbert PontingHerbert PontingHerbert George Ponting, FRGS was a professional photographer. He is best known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole... - Sam KyddSam KyddSam Kydd was an Ulster-born English actor. An army officer's son, he was born in Belfast, but moved to London, England when he was a child. He was educated at Dunstable Grammar School in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England....
as Leading Stoker E. McKenzie R.N.