Spy drama? Documentary look at the lives of Eskimos? Which is it? Its both, its two great tastes that kind of taste just okay together.
What a weird film, I say that having seen some truly bizarre films in my day but this one is so out there, that despite not really being something I'd completely recommend I'm putting it out there for the adventurous of you.
The plot has to do wit a weird lights being seen in Alaska at the point where Siberia is closest to the US. All sorts of strange lights are being seen but no one is certain what it means. There are also sightings of a strange black plane. The Military sends up a high ranking official who warns a military base that the commies are working on a terrifying new weapon that isn't atomic based. Hoping to get info they send several Eskimo soldiers home to see what they can find out. While on leave they hunt, fish, romance and deal with a commie spy in their midst.
A weird mix of shoddily cheap shot military spy stuff, as well as red menace crap with actors speaking in bad accents mixed with documentary footage of Eskimo life including hunting, fishing and boating. There is so much documentary footage you'll wonder what that you'll wonder what type of film this is anyway.
Amazingly the Eskimo material is amazingly honest and fair minded. There is zero condescension or notion of anything other than these are great people and great Americans. You would never have seen this even in the most progressive of westerns, or even most documentaries of the period.
To be honest the actor inserts with Ray Mala as our Eskimo agent doesn't always match, but I suppose its the thought that counts.
The American army and commie material is more laughable then suspenseful and I kind of feel that no one really cared about that stuff, which may have been used simply as the excuse to get the film made (who wants an Eskimo film any way? asked the studio head)
IMDB rates this rather highly, I consider it something more of interest to people who like weird films rather than anyone with mainstream tastes.
Out on Sinister Cinema DVD
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