Alaskan melodrama in which Richard Burton rises from unemployment to cannery mogul, getting everything he wants through ruthless determination. Carolyn Jones is the other side of the coin, a woman who fails through indetermination to get anything she wants out of life - including Burton.It's another Edna Ferber novel about industrial pioneers with an underlying environmental message (the devastation of fish stocks). It's unappealing and humourless, with Burton laying it on too thick, and the drama driven by unpleasant people finding excuses to get on each others' nerves.Then (like Ferber's Giant) it starts to creak across generations with lots of unconvincing aging and new characters appearing late in the film we are surprised to have to care about. Finally, just to ratchet up the excitement, it gets all political.Watching pack-ice breaking up would be more satisfying.

Without any doubt one of the corniest, most idiotic dramas of all time. Based on a "novel" by one of those dim-witted and talentless 5-dime soap-opera female writers, it lives "up" to its expectations, and then some: this film is a laugh-a-minute drama which easily qualifies for a "Mystery Science Theater 3000" treatment. The dialog, the story, the characters, the plot-twists, the plot-devices, and the unintentionally comical dramatic soundtrack all combine to form a movie that has to be seen to be believed. The sheer imbecility of it all is a joy. Ed Wood would have been proud had he made it.Where should I even begin? Here goes, in no particular order: 1) Burton's and Ryan's granddaughter (how poetic) is quarter Eskimo, but what about those blond, Swedish looks? 2) Her Eskimo Daddy is basically a white college type with dark oil smeared onto his face, 3) His fight with the bear is a comedic highlight; watch how he goes at the bear (and why isn't it a white i.e. polar bear?) with just a knife, and how little he is hurt when the bear slaps him, 4) the moment Ryan's son was born it became so damn obvious that he would grow up and fall in love with Burton's daughter, and that way set the stage for a lame re-re-re-re-re-hash of "Romeo & Juliet", 5) the re-re-re-re-re-re-hash not only ends tragically - it ends so ULTRA-tragically that I had to laugh out loud! Romeo gets killed by a bear, while Juliet dies at the same time at childbirth, 6) By the way, Juliet is woman no.2 to die at childbirth in this movie; it seems that in the early Alaskan days babies tended to plop out of the womb at the most inconvenient times, and there was nobody in sight anywhere to help; plus it was a convenient way to get rid of two mothers so that Jones can be their reserve-mommy, 7) and as if the totally over-the-top deaths of Romeo and Juliet weren't enough, only (movie-)minutes before their doom Burton's wife dies of a heart-attack; them corpses, they just kept a-pilin' in the middle section (and them plot-devices, they started a-getting' dumber and dumber), 8) since Burton made it as a successful capitalist, it was only fair that his arch-enemy, Ryan the fisherman, makes it as a politician: this is rather hilarious, too, 9) Burton's rich daughter (Juliet) decides to run away from home to Romeo's Eskimo village and she is happy there! 10) Baccus's son is born BEFORE Juliet yet I had the strange impression that Juliet was a cool 5 years older, 11) one of the idiotic highlights is "Star Trek"'s Zulu (Takei; in a wonderfully bad performance) trying to find a doctor for Burton's expecting wife, but managing only to find Jones, whom the former can't stand - how poetic! 12) in the first scenes showing Romeo's and Juliet's daughter (let's just call her Lovechild) the movie almost becomes a sit-com, with Burton and Ryan being both Granddaddies to her but also arch-enemies, and Lovechild being in the middle, but 13) then suddenly the movie starts getting overly dramatic and soppy yet, yet, yet again! 14) Burton saves Ryan's life at the end - how CORNY! 15) a highlight in the last half-hour (which tends to get dull) is undoubtedly Burton losing his cool at a political hearing and wanting to have a punch-up with Ryan! It strikes me as the height of hypocrisy and irony that a movie which takes such a righteous stance against racism casts all-white actors to play half- or quarter- Eskimos. Were they afraid that we wouldn't like Eskimo-looking Eskimos as much as Eskimos who look like they graduated from Yale? Talk about left-wing Hollywood's double-standards. I can't imagine how the actors must have felt uttering so many idiotic lines. There are a number of moments of campy preaches and pathetic moralizing which are only good enough for 5-dime soap-operas and retards. The fact that this dumb tale is supposed to be an epic only makes it sillier. And how about Jones's bad looks: this bug-eyed actress, who looks at least ten years older than she really is, is the focal point of the two lead studs. But perhaps that was - as Takei found out one day (in one scene) - the result of her being the only woman in town.

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

Another cinematic weakness of mine has been the filming of Edna Ferber's stories. Here work adapts so well to the cinema I think it's impossible to make a bad movie of her work. Ice Palace is always given short shrift when it is viewed in comparison to Showboat, Cimarron, and most importantly Giant. Actually it is Giant that Ice Palace seems to have the most in common with. Two men grow wealthier during the history of the area's growth and are changed by their love for the same woman. Carolyn Jones had quite an effect on the two men panting after her, the same as Elizabeth Taylor did to Rock Hudson and James Dean.I viewed Ice Palace again after seeing it many years ago and it is as good as I remembered it the first time. Two fine portrayals of rival empire builders are given by Richard Burton and Robert Ryan. You can feel the hatred they have for each other come crackling right out of the TV screen as on the big screen. Carolyn Jones as she ages from comely young Scotch lassie to matronly spinster because she won't commit to either man, makes you forget her as Morticia Adams.If Ice Palace has a weakness it's in the direction. I think if George Stevens had done this one it would have been a cinema classic like Giant is. Still Ice Palace is a fine film that is often overlooked in retrospectives of either Richard Burton or Robert Ryan.