It was directed by Don Sharp, and starring Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee and Lloyd Bridges.

A solitary figure, Larsen, hurries across an arctic landscape to his tent, from where he sends an emergency radio signal, trying to contact his colleagues on the ship 'Morning Rose', but he is killed before he can transmit any useful information.

The 'Morning Rose' is carrying a multinational expedition of United Nations scientists to the remote Bear Island to study "climate change".

The team is led by the German scientists Gerran and his deputy Hartman, and includes Norwegian psychiatrist Lindquist and the laconic Pole Lechinski.

American biologist Frank Lansing joins the boat, where he is reunited with his friend Smithy and former colleague Rubin.

The expedition arrives at Bear Island, location of a NATO base and the site of a former U-boat station, and, from his German colleagues Jungbeck and Heyter, they learn that Larsen is missing.

Meanwhile, Lindquist finds a message left by Larsen, who had been a Norwegian agent, confirming that Jungbeck and Heyter are neo-Nazis controlled by a third expedition member codenamed Zelda.

Lansing takes Lindquist to the U-boat where they find crates marked as containing explosives, but on opening one they discover it is full of gold.

Back at the base, there are more suspicious incidents: the radio mast collapses, fatally wounding Lechinski, and an explosion destroys the electrical generator, apparently killing Smithy.

A repentant Gerran, cleared of being a Nazi supporter, but ashamed of not having done more to oppose them, wants to return the gold to Norway as an act of contrition, and confronts Hartman at the harbour, but is shot and disabled.

[3] In 1976 Maclean's second wife Mary formed a company with producer Peter Snell, Aleelle Productions, who aimed to make movies based on MacLean novels including Golden Gate, Bear Island, The Way to Dusty Death and Captain Cook.

"[2] Peter Snell enlisted director Don Sharp, who had worked on an adaptation of MacLean's Puppet on a Chain.

[12][13] Snell wanted to make the movie on location, feeling audiences would not react well the shooting "studio snow" which had been the method used on an earlier MacLean adaptation, Ice Station Zebra.

[14] The unit were based at Stewart for seven weeks then moved to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska.

[8] The Quarterly Review called it "murder on the Alaska Express... but, in search of something to take the children to which doesn't feature a scene of bestiality, you could do a lot worse".

It isn't: the Arctic landscapes are breathtaking, and some of the action sequences are not only active, but also exciting" but that "when compared to The Guns of Navarone... it's routine adventure- flick stuff: blood, guts and (a little) suspense intercut with acting of appalling quality, and dialogue that makes one yearn for the days of silent movies.

[2] Snell and Selkirk were so positive about Bear Island's prospects that at one stage they planned a series of Alistair MacLean adaptations for annual Christmas release, starting with The Way to Dusty Death.

[6] That film was never made but Snell did go on to make The Hostage Tower and Air Force One is Down based on MacLean stories.