Iceberg and Iceland) is a 1933 German-US pre-Code drama film directed by Arnold Fanck and starring Gustav Diessl, Leni Riefenstahl, Sepp Rist, Gibson Gowland, Rod La Rocque, and Ernst Udet.
[3][b] At a banquet held by the International Society for Arctic Research, the members toast scientist Dr. Carl Lorenz, about to recreate famed explorer Wegener's ill-fated expedition.
After Hella drops them at their base camp, the men begin their long trek to recover Wegener's records and prove his theories on ice floes.
As the weeks pass, Brand and the others fear they will not survive when the ice breaks up, but Lorenz scoffs and refuses to wait until winter.
Seeing they are drifting out to sea, Brand dives into the water and is picked up by another pilot, famed aviator Ernst Udet, who has been tracking Hella's flight path.
[6] Arnold Fanck wanted Elly Beinhorn to play Ellen, but Universal selected Leni Riefenstahl to capitalize off of the success of The White Hell of Pitz Palu.
Fanch, Kind, Paul Kohner, Zoltan Kegl, Werner Klingler, and Gibson Gowland[7] left Copenhagen for Greenland on 20 May, and arrived at Uummannaq three weeks later.
[7] A total of 38 men and women, three polar bears and two sea lions of the Hagenbeck circus making up the crew of the S.O.S.
Filming was especially arduous with "Leni Riefenstahl, whose life he (Fanck) had often put in danger", after her repeated swimming in frigid waters, had to leave the production, "before the others, to be hospitalized in Copenhagen".
Udet was rescued by the Inuit, but minutes later, the iceberg which was supporting some of the crew crumbled to bits, casting men and equipment into the water below.
The production unit ship anchored nearby was so shaken by the event that it nearly capsized, throwing people on board the deck into the water.
Garnett decided to make the film seven reels long, but needed a story and only found 30 minutes of the footage to be usable.
Garnett and Fanck filmed additional scenes in Switzerland, which were silent so that Udet and Riefenstahl could dub over in English.
Iceberg noted, "The result is an authentic and authoritative series of polar pictures which scarcely need the pressbook assurance that no miniatures were used to supplement the straight shots.