Titanen (1960)

Wissenswertes

Ice Palace is a 1960 American historical drama film directed by Vincent Sherman and adapted from a novel of 1958 written by Edna Ferber. The film stars Richard Burton, Robert Ryan, Carolyn Jones and Martha Hyer. It dramatizes the debate over Alaska statehood. Alaska had become a state in 1959.

Production

Ice Palace was Edna Ferber's first novel in five years. Ferber spent four years researching and writing it, beginning the project in 1954. She visited Alaska several times over the following years, often with the assistance of Ernest Gruening. The character of Kennedy was based on Austin Lathrop; the Bridie Ballantyne was based on Eva McGown. The Ice Palace itself was a composite of actual buildings in Alaska.

Ferber later said she felt as though she finished the novel "a month too early" because of her ill health. She had suffered a car accident and a recurrence of neuralgia and decided to send it for publication instead of doing another draft. "I felt if I didn't finish the book I would never be able to write again," she later said.

The novel was published in March 1958. The Los Angeles Times said it was "not one of her better works". However it became a best seller, and is thought to have contributed to Alaska becoming a state in 1959.

In December 1957, Warner Bros. Pictures bought the film rights to the novel for $350,000 plus 15% of the profits. Warners had already had a success with a 1956 adaptation of another Edna Ferber novel, Giant. One person associated with the film later called Ice Palace "Giant-on-the-rocks".

Warners obtained rights under a twelve-year lease, with rights to revert to Ferber after that. (A later source said the cost was $225,000 plus 15% of the profits.

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