''The Secret Land'' is a feature-length 1948

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

expedition code-named "

Operation Highjump Operation HIGHJUMP, officially titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, (also called Task Force 68), was a United States Navy (USN) operation to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. The opera ...

" to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

in 1946. The film, which was shot entirely by USN and US Army military photographers, focuses on the mission to explore the polar region and evaluate its potential for military operations. ''The Secret Land'' was narrated by actors Robert Taylor, Robert Montgomery, and

Van Heflin Emmett Evan "Van" Heflin Jr. (December 13, 1908 – July 23, 1971) was an American theatre, radio and film actor. He played mostly character parts over the course of his film career, but during the 1940s had a string of roles as a leading man. H ...

, and produced by Orville O. Dull. It won the 1948

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

for Best Documentary Feature.

Plot

The film re-enacts scenes from several critical moments during the operation, such as shipboard damage control and Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd throwing items out of an airplane to lighten it to avoid crashing when one of its engines failed and the other began to falter under the excess load. Another scene features Chief of Naval Operations Fleet Admiral

Chester W. Nimitz Chester William Nimitz (; February 24, 1885 – February 20, 1966) was a fleet admiral in the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet, and Commander in C ...

discussing Operation Highjump with admirals Richard E. Byrd and Richard H. Cruzen prior to their departure. Also depicted are the rescue of a crew of a crashed aircraft and the discovery of an Antarctic "

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

" of bare ground and ice-free fresh water lakes atop a thermal bulge deep inland.

Cast

* Robert Montgomery as Narrator (voice) (as Comdr. Robert Montgomery, U.S.N.R.) * Robert Taylor as Narrator (voice) (as Lt. Robert Taylor U.S.N.R.) *

as Narrator (voice) (as Lt. Van Heflin, A.A.F., Ret.) * James Forrestal as Himself (as James V. Forrestal) *

as Himself * Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd as Himself (as Admiral Byrd) * Richard H. Cruzen as Himself (as Admiral Cruzen) * Robert S. Quackenbush as Himself (as Captain Quackenbush) * George J. Dufek as Himself (as Captain George Dufek) * Paul A. Siple as Himself (as Dr. Siple) * Charles W. Thomas as Himself (as Captain Thomas) * Richard E. Byrd Jr. as Himself * Vernon D. Boyd as Himself (as Captain Boyd) * Charles A. Bond as Himself (as Captain Bond) * David E. Bunger as Himself (as Commander David E. Bunger) * John E. Clark as Himself (as Captain Clark)

Reception

The film earned $395,000 in the US and Canada and $181,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $10,000.

Awards

''The Secret Land'' won the Best Documentary Feature oscar at the

21st Academy Awards The 21st Academy Awards were held on March 24, 1949, honoring the films of 1948. The ceremony was moved from the Shrine Auditorium to the Academy's own theater, primarily because the major Hollywood studios had withdrawn their financial suppor ...

in 1948.

References

External links