''Quick, Before It Melts'' is a

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

Panavision Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company founded in 1953 specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses dur ...

and

Metrocolor Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film. Although MGM used Kodak film products, MGM did not use all of Kodak's proc ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

Delbert Mann Delbert Martin Mann Jr. (January 30, 1920 – November 11, 2007) was an American television and film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film '' Marty'' (1955), adapted from a 1953 teleplay of the same name which he ...

, written by

Dale Wasserman Dale Wasserman (November 2, 1914 – December 21, 2008) was an American playwright, perhaps best known for his book for Man of La Mancha. Early life Dale Wasserman was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, the child of Russian immigrants Samuel ...

, starring

Robert Morse Robert Alan Morse (May 18, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American actor, who starred in ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (musical), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', both the 1961 original Broadway production ...

George Maharis George Maharis (born September 1, 1928) is an American actor who portrayed Buz Murdock in the first three seasons of the TV series ''Route 66''. Maharis also recorded numerous pop music albums at the height of his fame, and later starred in t ...

, and

Anjanette Comer Anjanette Comer (born August 7, 1939) is an American actress. Early years Born in Dawson, Texas to Rufus Franklin Comer, Jr., and Nola Dell “Sue” (Perkins) Comer, she attended Dawson High School. She gained acting experience at the Pasadena ...

and released by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

. It was based on a novel of the same title by Philip Benjamin.

Plot

American magazine reporter Oliver Cannon gets an assignment to a naval expedition far from home by his boss, Harvey Sweigert, who is also the father of Oliver's fiancée, Sharon. He has never broken a big story, so Sweigert wants to see what kind of reporter he really is. First stop is

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, where photographer Pete Santelli, also along on the trip, quickly develops a romantic attraction to a local girl named Diana. And a half-Maori beauty named Tiare catches the interest of Oliver. When the journalists move on 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 ...

, it becomes clear that a friendly Soviet citizen, Mikhail, whom they call Mickey, might be persuaded to defect. Women are invited to join the expedition, including Diana and Tiare, and the latter ends up falling in love with Mickey. Their romance and his defection is news, but a naval admiral tries to prevent Oliver from reporting his scoop to the world. Oliver shows what he's made of, then returns home to marry Sharon.

Cast

as Oliver Cannon *

as Pete Santelli *

Howard St. John Howard St. John (October 9, 1905 – March 13, 1974) was a Chicago-born character actor who specialized in unsympathetic roles. His work spanned Broadway, film and television. Among his best-remembered roles are the bombastic General Bullmoose i ...

as Harvey Sweigert *

Yvonne Craig Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16, 1937 – August 17, 2015) was an American actress and ballerina, who was renowned for her role as Batgirl in the 1960s television series '' Batman''. Other notable roles in her career include Dorothy Johnson in the 196 ...

as Sharon Sweigert *

as Tiare * Janine Gray as Diana *

Michael Constantine Michael Constantine (born Gus Efstratiou (Ευστρατίου); May 22, 1927 – August 31, 2021) was an American actor. He is most widely recognized for his portrayal of Kostas "Gus" Portokalos, the Windex bottle-toting Greek father of Toula ...

as Mikhail * James Gregory as the Admiral

External links

* * * 1964 films 1964 comedy films American comedy films Cold War films Defection in fiction Films about journalists Films about the United States Navy Films based on American novels Films directed by Delbert Mann Films scored by David Rose Films set in Antarctica Films set in New Zealand Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films {{1960s-comedy-film-stub