Major Lee Gannon (Dale Robertson) has just been transferred to Ladd Army Airfield in Fairbanks, Alaska. There he discovers that his ex-wife Virgie (Evelyn Keyes) owns a local nightspot -- and is considering marrying Major Brad Cantrell (Frank Lovejoy). Brad and Virgie's relationship doesn't make Lt. Mary Ross (Nancy Gates) happy, as she's in love with Brad herself. Gannon and a crew of five men are assigned to Operation Deep Freeze, doing weather research at the North Pole. Thanks to an earthquake, the men's plane sinks and the ice they are camped on starts to crack up! The race is on for the Air Force to perform an intricate rescue operation with virtually no space to land a plane!

Lewis R. Foster's competent direction is given added pzazz here by brilliant aerial cinematography from William Clothier - along with some cleverly woven in stock footage of some unusual and even rarely-seen aircraft in flight that works really well. On display are a classic Cessna 195 on skis in rare Air Force Rescue livery, an entire formation of B-17 Flying Fortresses also in Air Rescue mode, various C-47 (Douglas DC-3) aircraft on skis, another C-47 towing and retrieving a Word-War-II-style invasion glider, and rare footage of the bizarre F-82 Twin Mustang in action. The romantic subplot involving the main characters is pretty standard fare. Where the film is at its best is when it's simply dealing with the dangers of the mission, and with a good supporting cast including Peter Hansen, Paul Fix and Robert Arthur, there's plenty of excitement in spite of the cheap elements of some of the effects. In 1955, they could only work with so much on a small budget, but this does have many memorable moments and the danger of the elements in this frozen tundra becomes all the more convincing.