Cook & Peary: the Race to the Pole

Richard Chamberlain and Rod Steiger play rival explorers at loggerheads over who discovered the North Pole in this biased and sadly undynamic true-life drama that certainly shows its age. Stilted and stodgy, the flashback-centred tale just feels so old-fashioned, as Chamberlain's aggrieved Dr Frederick Cook challenges the controversial but officially recognised view that it was unscrupulous naval commander Robert E Peary (a terse and excellently villainous Steiger) who reached the Pole first. Cook's one-sided account - told in jarringly leaden conversation with a journalist - only comes alive in the well-shot expedition scenes, where the bleakly beautiful landscapes and the historically revealing interaction with indigenous people add a sense of authenticity to a predominantly unconvincing TV movie.