Name that Car #3: Ice Station Zebra (1968)

This is a very underrated action movie. The scenes in the sub are rather terrifying. I really like Rock Hudson in this role. I think Patrick McGoohan also did a fantastic job. I also like the cars.

The Marines arrive

The first tenth of the movie takes place in the United Kingdom, at a US submarine base. US Marines are quickly mustered as part of a very hush-hush rescue operation in the Arctic. They are carried to the base in trucks that are obviously not of local manufacture.

1965 Ford F-100

It's clearly visible that these are Ford trucks with the spaced-out F O R D lettering across the grill. The general shape of the truck leads us into the 1961-1966 fourth generation. The fact that the amber turn signals are mounted co-linearly with the Ford lettering means that it must be 1965-1966, and the fact that it uses the simple eggcrate grill rather than the more overwrought later grill makes it pretty definitively a 1965 Ford F-100. If this movie were not made in 1968, leaving no doubt that the trucks can be identified by grill trim, then it would be a lot harder to establish the provenance of these trucks. On older trucks (even moreso than cars), grills are often swapped for adjacent model years by the restorers to fit with their own tastes or what parts are available. The military versions obviously use painted trim rather than chrome on the grill, but the details are all still there to find out.

Jones's escort vehicle

Right after the convoy pulls away, a poncy British luxury car pops up. Keen eyes will notice that it's an obviously Bentley grill, but identifying it from the front-end only is very difficult. If there were any questions that it's a Bentley, the winged B logo can be seen clearly in an earlier scene.

Even in the 1960s, Rolls-Royce and Bentley still often allowed customers to purchase rolling chassis whose bodywork would be built up by outside coachbuilders. However, by the late 1940s RR-Bentley were also employing John Polwhele Blatchley to design in-house bodywork designs. With a separate chassis, the coachbuilders had a free hand in where to make the door hinges, and Blatchley's "standard steel sports saloon" design for the Bentley Mark VI chose to have suicide front doors (with hinges at the rear) and conventional rear doors (hinges at the front). So too does the car in this movie. But the same could also be said about the R Type, its successor.

From the rear...

The rear shots of the car while driving through the countryside are what shows that it must be a Mark VI and not the later R Type: the rather stubby boot. The distinguishing feature between the R Type and earlier Mark VI was that the former had a much longer boot. The fact that the Mark VI was over twice as common on British roads also makes it a more obvious choice to put in the film.

Bentley didn't do distinct model years (far too American and vulgar) so it's not straightforward to distinguish between the earliest 1946 Mark VIs and the latest from 1952; this car, by my estimation, could come from anywhere in that timeframe.

...the difference is clear. Bentley Mark VI for sure.