In 1950, Air India Flight 245 crashed into the side of Mont Blanc in the Alps, killing everyone on board. A couple of years later, French novelist Henri Troyat wrote a book entitled 'La Neige En Deuil' about a plane crash in the Alps, and this 1956 movie is a screen adaptation of that book. With Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner playing brothers, the film immediately gives itself credibility problems. Both good actors and both effective enough in their individual roles, but to believe in them as brothers is remarkably difficult. Wagner was 26 and looks marginally younger than that; Tracy was 56 and looks a good deal older. Their relationship simply doesn't ring true and the tremendous age gap is the key factor. Luckily, if you're willing to overlook this piece of lunatic casting the rest of the film is well-made, absorbing and very interesting.
Aging sheepman and Alpine expert Zachary Teller (Spencer Tracy) hears of a terrible air crash in the Swiss Alps on a mountain he knows better than anybody. Zachary is very superstitious and refuses to climb the mountain as he has already had a few near-fatal accidents upon its slopes. A rescue party sets off to the crash site but is forced to turn back when their guide – one of Zachary's close friends – is killed in a tragic fall. Later, Zachary's impetuous and cold-hearted younger brother Chris (Robert Wagner) decides to go to the crash site to find loot and make himself rich. Zachary is appalled at the idea – he calls it pick-pocketing the dead within the sight of God – but he knows his brother will surely die if he tries to climb alone. Therefore he joins him on the hazardous climb. When they reach the crash site, they discover a young Hindu woman still alive in the wreckage. Chris wants to leave her to die so that he can fill his pockets with loot; Zachary is determined to bring her down to safety at all costs. Soon the brothers are locked in a furious moral feud.
Tracy does very well as the older Teller brother. He is such a skilled actor, so very watchable. There are very few films where he doesn't command attention, and in this one his morally righteous mountain man is at once lovable and deeply humbling. Wagner is quite good too as the selfish younger brother. Obviously they don't suit each other as siblings, but the point about their incompatibility as on-screen brothers has been laboured enough. Edward Dmytryck shoots the film in glorious VistaVision, capturing his Alpine scenery in breathtaking beauty. If nothing else, this is a truly great-looking film. The narrative is rather slow in parts, particularly the opening, but it builds to some genuinely hair-raising climbing sequences later on. The ascent of the brothers to the wreck site is powerfully done, with one moment in particular (when Wagner slips and the rope slides through Tracy's hands, burning and bloodying his palms as he tries to break his fall) that lingers long in the memory. A solid character film – almost a two-hander play with a more spectacular backdrop than most – The Mountain is a very worthwhile 105 minutes.
Aging sheepman and Alpine expert Zachary Teller (Spencer Tracy) hears of a terrible air crash in the Swiss Alps on a mountain he knows better than anybody. Zachary is very superstitious and refuses to climb the mountain as he has already had a few near-fatal accidents upon its slopes. A rescue party sets off to the crash site but is forced to turn back when their guide – one of Zachary's close friends – is killed in a tragic fall. Later, Zachary's impetuous and cold-hearted younger brother Chris (Robert Wagner) decides to go to the crash site to find loot and make himself rich. Zachary is appalled at the idea – he calls it pick-pocketing the dead within the sight of God – but he knows his brother will surely die if he tries to climb alone. Therefore he joins him on the hazardous climb. When they reach the crash site, they discover a young Hindu woman still alive in the wreckage. Chris wants to leave her to die so that he can fill his pockets with loot; Zachary is determined to bring her down to safety at all costs. Soon the brothers are locked in a furious moral feud.
Tracy does very well as the older Teller brother. He is such a skilled actor, so very watchable. There are very few films where he doesn't command attention, and in this one his morally righteous mountain man is at once lovable and deeply humbling. Wagner is quite good too as the selfish younger brother. Obviously they don't suit each other as siblings, but the point about their incompatibility as on-screen brothers has been laboured enough. Edward Dmytryck shoots the film in glorious VistaVision, capturing his Alpine scenery in breathtaking beauty. If nothing else, this is a truly great-looking film. The narrative is rather slow in parts, particularly the opening, but it builds to some genuinely hair-raising climbing sequences later on. The ascent of the brothers to the wreck site is powerfully done, with one moment in particular (when Wagner slips and the rope slides through Tracy's hands, burning and bloodying his palms as he tries to break his fall) that lingers long in the memory. A solid character film – almost a two-hander play with a more spectacular backdrop than most – The Mountain is a very worthwhile 105 minutes.