As I watched it for Alida Valli and for no other reason.
I am no expert on mountain-climbing but the howlers there must be for any self-respecting mountain-climber who watches this film. They would, I imagine, be shouting at the screen! Such a rag-bag of a climbing team was setting itself up for fall, literally for a fall. And anyway, when the film was set, unlike the film suggests, just after the War, no major Alpine climbs, so far as I know, had not been achieved.
So, by way of example, Glenn Ford decides to go for the final ascent without the snow-blindness glasses that Valli offers him? What then happens to him? He almost succumbs to snow-blindness. I am no expert on mountain-climbing but just how dumb is that?
I don't know how good the source material was but the script is pretty poor and the marvellous actors, Alida Valli, Glenn Ford, Oskar Homolka, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Lloyd Bridges, and, of course, the inimitable Paul Raines struggle with it and through their combined performances something altogether better emerges.
Would you climb the highest mountain for a lady like Alida Valli? I would and I can't stand heights! Watch it for Alida Valli, one of the most beautiful ladies ever to be captured on celluloid. The majority of actresses past and present have their brief season in the sun because of their publicity departments. In the history of cinema and genuinely beautiful leading ladies, Valli, along with Greta Garbo, is forever.
Watch this film for Valli.
I am no expert on mountain-climbing but the howlers there must be for any self-respecting mountain-climber who watches this film. They would, I imagine, be shouting at the screen! Such a rag-bag of a climbing team was setting itself up for fall, literally for a fall. And anyway, when the film was set, unlike the film suggests, just after the War, no major Alpine climbs, so far as I know, had not been achieved.
So, by way of example, Glenn Ford decides to go for the final ascent without the snow-blindness glasses that Valli offers him? What then happens to him? He almost succumbs to snow-blindness. I am no expert on mountain-climbing but just how dumb is that?
I don't know how good the source material was but the script is pretty poor and the marvellous actors, Alida Valli, Glenn Ford, Oskar Homolka, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Lloyd Bridges, and, of course, the inimitable Paul Raines struggle with it and through their combined performances something altogether better emerges.
Would you climb the highest mountain for a lady like Alida Valli? I would and I can't stand heights! Watch it for Alida Valli, one of the most beautiful ladies ever to be captured on celluloid. The majority of actresses past and present have their brief season in the sun because of their publicity departments. In the history of cinema and genuinely beautiful leading ladies, Valli, along with Greta Garbo, is forever.
Watch this film for Valli.