User reviews

The emotional power of Dmytryk's films may derive from his range of vision always patronizing his characters, restoring honesty and ability to a style and realism...

For Tracy climbing a mountain is a matter of integrity... The conquest of a peak brings moments of exultation and bliss... What he gets from the adventure is just sheer joy... He is simple, kind and sincere...

All brothers dream, but Tracy dreams for the little... He sees life in an honest way... His brother (Wagner), at the contrary, dreams big and with open eyes to make it reality...

When a plane crashes on the top of the mountain, Wagner insists on going up to plunder the remains of the wrecked plane... Spencer accedes to the request to stop his spoiled younger brother to climb the mountain alone...

The avaricious brother is a novice in climbing techniques... He is seeking outdoor adventure only to bring gold and silver, and to strip the dead passengers robbing their money, jewelry and goods...

Tracy - with previous mountaineering experience - had something else in him which responds to the challenge and goes out to meet the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward to shield the safety of his brother with passion and enthusiasm...They are two generations apart, two opposite characters with two utterly different goals...

After a long and hard journey up the mountain, they succeed to reach the airplane wreck and to find that one passenger is still alive - a Hindu girl (Anna Kashfi).

A concerned Tracy gives all his good nature assistance as a caring human being to the injured delicate girl... But an unscrupulous brother intends to murder the helpless woman in order to steal her precious gem...

With the most gorgeous natural areas around; large fields with many ridges and faces; difficult rock climbing; and weak snow bridges, Dmytryk adds to the drama (in VistaVision and Technicolor) the magic and beauty of the high mountain country...

This is a really good, solid film from the 1950s American era. Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner play two brothers who climb a mountain - but the characters and motives are very different, and there are twists in store when they reach the top.

Tracy is always watchable, and this is no exception. He plays a simple man, a good climber and a deeply honourable person. His younger brother (a very beautiful-looking 26-year old Robert Wagner) is everything he isn't: greedy, lazy, shallow and petulant. The climbing scenes are terrific. Even if you aren't interested in climbing (I'm not) they are so precise and tense you will find yourself mesmerised. But it's really the actors, and the relationship between the two characters, who hold your attention.

If you find this film on TV it's likely to be in the afternoon. And it's a very good way to spend a couple of hours. The cliché is unavoidable, but they really don't make them like this anymore!

This movie is often described as simple and unidimensional. But in the context of spirituality and high moral character, this movie rates high.

Spencer's character is described as dull, and his acting effort minor. But how else is a man reverent of nature and God supposed to be portrayed. The subtleties of this character are often overlooked in our glamorized, sensationalized society. Quiet reverence, devotion to God and family are the central messages of this movie. Observe how Tracy's character tolerates and endures the unruly "modern-ess" of his much younger brother, portrayed well by Wagner.

This movie may be "sappy" to some, but I found it's moral message to be most uplifting and a pleasant departure from machine guns, gangster and starlets, sex and violence. Although, in a very minor respect, those elements are visible in this movie. This is a good family movie.

This film has two fine performances from the great Spencer Tracy and the young Robert Wagner. The story is taut, suspenseful, and the climbing scenes are fantastic. If you haven't seen this film, check it out (it's shown regularly on American Movie Classics here in the USA and is also available on video). If you truly have an appreciation for good films and solid acting, you won't be disappointed.

In a small village at the base of the Alpine mountains, a greedy young man--tired of living poorly with his elderly brother on a sheep farm--talks his sibling into climbing one of the highest peaks to raid a doomed Indian aircraft of its gold. Engrossing story from Henri Troyat's novel is genuinely beautiful to behold in color-saturated VistaVision. Critics at the time complained about the interspersing of on-location footage with studio shots, as well as the age difference between brothers Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner. Poor Tracy (already well into his golden years) seems pressed to the breaking point in this physical role, while scowling mercenary Wagner is one-note obstinate throughout. Still, Tracy's work is so fluid, so compassionate and believable, one gets caught up in this saga despite the picture's weaker attributes. Expository early scenes and other minor characters are practically irrelevant, and cinematographer Franz F. Planer captures it all with astute grace. **1/2 from ****

In this adventure film in the Swiss Alps, a plane crashes and there are plans to make a climb to see if there are survivors. Spencer Tracy does a very good job as a Swiss mountain man who has lived there his whole life and knows the mountain like the back of his hand. His younger brother?, Robert Wagner, who is well over thirty years younger (this narrative was extremely hard to swallow), is a greedy, murderous creep, who thinks the world owes him a payday. Wagner is amazingly convincing in the role, even though in most former and latter roles, he was generally a substandard actor. Maybe this film was a taste of things to come in the future.

During his career Spencer Tracy essayed a few roles as a foreigner and did quite well in them for a man who was so typically American. Of course the most prominent was Manuel Fidello in Captains Courageous, but he also played a gypsy in Tortilla Flat, a Cuban fisherman in The Old Man and the Sea, a German in The Seventh Cross. He certainly did a lot better than Henry Fonda who was also typically American, but laughable in War and Peace.

In The Mountain he plays a Swiss mountaineer, a simple peasant guy with great dignity and iron moral sense. He's got a younger brother played by Robert Wagner and there's a generation gap between them.

Wagner's performance reminded me very much of what Marlon Brando said in The Young Lions about how he resented working for tips from foreigners in his own country. Wagner wants to get up and out of their Alpine village and doesn't care how. Brando and Wagner are both ambitious, Brando's way was to become a Nazi, Wagner had a less political approach to satisfy his ambition, one a lot more crude though.

A plane crashes on a forbidden Alp near their house, a mountain that Spencer Tracy had climbed solo before. An expedition to reach survivors fails with the death of a friend of Tracy. Wagner wants to go up on the mountain to loot the passengers. Tracy wants to see if there are survivors and they make the climb.

A survivor does turn up actually, a Hindu woman played by Anna Kashfi, this was in fact an Air India plane that crashed. Her survival touches off a test of wills and purpose for the brothers.

I hadn't seen The Mountain for many years and I had forgotten how riveting Spencer Tracy's performance was. In the dialog and in the closeups the anguish in him tears at the audience.

The only criticism I have of The Mountain was that Tracy and Wagner were playing brothers. Tracy was the least vain of all the great Hollywood stars from the studio era, he was known for never wearing makeup. He looks every bit the 56 years on the screen and Wagner looks his age and he was in his twenties then. They're not too believable as brothers, but both are skilled enough players to overcome it. But they should have been made father and son like in Broken Lance.

Outside of that The Mountain is one great film.

This may be the Gilligan's Island of mountain movies - of course there aren't many movies like this out there anyway. There are no frills in this movie. The story is what it is and that is all it is. Plane crashes on mountain and feuding brothers with different sets of values climb to the crash for very different reasons. There are no sudden plot twists or surprises. It is an easy movie to watch without having to think too hard. A fine family film very much in the old Disney adventure vein. You can over analyze that Tracy and Wagner don't look anything like brothers or that some of the backdrops (especially from the dramatic narrow cliff-wall scene) don't quite make sense. There's quite a few yet minor logic failures. (I'll never understand why the original rescue crew had to walk all the way across that field carrying their wounded when a perfectly viable jeep was right there and could have helped.) Bottom line though: It's a good movie to enjoy - period.

This is one great film.

The mountain climbing sequences are very impressively done and extremely well photographed.

Tracy is amazing as the righteously moral brother and his performance is nuanced as to not make it a caricature which could have easily happened in the type of character he was asked to portray.

Wagner has the more showy part as a villainous egomaniac, willing to do anything - even commit murder - to make his dreams of wealth come true.

I love films that deal with mountain climbing such as the Clint Eastwood film, The Eiger Sanction, but this film even beats that one!

Sprawling adventure detailing the obsessive search for a crashed plane including spectacular scenarios , impressive images and maintains a fair degree of intrigue . Selfish and shady Chris Teller (a young Robert Wagner) pressures his older brother (snowy hair Spencer Tracy), a retired climber, to accompany him on a treacherous Alpine climb to loot the bodies of plane crash victims . As they set out to inspect an inter-continental routed aircraft that crashed in the French Alps . Suffering experiences in climbing the peak , it results to be evident that one brother intends to loot , while the other designs to save whatever he can .

Wonderfully photographed story dealing with greed and selflessness . Interesting screenplay by Ranald MacDougall , being faithfully based on the novel by Henry Troyat . Top-notch Spencer Tracy as an expert climber who attempts to care his younger brother , as usual , he displays a quiet dignity . Acceptable acting by Robert Wagner as an ambitious young with a ruthless charm . Beautiful Swiss Alps scenery falls to partially compensate for several dreary lapses and script's shortcomings , especially the disparity in their ages is disconcerting ; as both protagonists playing brothers, Spencer Tracy was 30 years older than Robert Wagner in real life ; Tracy previously portrayed Wagner's father in the western Broken lance . Very good support cast playing brief interpretations , such as Claire Trevor as Marie , William Demarest as Father Belacchi , Richard Arlen as Rivial , E.G. Marshall as Solange and gorgeous Anna Kashfi film debut as Hindu Girl . Very real climbing images as well as perfectly staged scenes , being marvelously photographed by Franz Planer , he fills the screen with excitement and suspense.

The motion picture was professionally directed by Edward Dmytryck .Filmmaker Edward , better known for overtly personal movies such as The Caine Mutiny was a craftsman whose career resulted to be interrupted by the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a congressional committee that employed ruthless tactics aimed at rooting out and destroying what it saw as Communist influence in Hollywood . A lifelong political leftist who had been a Communist Party member briefly during World War II, Dmytryk was one of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" who refused to cooperate with HUAC and had their careers disrupted or ruined as a result. The committee threw him in prison for refusing to cooperate, and after having spent several months behind bars , Dmytryk decided to cooperate . Dmytrick's biggest film was ¨The Caine Mutiny¨ , but he also realized another mutiny film titled : ¨Mutiny¨ with Angela Lansbury , Mark Stevens and Patrick Knowles . Edward was an expert on warlike genre as ¨Back to Batan¨ , ¨Battle of Anzio¨ , ¨Young lions¨ and Western as ¨Broken lance¨ , ¨Alvarez Kelly¨ , ¨Warlock¨ among others. Rating : a complete must see , it's recommended for Spencer Tracy and climbing buffs .

Here is Spencer Tracy doing what Spencer Tracy does best; live the part. He is one of only a few actors that engage you with almost no dialogue. The story is simple; Indian plane crashes on a mountain and two brothers climb to reach the wreckage; both for very different reasons.

The movie is filled with spectacular climbing footage, and incredible vistas. (It was filmed in VISTA-VISION you know) It's a journey between two brothers and the guilt that one carries for what he perceives to be his failings in raising the younger. Robert Wagner plays the young brother who only cares for money and greed. (he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever) Spencer is the elder who embodies all that is good and just. The Mountain serves as the grand reminder of how small we really are, but also the great feats we can accomplish.

Rent it. Watch it. I guarantee you'll enjoy it.

The awful miscasting of SPENCER TRACY absolutely ruins what might have been a very gripping film. He's cast as an experienced mountain climber whose younger brother, ROBERT WAGNER, wants to make the mountain climb to a plane crash where there are riches to plunder.

The whole film is really a character study of the two men, a study in opposites. Tracy is a simple man of sterling character while Wagner excels in his bad guy role. But to accept them as brothers, with the huge age gap between them, doesn't lend credibility to the story and its many mountain scenes.

The climbing itself is realistically done, but after awhile it becomes more of an endurance test for the viewer as the climbers experience several near fatal mishaps. All of it is filmed in mostly outdoor settings which are beautifully photographed. The stunning scenery is a delight to behold with only occasional studio shots subbing for the real mountain rocks.

Summing up: Could have been much better with more accurate casting. Tracy was only 56 at the time, but looks more like Wagner's grandfather and lacks credibility as a mountain climber capable of rescuing single-handedly an Indian girl from the plane wreck.

Where was Kirk Douglas?

This is the second film starred by the duo Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner. In the first one (the western Broken Lance, 1954), Tracy acted as the Wagner's father while now in this drama Tracy is Wagner's eldest brother, and also the man who raised Chris Teller (Wagner) in his childhood. So two brothers, who should have the same ideas and ethics in their lives, but paradoxically it was not like that. Chris was a young man very ambitious, able to kill for money while his eldest brother was a hard working man unable to do harm to anyone. A plane coming from Calcutta felt down in a high mountain called Montecarlo in France. The people of the neighboring village organized an unsuccessful rescue. At this point, Chris, knowing that in the plane there were plenty of money and that his brother was the only one able to climb the mountain, decided to compel his brother Zachary (Tracy) to go for rescue. After some arguing and discussion Zachary agreed to do that, for this they have to walk long and difficult ways always guided by experienced Zachary. When they finally reached the plane, they found an Indian lady still alive, and Zachary decided to help her to survive. but Chris wanted to get the money and to kill her. This situation compelled Zachary to beat Chris and to leave him alone, taking the lady with himself to save her. The fact is that Chris alone could not manage and died falling down, but Zachary succeeded back with the lady. When asked about all what happened Zachary said that his brother Chris did everything possible to save the lady and he (Zachary) was who planned to take the money in the plane. He lied but everybody in the village knowing the kind man he was, never believed him. One of the things that I cannot easily accept is the egoism of Chris. If he was raised by his brother, he should have loved him and also should have had the same ethic values as Zachary. This seems to me a bit incoherent in the plot and from the original novel. Everyone is a product of the environment where he/she was raised and lived.

I like this movie...saw it on AMC w/o commercial interruption and must say it was very entertaining....

Yeah, the climbing is lame and staging is set...but what do you expect from a movie made in the '50s....very good story....moral

This is an uneven film, but worth seeing with all its faults. Filmed partly on location the mountain itself is Mont Blanc, and in a village near to Chamonix. Two brothers live there and one is an elderly looking Spencer Tracy and the other played by Robert Wagner. Based on a French novel everyone speaks English, and Wagner's surly, thick American accent jars. Only Claire Trevor looks and sounds as if she lives there, but her part is so small ( she is in love with Tracy ) that I commend her for taking the role. Most of the action takes place to reach the plane that has crashed there, apparently killing all of the passengers. No spoilers but the film really comes alive during the last half hour of the film, and a lot of the time is spent bickering between the two brothers who go on a search party of their own to reach the crash. The message and I think there is one is that even if one brother behaves abominably badly the other brother will not betray him. This message must have been apparent during the troubled Hollywood years of the 1950's. Beautifully filmed and well directed, the mountain is the star along with the performance of Spencer Tracy.

The Mountain is directed by Edward Dmytryk and adapted to screenplay by Ranald MacDougall from the novel written by Henry Troyat. It stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Claire Trevor, William Demarest, Barbara Darrow, Richard Arlen, E.G. Marshall and Anna Kashfi. A VistaVision/Technicolor production with music by Danielle Amfitheatrot and cinematography by Franz F. Planer.

Greedy Chris Teller (Wagner) pressures his older brother, Zachary (Tracy) a retired climber, to escort him on a treacherous climb up Bald Mountain to loot the bodies of victims of a recently crashed airliner.

ATTACHEZ VOS CEINTURES!

Two brothers, one old, wise and saintly, the other young, flashy and despicable, these two characterisations form the basis for Edward Dmytryk's The Mountain. After the picture opens with the plane crash, which is rather well done, characters are introduced and we are left in no doubt about who is good and evil here. The mountain of the title is a constant looming presence overlooking the town, and soon enough the two very different brothers are undertaking a perilous climb up said mountain for very different reasons.

The VistaVision/Technicolor photography is often sublime, the Mont-Blanc locale in France beautifully realised, and Dymtryk wrings out great suspense as the ascent for the two lads proves dangerously arduous. Then there's a turn of events that changes things, and then another, until we get to the finale where the moral is laid on heavy and the picture smugly clocks out. It's real safe and enjoyable entertainment, even if the casting of Tracy and Wagner as brothers (with 30 years between them) is most odd (why not write it as a more believable father and son axis for the film?). While some cheap studio shots seep into the production to dampen the awe built up elsewhere.

Hard to dislike in spite of some flaws, and a must for mountaineer types and fans of the effortless acting style of Tracy. 7/10

If you're looking for a slam-bang action film, look elsewhere. If you want a suspenseful and engrossing drama with solid characters, then look no further. "THE MOUNTAIN" is a first-class motion picture. Spencer Tracy is superb. Robert Wagner is wonderful. The cinematography is first-rate, as is the musical score and all other technical aspects of the film. If you've never seen "THE MOUNTAIN", rent it tonight.

I had hazy memories of this movie from TV screenings many years ago. I remembered it as being pretty good, but having recently watched it again on Blu-ray, it is pretty slow and boring. The casting problem which others have mentioned does grate and Wagner's character seems like an idiot. Robbing a bank would be a lot less risky if he was bent on a life of crime. Nobody attempts an authentic accent but Tracy compensates by speaking veeeery slowly and was clearly in no condition to climb a flight of stairs, never mind a mountain. The VistaVision photography is good and the juxtaposition of location and studio footage is well handled but it's all a bit predictable.