everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The title summits up this film The mountain itself is the real star of this film Great cinematography and breath taking special affects during climbing sequences. But they are not enough to offset a terrible script and really inept casting decisions. Quite frankly it's Spenser Tracey's worst acting job. He hated doing the role and stayed drunk for most of the shoot and it shows.He even broke a wine bottle on Bob Wagner's hand in a drunken rage which required stitches to close Tracey and Wagner as brothers was just beyond movie goers suspension of disbelief. Tracey overdoes the humbler mountain climber turned sheppard and turns him in to a caricature.Wagner actually is better. He was trying to break his All American Boy Next Door image. He starts out as sky instructor/gigolo desperate to get and when the plan crashes on the mountain he see a chance to Finally get the money to fund his escape.He really comes through in the finale confrontation. If you can just watch the assent and descent sequences you will appreciate the movie. It's when they are on thee ground that the story comes apart.

I watched this old movie on DVD in 2012.A plane crashed on a mountain in the winter. It was too hard to climb so rescue attempt was halted. A man who lived nearby came up with the idea to climb the mountain to the crash site to rob the plane. His brother happened to be a retired rock climber, so he made him go along to help. When they reached the crash site, they found a surviver and things changed.The story is OK, not terribly exciting, but interesting enough that I watched it to the end. The main attraction is the rock climbing scenes. Many are done on a prop mountain with a mountain scene projected in the background. Sometimes you can see the prop moves against the background. But not bad for a 1956 effect.When the man suffers a rope burn trying to brake his brother's fall, it's because he wasn't using the rope correctly. So if this is to elicit sympathy for the rock climber, it didn't. It only showed he was not a good rock climber.BTW it's interesting to see the climbing gear in 1956 era. There's no harness or cams. Otherwise it's similar to present time.

The Mountain (1956)A brightly colored movie with old school Spencer Tracy and new style Robert Wagner in a drama about getting something that doesn't belong to you. The scenery is stunning, clear, high altitude stuff, shot on location in the French Alps. Edward Dmytryk is a Hollywood steady with a good sense of drama, and the movie has good bones.Loosely based on a true story (a 1950 crash of an Indian airplane), the catchy facts are dwarfed by the stereotypes of the two main characters, and by the general drama and landscapes. The plane wreck is high up in the mountains and a rescue party is waiting to go up in the morning. But then these two brothers (far enough apart in years to be father and son) go up first, the evening before. The acting is first rate all around, which keeps even the slow acts held together decently. Overall, though, this is a plodding plot. Roughly a third of the time (yes) is pure mountain climbing, which can be fun for a minute but it follows the two men up and then down the mountain in great detail. All well done, yes, but what you really want is some intensity, a greater clash of two moralities, each representing a different generation. The crash site is really quite believable (if a little concentrated in one spot--I think these high speed crashes get pretty scattered in truth). And the general idea works pretty well, not only the difference in motives of the two brothers but the ability of one brother to look the other way for the other. There is a surprise turn of events at the top, and then another on the way down, when the drama builds at last. And then there is a final little confessional speech that Tracy gives (like he does in many of his roles). He is meant to be the great self-sacrificing, humble man as "good example." It really is, as others write, overly sentimental and frankly unbelievable. And unnecessary, too. Even an unwillingness to talk about the events would have had the same moral effect without the townspeople basically winking in the final scenes.Alas. Not a classic. If you like technical mountain climbing (with ropes) you might enjoy a lot of it. And some great scenery.

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 ****