''german: Stürme über dem Mont Blanc'' (aka en: ''Storm Over Mont Blanc'') is a 1930 German film written and directed by

Arnold Fanck Arnold Fanck (6 March 1889 – 28 September 1974) was a German film director and pioneer of the mountain film genre. He is best known for the extraordinary alpine footage he captured in such films as '' The Holy Mountain'' (1926), '' The White He ...

and starring

Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...

Sepp Rist Sepp Rist (24 February 1900 – 11 December 1980) was a German film actor.Goble p.480 In WW1 he served in the Imperial German Navy. He was married to the actress Carla Rust. Partial filmography * '' Storm over Mont Blanc'' (1930) - Hannes * '' S. ...

and

Ernst Udet Ernst Udet (26 April 1896 – 17 November 1941) was a German pilot during World War I and a ''Luftwaffe'' Colonel-General (''Generaloberst'') during World War II. Udet joined the Imperial German Air Service at the age of 19, and eventually ...

.Gagne , Sepp
"Review: 'Storm over Mont Blanc'."
''AllMovie'', 2019. Retrieved: 29 July 2019. The film is part of the German film genre of "mountaineering", popularized by Fanck. The story revolves around a man who works alone at the Mont Blanc weather station gathering data. His only contact with the world below is via Morse code signals. He is joined by a woman friend, who helps him survive a terrible storm over the mountain.

is featured as a pilot who is involved in a dangerous mountain rescue.

Plot

Meteorologist Hannes (

) works alone at a remote weather station below the summit of

Mont Blanc Mont Blanc (french: Mont Blanc ; it, Monte Bianco , both meaning "white mountain") is the highest mountain in the Alps and Western Europe, rising above sea level. It is the second-most prominent mountain in Europe, after Mount Elbrus, and i ...

in the French Alps. Every day he gathers data on weather conditions. When the weather is clear, he is able to use his telescope to gaze down at the town of

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...

in the valley far below. His solitary life is interrupted only by the daily weather reports he transmits via

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

to various weather centres throughout Europe. He is also able to listen to his friend Walter perform his organ concerts on the radio. At the Chamonix

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...

down in the valley, an astronomer's daughter, Hella Armstrong (

), gazes up at the night sky, helping her father with his work. Every evening she looks forward to Hannes' weather reports and messages—like hearing from a close friend even though they've never met. In addition to her scientific interests, Hella enjoys skiing with her friends in the mountains. One day while skiing with her friends, she meets Ernst Udet (

) in his small aircraft. Together they fly above the clouds to the upper reaches of Mont Blanc. As they approach Hannes' weather station, she drops a small evergreen tree down by parachute with a note introducing herself. Enchanted by the gesture, he carefully decorates his tree for Christmas. Thrilled with her flying experience over Mont Blanc, Hella persuades her father to join her on another flight to the weather station to visit Hannes—an old friend of her father (Friedrich Kayßler) who once worked at that station. At the small remote station, Hella is fascinated by the scientific equipment—and with Hannes. The next morning, Hannes takes Hella with him to the summit of Mont Blanc to capture that day's climate conditions. While they are away, Hella's father goes out to study the geology and falls from a rocky ledge and is killed. The young meteorologist and his female companion witness the fatal accident. After they return to the station, a major storm closes in around them. Hannes does everything he can to comfort the grieving Hella. Before she leaves with the team that arrived to bring her father's body back down to the valley, Hannes asks her to look up his good friend Walter Petersen (Mathias Wieman). In the coming days, Hella mourns the death of her father. One day she visits Walter, who is sick. Hella takes care of him and helps him to recover, which in his loneliness he comes to misinterpret as romantic affection. Meanwhile, Hannes impatiently counts the days when he can be relieved from his work and see Hella again. But when he receives a letter from Walter informing him of his intended engagement to Hella, who knows nothing of the matter, he is so shocked by the news that he decides to stay at the weather station for another season and sends the replacement team back home. Soon after, a severe storm descends on Mont Blanc. While out gathering his weather data, to his dismay Hannes loses his gloves, and his fingers soon freeze. Back at the weather station, with wind howling around him, Hannes realizes the danger he faces. He tries to revive feeling in his fingers, but is unsuccessful. He then attempts to make his way down the mountain, but the storm is too severe, and the snow bridges over the deep gorges have collapsed, cutting off the path. Exhausted and with hope nearly gone, he makes his way back to the storm damaged station and manages to send out an emergency

SOS is a Morse code distress signal (), used internationally, that was originally established for maritime use. In formal notation is written with an overscore line, to indicate that the Morse code equivalents for the individual letters of "SOS" ...

signal. Soon a rescue team is dispatched. When Hella is informed that the rescue team cannot reach the station, she contacts Udet, knowing that an aircraft rescue is Hannes' only hope. Udet promptly responds and flies at great risk through a dangerous electrical storm to the station, where he finds Hannes in urgent need of care and arranges to heat the station and prepare some food. Meanwhile, Hella and the rescue team make their way up the mountain. After a difficult climb, they reach the weather station and Hannes gazes upon Hella with loving gratitude.

Cast

as Hella Armstrong *

as Hannes *

as Udet, the Pilot * Mathias Wieman as Walter Petersen * Friedrich Kayßler as Armstrong, Hella's Father * Alfred Beierle * Ernst Petersen *

David Zogg David Zogg (18 December 1902 – 26 July 1977) was a Swiss alpine and Nordic combined skier. He was raised in Arosa, Switzerland. At the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz he finished 16th in the Nordic combined event. In 1931, he won th ...

as Skifahrer * Beni Führer as Skifahrer * Rähmi as Bergführer * Guzzi Lantschner as Bergführer * Benno Leubner as Bergführer * Harald Reinl as Bergführer, Hella Armstrong (Double) * Luggi Foeger * Claus von Suchotzky as Pilot des Aufnahmeflugzeuges * Josef Gumboldt * Hans Kogler * Otto Leubner * Kurt Reinl * Julius Rähmi * Walter Traut

Production

Filmed on location in

Arosa , neighboring_municipalities= Alvaneu, Davos, Langwies, Lantsch/Lenz, Molinis, Peist, Schmitten, Tschiertschen, Vaz/Obervaz, Wiesen , twintowns = Fukumitsu (Japan) Arosa is a town and a municipality in the Plessur Region in the canton of Gr ...

, Switzerland, Babelsberg Observatory in

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, Germany, and Mont-Blanc in

, France, ''Stürme über dem Mont Blanc'' is notable for its dramatic mountain footage and depictions of a violent snow storm. The aircraft used in filming were: *

Klemm Kl 25 Klemm L 25, later Klemm Kl 25 was a successful German light leisure, sports and training monoplane aircraft, developed in 1928. More than 600 aircraft were built, and manufacturing licenses were sold to the United Kingdom and the United States ...

(D-1450 L.25 1A) *

Udet U 12 The Udet U 12 Flamingo was an aerobatic sports plane and trainer aircraft developed in Germany in the mid-1920s. Design and development The U 12 was a conventional, single-bay biplane of wooden construction with the wings braced by large I-stru ...

Flamingo (D-1202, 822)

Reception

''Stürme über dem Mont Blanc'' premiered in Dresden, Germany on 25 December 1930. Although advertised as a

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

, most of the scenes were silent, with long, lingering shots of mountain peaks. Aviation film historian James H. Farmer in ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation'' (1984) described the aerial scenes, as "outstanding aerial sequences, including a hazardous landing on the Mount Blanc glacier." Footage from the film was later used in ''

Lost Horizon ''Lost Horizon'' is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a film, also called ''Lost Horizon'', in 1937 by director Frank Capra. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamaser ...

'' (1937)." Title: 'The Making of Lost Horizon' (1999)."
''IMDb'', 2019. Retrieved: 28 July 2019.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Fanck, Arnold. ''Stürme über dem Montblanc. Ein Filmbildbuch. Nach dem gleichnamigen Film''. St Louis, Missouri: Concordia, 1931. OCLC 20841117 * Farmer, James H. ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation''. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books Inc., 1984. . * Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema''. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. . * Rentschler, Eric and Arthur Kingsley Porter. ''The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and its Afterlife''. BostonL Harvard University Press, 1996. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stürme über dem Mont Blanc 1930 films 1930s adventure drama films German aviation films German black-and-white films Films directed by Arnold Fanck Films of the Weimar Republic Films set in France Films set in the Alps Films shot in Switzerland Films shot in Brandenburg Films shot in France German adventure films 1930s German-language films Mountaineering films Transitional sound films 1930 drama films 1930s German films