''The Mountain'' is a 1956
adventure
An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme sp ...
drama film starring
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
and
Robert Wagner. The supporting cast included
Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...
,
Richard Arlen,
William Demarest
Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 27, 1983) was an American character actor, known especially for his roles in screwball comedies by Preston Sturges and for playing Uncle Charley in the sitcom ''My Three Sons'' Demarest, wh ...
, and
Anna Kashfi
Anna Kashfi (born Joan O'Callaghan; 30 September 1934 – 16 August 2015) was a British film actress who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950s but was better known for her tumultuous marriage to film star Marlon Brando and the controversies ...
. It is based on ''La neige en deuil'', a 1952 French novel by
Henri Troyat
Henri Troyat (born Lev Aslanovich Tarasov; – 2 March 2007) was a Russian-born French author, biographer, historian and novelist.
Early life
Lev Aslanovich Tarasov (russian: link=no, Лев Асланович Тарасов, ''Lev Aslanovich ...
which was inspired by the crash of
Air India Flight 245 in 1950.
Plot
When a passenger plane crashes near the top 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 it ...
in the
French Alps, greedy Christopher Teller (Wagner) decides to go and rob the dead. However, he has no hope of getting to the crash site without the help of his older brother Zachary (Tracy), a highly skilled mountain climber. Zachary wants to leave the dead in peace, but Chris hounds him until he finally gives in.
When they reach the downed plane, they find one badly injured survivor, an
Indian woman (Kashfi). Chris wants to leave her there to die, but Zachary insists on bringing her down the mountain.
On the descent, Chris, ignoring Zachary's warning, tries to cross an unsafe
snow bridge
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
and falls to his death. When Zachary gets the woman to his village, he tells everyone that he went up the mountain to rob the plane and forced his brother to go with him, but his friends (Trevor, Demarest) know better.
Cast
*
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
as Zachary Teller
*
Robert Wagner as Christopher 'Chris' Teller
*
Claire Trevor
Claire Trevor ( Wemlinger; March 8, 1910April 8, 2000) was an American actress. She appeared in 65 feature films from 1933 to 1982, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in ''Key Largo'' (1948), and received nomina ...
as Marie
*
William Demarest
Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 27, 1983) was an American character actor, known especially for his roles in screwball comedies by Preston Sturges and for playing Uncle Charley in the sitcom ''My Three Sons'' Demarest, wh ...
as Father Belacchi
*
Barbara Darrow
Barbara Darrow (November 18, 1931 - August 26, 2018) was an American motion picture and television actress.
Early years
Darrow was born in Hollywood, California, to George H. Wittlinger, a motion-picture landscape artist, and Alice Simpson Wit ...
as Simone
*
Richard Arlen as C.W. Rivial
*
E.G. Marshall
E. G. Marshall (born Everett Eugene Grunz;Everett Eugene Grunz in Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1900-1934, Ancestry.comEverett Eugene Grunz in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, accessed via Ancestry.com June 18, ...
as Solange
*
Anna Kashfi
Anna Kashfi (born Joan O'Callaghan; 30 September 1934 – 16 August 2015) was a British film actress who had a brief Hollywood career in the 1950s but was better known for her tumultuous marriage to film star Marlon Brando and the controversies ...
as Hindu Girl
*
Richard Garrick
Richard Garrick (December 27, 1878 – August 21, 1962) was an Irish-born American actor and director.
Life and career
Garrick was born Richard Thomas O'Brien in the townland of Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland. His father, James E. O'Brie ...
as Coloz
*
Harry Townes as Joseph
See also
*
List of American films of 1956
A list of American films released in 1956
'' Around the World in 80 Days'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
A-B
C-D
E-I
J-M
N-R
S-Z
See also
* 1956 in the United States
Sources Footnotes
References
*
*
External links
...
*
Mountain film
References
External links
*
1950s adventure drama films
1956 drama films
1956 films
American adventure drama films
1950s English-language films
Films about brothers
Films based on French novels
Films directed by Edward Dmytryk
Films scored by Daniele Amfitheatrof
Films set in the Alps
Films with screenplays by Ranald MacDougall
Mountaineering films
1950s American films
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