Third Man on the Mountain

Build it.

—Walt Disney while in Switzerland during filming of this movie

The exterior filming of this movie really did take place in Switzerland. In fact, it was filmed in Zermatt, from which the first expedition to successfully summit the Matterhorn began. That expedition involved serious tragedy, but not as is depicted here. A piece of rope from that expedition is still in a museum in the town’s Matterhorn museum, as there was initially belief that the rope had been cut when several of the climbers fell to prevent the remaining three from following them. While two of the survivors were a father-son guide team, it is not their story that made it to the movie.

Instead, we have the fictional story of Rudi Matt (James MacDonald). His father had been a mountaineering guide from the (equally fictional) town of Kurtal who died in an attempt to summit the Citadel (the Matterhorn). Rudi’s mother, Ilse (Nora Swinburne), is afraid Rudi will die the same way and has hired him out to be a dishwasher in a hotel. But Rudi spends all his time dreaming of climbing the Citadel, not helped by the fact that the cook in the same hotel is Old Teo (Laurence Naismith), who had been with Rudi’s father on the mountain. Nor does it help that the hotel owner’s daughter, Lizbeth (Janet Munro), encourages Rudi to follow his dreams.

One day, Rudi has ducked out of work to go to the mountain again. He ends up rescuing Captain John Winter (Michael Rennie), a famous British mountaineer who has failed to look where he was going and fallen down a crevasse. By pulling him out, Rudi has saved Captain Winter’s life. What with one thing and another, this ends with Captain Winter’s supporting Rudi with his mother and uncle (James Donald) so that Rudi can become a guide instead of a dishwasher. Captain Winter has plans to summit the Citadel, and Rudi is determined to go with him.

I don’t know a ton about mountaineering. I’ve done some minor rock climbing, but only the kind that’s barely more strenuous than a good hike. This kind does not appeal. Part of that is my lack of interest in lethal hobbies, admittedly, because there’s a moment in the movie where Captain Winter waxes rhapsodic about the view he can see from a mountaintop, and I’m there. It’s absolutely beautiful. And if there’s a cable car or a road or something that will get me to that view, I can wax rhapsodic myself, but there’s no way I’m climbing.

On the other hand, I get knowing that something is what you’re intended to do with your life. It’s been a long time since I held a job, but when I did, I was stealing every available minute to do my own personal writing, even on the clock. I got lectured about it several times at two of the jobs I’ve held. When we first see Rudi, he’s staring out a window over the sink at the Citadel. It’s what he longs for. He knows that his life is leading toward climbing that mountain. He doesn’t even really care about being the first one to climb it, just doing it.

We get a little bit of a taste of the rivalry between Rudi’s village of Kurtal and Broli (not appearing in this film). Rudi’s uncle, Franz Lerner, is persuaded to go up the mountain when Emil Saxo (Herbert Lom) of Broli calls him a coward, and Saxo says that he and the men of Kurtal cannot climb the mountain together. It’s weird, but rivalries like that are. Saxo clearly wants the credit for having a man of Broli to be the one to guide the first one to summit the Citadel, in part because Kurtal is seen as having ownership of the mountain and he wants to take that away from him.

The entire cast and crew of the film were put through a mountaineering school, apparently, though I suspect that’s not entirely true. (I can’t imagine, for example, having Helen Hayes do it, given she’s in a whopping one scene, along with MacDonald’s then-wife, Joyce Bulifant.) However, the crew had to, of course, and obviously any cast member who actually appears to climb a mountain in the movie. In fact, MacDonald appears to have climbed the Matterhorn on his day off, because the effort involved is much more routine now than it was when the movie is set. Both James Donald and assistant cameraman Pierre Tairraz suffered falls; Donald had minor injuries and Tairras broke three ribs. The filming was intense and dangerous.

Is the film worth it? It’s not bad. On the official Disney Byways Castaway Cowboy Scale of “how bad is this movie,” it’s definitely far better than Castaway Cowboy. Since it’s set in Switzerland, there’s no racism involved. Yes, the cast is really white, but there isn’t even really a Comic Relief Italian—the Italian is clear that Italians are the best mountaineers, but that’s only in a good-natured argument. Lizbeth is winsome and allowed to do more actual climbing than a lot of women of the era would have. And if Ilse mostly exists to fret about her son, well, that’s reasonable of her.

There are a handful of people who are well established as People Who Were In A Lot Of Disney Movies. Dean Jones. Tommy Kirk. Hayley Mills. This movie features a few who aren’t usually on the list but should be. MacDonald himself made five movies with Disney (and one for Columbia with Hayley Mills!). Janet Munro had a five-picture deal with Disney, though one of her features seems to have mostly been made for TV. Herbert Lom made two theatrical release in one year plus one made-for-TV. Laurence Naismith made four. Even Helen Hayes made four. This movie is full of familiar faces and an awfully familiar mountain, in short.