The White Tower (1950)

That was an excellent one.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Excellent but underrated film

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

After finding him outstanding in the 1934 Film Noir Crime Without Passion,I decided to keep a look out on TV for movies with Claude Rains. Returning home from a weekend in Birmingham,I took a look at the film page on BBC iPlayer,and found a rare Adventure title co- starring Rains,which led to me climbing the white tower.The plot:After her dad dies trying to climb the mountain, Carla Alton decides that she is going to climb "The White Tower" mountain. Finding her to completely ignore their advice to not climb it, French author Paul Delambre,US pilot Martin Ordway and "ex" Nazi Hein decide to team up and help Alton up the mountain.As they climb up the mountain,the group get caught in an avalanche of their own fatal differences.View on the film:Climbing the mountain in the real Swiss Alps ,director Ted Tetzlaff (cinematographer of Hitchcock's Notorious) & cinematographer Ray Rennahan ice the movie with a great frosty atmosphere,swept up in tightly held shots being covered in mountains of snowflakes.Bringing warmth to the pre-climb with Sid Rogell's light score, Tetzlaff drowns the light in a surprising amount of gloom,where a lone fire is the only sign of life in a virgin snow wilderness.Taking on James Ramsey Ullman's novel,the screenplay by Paul Jarrico cleverly digs its heels into opening up Alton dedication to the memory of her dad,and the uneasy teamwork that sits between the heroic Ordway and "ex" Nazi Hein.Giving the team a cheerful,friendly outlook before the climb, Jarrico gives the shadow of the mountain a surprisingly sharp edge,with its sharp edges leading to an unexpected large number of the group falling to their doom.Toning down his devilish charm, Claude Rains gives a wonderful melancholy performance as Delambre,as Lloyd Bridges gives a great boo-hiss performance as snarling "ex" Nazi Hein.Joined by a rugged Glenn Ford as Ordway,the elegant Alida Valli gives a vivacious performance as Alton,who finds the memory of her dad at the top of the white tower.

Italian actress Alida Valli made five films in English while under contract to David O. Selznick, two for him (The Paradine Case, The Third Man), three for RKO (Walk Softly Stranger, The Miracle Of The Bells, and The White Tower). After which she returned to Italy and a great career there.The White Tower offers a chance to see her in a far less dour role than usual - and she's a knockout in Technicolor.She plays Carla Alten, a girl who returns to her Swiss village to enlist a group of fellow mountain climbers in an attempt to scale The White Tower, a Matterhorn-like peak that her father died trying to climb. The scenes setting up the recruitment of the climbers and their reasons for climbing are picturesque and economically done, and within the first quarter of the movie, we're on the mountain. The group includes an alcoholic, unhappily married writer (Claude Rains), a veteran climber (Oskar Homolka), Dr. Nicholas Radcliffe (Cedric Hardwicke), Hein, a German (Lloyd Bridges), and an American, Martin Ordway (Glenn Ford). He's laid back as only Glenn Ford can play him, but that doesn't mean he isn't smart and watchful.And he needs to be, for soon it appears the German is an unreconstructed fascist. Several years after the war, the characters are re-fighting it in microcosm on the mountain, with Ford as the main exponent of Allied values.Beautifully shot and well cast with excellent actors, The White Tower is a thinking man's adventure, with some romance thrown in, and all of it satisfying.

It takes a while for "The White Tower" to take off. After the long, slow start, this film keeps picking up speed until the surprise ending (or near the end), which takes on new meaning today as a result of the recent controversy concerning Mt. Everest and comments by Sir Edmund Hillary. I don't want to give away the ending of the film, but be sure and read what Sir Edmund Hillary had to say a few days ago about the peak he conquered in 1953, three years after "The White Tower" was released and relate his words to what happens in the picture.In beautiful Technicolor but before Cinemascope, it is easy to spot the interior sets, yet the exterior ones are breathtaking, even on a small screen. The cinematography is first rate. Too bad the script and direction weren't as effective. The script attempts to work a soap opera romance into the proceedings which becomes so melodramatic and naive that the viewer is asked to believe that attractive and likable Glenn Ford as Martin Ordway would risk his life and limb for the loves of a woman, even the vivacious Alida Valli as Carla Alton. The performers do the best they can with what they're given. Lloyd Bridges as Hein, the never-say-die Nazi, makes a hearty effort to bring his despicable character to life as does Claude Rains in the somewhat nondescript role of Paul DeLambre. Enjoy the scenery, the fine cast, and the excitement of the last fifteen minutes or so of the show and maybe you'll forget about the tired, hackneyed beginning and middle.

This is one of those movies that is fitting to it's era... Actually, not a bad and personal romance and adventure with odd assortment of characters who each for their own reasons want to climb this 'White Tower' mountain... With a great cast.. Claude Rains, L Bridges, C Hardwick, etc.. but most of all VALLI, a special woman among women.. (also in the 'The Third Man')... I'm a great fan of 'The Third Man' and fell in love with her,.... and seeing Valli again was a real treat..Great vistas (quite abit of on-location shooting in the French Alps), photography, color.... For those who know what I mean,.. this has a 'kinda' "High and Mighty" feel to it.. One other note germane to that era of film making, the ages to the characters/actors.. all older and more mature than what we're used to today... Chauk one up for the good old days.. ENJOY