Third Man on the Mountain (1959) Review

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(More customer reviews)THE STORY : Basically, young Rudi is the son of the best climbing guide in his village, who died tragically climbing the yet unconquered Matterhorn, or as they call it "the Citadel". Rudi's mother refuses to let her son climb, and he is going crazy for it if it were not for the love and understanding of Lizbeth. He strongly believes his father had discovered a secret path to the mountaintop that has so far eluded all other climbers. Rudi is always in trouble for sneaking away to climb on his own, when he is supposed to be washing dishes at the hotel. But the village is concerned over losing their reputation with the other villages, since their guides have been afraid to climb the mountain in the 16 years since the tragedy. When a famous British climber arrives with a guide from a rival village to climb the Citadel and also wants to hire local guides, Rudi and the village get their big chance at redeeming their reputation. There is a good moral lesson about thinking of others first. A very enjoyable dramatic story, it is true Disney wholesome family fare.
BEHIND THE SCENES TRIVIA: The movie was filmed entirely on location in Switzerland. Helicopters and mule trains were used to get the gear to the filming spots. Disney arranged for the actors to actually learn to climb in order to make the scenes that involved the actors more realistic. The long shots were usually filmed with doubles, and close range shots involved the real actors. In the case of the close-up shots the crew used movie magic to make the actors to appear high off the ground when they were not. James MacArthur really enjoyed the climbing and disappeared without authorization from the set in order to do some real climbing, which panicked the crew as an accident would delay filming.
Ken Annakin directed, and was regrouped with some of the cast for his next Disney Studio project, "Swiss Family Robinson". The character of the 18 year old young man named Rudi is well played by young James MacArthur, the son of Helen Hayes. She has a cameo in the film if you look closely. James also appeared in Disney's films "Kidnapped", "Swiss Family Robinson", and "The Light in the Forest". The part of Lizbeth was played by cheery Janet Munro (who also appeared in "Darby and the Little People", "Swiss Family Robinson", & "The Horsemasters"); and Michael Rennie as Captain Winter. The climbing scenes are very well done and scenic.
Walt Disney took his family on vacation to Switzerland, and fell in love with the mountain and the book the story is derived from, "Banner in the Sky" by James Ramsey Ullman. In fact the author has a brief cameo as an American tourist in one scene. The book is based on a true story, and was adapted into a screenplay by Eleanore Griffin. Walt personally made the decision to turn the book into a movie, and the film held a special place in his heart, as well as his budget since this was an expensive undertaking. The mountain left such a deep impression on him that he later recreated it in 1/100th scale at Disneyland with the Matterhorn Mountain and Bobsleds attraction. The film was released in theatres on November 10, 1959 at 107 minutes in length. The episode was re-edited for release as a two episode show on the Walt Disney's `Wonderful World of Color' television show in 1963. It was subsequently renamed after the original book, "Banner in the Sky". Each episode had its own title, the first being "To Conquer the Mountain", and the 2nd being "The Killer Mountain". It first aired on February 17, and 24, 1963. It re-aired on March 5, and 12, 1972. The theatrical edit of the film was first released on VHS in 1986 and DVD on September 7, 2004.
DVD QUALITY: Let me start off by saying that if you are looking to buy a copy to upgrade your old VHS copy of the same film, SAVE YOUR MONEY. Since they decided not to re-master the film and it has been poorly preserved, the 2004 DVD version of the film has scratches, poor sound, and bad color, and was in full screen rather than wide screen. No extras even though there are tons of footage that could have been used. I would have liked to see the trailer, footage of Walt talking about the film, and from his trip to Switzerland, the original 1955 Disney "People and Places" travelogue on Switzerland, and maybe a piece on the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland. So hold onto your VHS copy if you have one, or buy a used on here at Amazon rather than encourage Disney to keep up this butcher job on such great films.

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