Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Mountain Blu-ray Movie Review

Is this Blu-ray a peak experience?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 8, 2012

Younger viewers who see Robert Wagner hawking reverse mortgages on those ubiquitous television commercials might only remember him—if in fact they remember him at all—either from his self-parodying roles in the Austin Powers films or from reruns of his old television series Hart to Hart, Switch or It Takes a Thief. Some may remember in the back of their minds that he was once married to Natalie Wood and was involved in the quasi-scandal surrounding her supposedly mysterious death (something that reared its ugly head again fairly recently when the captain of the boat the couple and Christopher Walken were on that fateful night was doing some hawking of his own, for a book he had written). But few younger than, say, 40 or 50 may recall that Wagner was something of a matinee idol during the twilight years of the studio system in the fifties. Perhaps hampered by looks that seemed too good to be true, Wagner had considerable success with several films but never really was able to establish himself as a serious actor, despite impressive turns in such films as the first version of the Ira Levin thriller A Kiss Before Dying.

In fact there often seemed to be a certain level of menace lurking just beneath the surface of Wagner’s impeccably handsome face, and that endowed the actor with a subtly palpable sinister quality that glints through in several of his portrayals. It’s certainly there in spades, albeit as subtly as ever, in the 1956 Edward Dmytryk film The Mountain, a disaster movie of sorts long before that genre had ever been “officially” formulated (and trivia buffs will remember that Wagner was one of the many co-stars—not so coincidentally in a sort of villainous role—in the mega-hit disaster film The Towering Inferno). An iconic real life 1950 air disaster involving an Air India flight crashing into Mont Blanc evidently served as the inspiration for the source novel for The Mountain, although several key plot points were changed along the way. (A subplot in the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film Amélie also concerns this same air tragedy.)

Wagner’s inherent “prettiness” (for want of a better word) worked against him in the fifties, probably in much the same way it did against Paul Newman, who, like Wagner, made some of his first forays into film at 20th Century Fox and was initially at least shoved into stultifying costume epics like The Silver Chalice. Newman somehow managed to fight his way into more challenging dramatic roles, while Wagner teetered around the edges of potboilers like Titanic or starred in, well, stultifying costume epics like Prince Valiant. The Mountain, along with A Kiss Before Dying, shows a more shaded, surprisingly venal side the actor was quite capable of portraying, and these two films might be thought of as Wagner’s best chances to really shine in his matinee idol phase. Both films have their flaws (there’s no way one of the iconic twists of the Levin piece can really be adequately translated to film from its literary origins), but both reveal Wagner to possess some unexpected depth that a lot of his fifties material, and certainly his much lighter weight fare from later in his career, never even hints at.

In The Mountain Wagner portrays Christopher Teller, the greedy younger brother of an experienced mountain climber named Zachary Teller (Spencer Tracy). When news comes of a devastating plane crash atop one of the Swiss Alps, Chris wants to immediately set off to reach the remains of the wreck in order to reap whatever riches might be strewn across the snow laden peaks. Zachary of course realizes just how treacherous this plan is and is reluctantly lured into coming, if only to keep Chris safe. The entire film plays out as a dialectic between Chris’ brash avarice and Zachary’s more reverential, respectful (and cautious) temperaments. Will Chris’ headlong rush toward the apex of the mountain lead to disaster? Will Zachary relent and not only get Chris to the top but let him rake through the pockets of the dead to reap whatever unseemly rewards await him? That’s really the gist of The Mountain, which ups the dramatic interest with its unusual setting.

This is an incredibly scenic film that beautifully uses location photography under the direction of Edward Dmytryk. Studio bound scenes and process photography are also rather artfully blended into the enterprise, and if the mountain climbing sequences don’t quite rise to the heights (pun intended) of, say, Cliffhanger, they’re exciting and visceral, especially when one considers the fact that they’re really window dressing in a way, decorating the sibling relationship between Christopher and Zachary. Tracy and Wagner don’t make especially believable siblings (the film might have seemed a bit more realistic if Tracy had portrayed Chris’ father, and that in fact may have made the final emotional scene for Tracy’s character more meaningful in a way).

There are some interesting and enjoyable supporting performances that help color the edges of The Mountain, even though the bulk of the film is carried by the tug of war between Tracy and Wagner. William Demarest is on hand in a kind of unusual role for the actor, as the town’s priest, bringing an unexpected softness to his portrayal that is distinctly at odds with the kind of crusty depictions for which he’s better known. And Claire Trevor is also appealing in a brief role as a townswoman who obviously has designs on Tracy, even though he doesn’t seem to realize it. E.G. Marshall also offers his typically stolid style in another supporting role.

The Mountain is an unusual film, and it’s an atypical film for both Tracy and Wagner. If the drama isn’t especially convincing, it’s undeniably entertaining, and the sumptuous settings caught in some luscious location photography make the film visually compelling even when the events being shown aren’t exactly believable. The film is notable for being built around a horrible tragedy, but it doesn't really focus on the tragedy itself and instead concentrates on how the disaster brings out inherent character traits in Christopher and Zachary. In that regard it's the polar opposite of everything Irwin Allen would do with the disaster genre a couple of decades later.

The Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Mountain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This VistaVision spectacular looks reasonably sharp on Blu-ray, with especially nicely saturated colors, the best of which are some extremely bright and robust reds and blues. Fine detail is well above average in close-ups, though a lot of the second unit (location) photography is noticeably softer than the rest of the film. The process photography shows its literal seams, with lightly flaring purple halos surrounding foreground objects. Grain looks natural, and there doesn't seem to be any restoration work of any type done on the elements, so there are occasional scratches and other blemishes.

The Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Mountain features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono mix that reproduces the film's soundtrack with decent fidelity and range, but little depth or nuance. Dialogue is cleanly presented, as are ambient environmental effects, and Daniele Amfitheatrof's very colorful and expressive score is also well represented, but the entire track has an understandably one dimensional, flat aspect that doesn't really reach out and grab the listener. There is very slight hiss noticeable in some of the quieter scenes of the film, but overall there's really no outright damage to report.

The Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As is usual with these Olive Films Blu-ray releases, no supplements of any kind are included on this release.

The Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Robert Wagner never seemed to really grab the brass ring of movie superstardom, despite having impeccable good looks and a smooth, suave acting manner. Perhaps his charms were better suited to the small screen, where that mischievous gleam in his eye translated better to the audience. (It's interesting that his best known television roles featured the actor as someone with a kind of scheming undercurrent.) The supposed sibling relationship between Tracy and Wagner is on its face absurd (what kind of gene pool produced these two?), and probably would have been more smartly handled as a father son interaction, but the two do great work here in a film built around a tragic disaster, but which doesn't really make that disaster its ultimate focus. Lushly helmed by the almost always reliable Edward Dmytryk, The Mountain has some unusual depth and nuance within its admittedly soap operatic frame. This Blu-ray looks decent if not exceptional and sounds fine, and despite Olive's typical lack of supplements, it comes Recommended.