Schicksal am Matterhorn

Judging from this film you would hardly think that Trenker was one of the major directors in the genre Bergfilm (mountain film) in the 30's. Based on Trenker's own novel, the script contains some recurring themes in this oeuvre. Some of these are: the engineer who has build a bridge to connect two mountains as symbol for conquering the mountains; Marianne Hold - probably chosen for her stardom in the Heimatfilm - as the understanding and caring woman, conservative symbol for a woman's role in life (note that she is the daughter of a doctor and that not by accident her character is called Angela); the love for the country and the mountains.

But the script contains a dramatically weak story with quite some continuity problems (how can the engineer take so long to get the wounded shepherd to Angela's house?; this is just badly written). Moreover, early in the film a couple of important characters in the life of the engineer are introduced (the ex-wife and the daughter of the engineer), who both halfway the film seem to have disappeared. On the other hand: Luis Trenker in his last film as actor, plays a part that hardly is important for the story.

Trenker's direction is adequate, but misses the original inspiration and power. Even the scenes of mountain climbing, in a Bergfilm quintessential, are done routinely and are never exiting. It seems that, contrary to the film's title, Trenker had lost all love for making films.