The Glass Mountain

Only in the movies could an Englishman in difficulties in the Dolomites come round to find himself being tended to by Tito Gobbi (who promptly bursts into song), as happens to Michael Denison in this delirious piece of frightfully British hokum enhanced by spectacular Alpine scenery and a sequence in Venice.

Aided by the crashing chords of Fellini's later collaborator Nino Rota on the soundtrack and a charming young Valentina Cortese making her debut, audiences in postwar austerity Britain just lapped it up.

Finally got to see THE GLASS MOUNTAIN and was much impressed with the stars, Michael Denison, Dulcie Gray, Valentina Cortese, the location shooting in Venice and the Italian Dolomites, and the opera score by Nino Rota.

Story centers on sensitive composer (Denison) who marries (Gray) on the eve of WW II. He's shot down in the mountains and is saved by a local girl (Cortese) who nurses him back to health and tells him the myths about the doomed lovers who haunt the Glass Mountain, which looms over the village. His imagination is stirred. The war ends and he returns to England but his heart is in the mountains so he goes back to Italy and Cortese to write his opera, weaving bits of local folk music (a la Grieg) into his themes. At the debut of his opera at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Cortese receives word that the estranged wife's plane has gone off course and crashed in the mountains because she wanted to see the Glass Mountain. Pure soap, but very effective.

There is a lengthy and beautifully staged sequence of the opera's climax with a terrific score by Nino Rota and sung by Tito Gobbi and Elena Rizzieri.

This was an English-Italian production directed by Henry Cass, who I don't think I've ever heard of.

I too saw this film when I was a youngster and of course didn't understand most of it except that I loved the music and always remembered the main melody even after 50 years! The main attraction is the wonderful singing of Tito Gobbi, baritone, heard near the beginning when he sings the familiar theme song, with an accordion to accompany him. There's also the performance later on of the new opera "The Glass Mountain" and he is splendid in this as well.

Mostly the story revolves around a young married couple, Richard Wilder, as a music composer (Michael Denison) and his wife Anne (Dulcie Gray). In the aftermath of recuperating from a plane crash in war torn Italy Richard also meets Alida, a lovely Italian lady, and from her he learns about the legend of the Glass Mountain and seriously plans to write an opera based on it when he returns home. This opera would of course be written with his newfound friend in mind, Tito Gobbi, the baritone, as the central figure, and thank goodness for once a baritone is the hero! Let the tenors wait their next turn.

Eventually Richard must choose between a wife back home who loves him and the Italian new love who is devoted to him too. It is during the premiere of his new opera that events take a sudden turn when there's news of a plane crash in which his wife Anne was traveling in - this gives him the answer.

A very romantic film and beautiful music as well. An experience not to be missed.

In the Italian Dolomites a British composer (Michael Denison) loves an Italian girl (Valentina Cortese) who had saved his life during the war. This finely-cast soap opera, which also features the great Italian baritone Tito Gobbi, was an enormous British success, less so in its American release. A great deal of it has to do with its wonderful music including an invented opera by the great film-composer Nino Rota, who provided scores for Fellini's best films. Much of the film was shot on location in the Dolomites and at Venice's La Fenice Opera House, destroyed in recent years by a tragic fire. This is a film that is very much worth re-discovering.

I faintly remember this film ... and mostly because of the main theme song, the melody of which haunts me. Of course, Tito Gobi is the star as far as that theme song is concerned. I should mention that several month ago I did connect with a webpage that offered a short DEMO of Tito Gobi singing this Glass Mountain song... but I cannot find it again. Perhaps you, the reader, can tell me the URL of this website. I do not remember the plot of this film; just the music. Greetings!