La torre bianca

It's a suspenseful premise—scaling a killer peak. The trouble is that the suspense doesn't really gel until the final few minutes. In the meantime, Valli and Ford get romantically acquainted in several over-long scenes that sap the pace. Technically, the movie combines real mountains (French Alps) with sound stage mountains in pretty effective fashion, certainly better than most process shots of the period. And that location photography of the French Alps produces some stunning shots of gorgeous alpine valleys, which, I suspect, is the real star of the movie.

The plot motivation has Valli paying tribute to her dead father by scaling the White Tower. Unfortunately, she takes along a mixed bag of male support that's none too persuasive, including a 61-year old Claude Rains and a 56-year old Cedric Hardwicke, along with a youthful Ford who nevertheless treats the project like a walk-in-the-park. Remember, this is supposed to be a peak never before climbed, and she's a girl with a mission. Nonetheless, some of the dangling-from-rocks scenes amount to good cinema. I just wish someone had told Ford or the director that you don't mountaineer without gloves, especially in snow.

The story itself shifts gears abruptly in the final few minutes when WWII is refought on a tense snow bank. Actually, Ford should have suspected Bridges' politics when he first saw that Afrika Korps campaign cap. Instead, he has to prove the advantages of a cooperative ethic (democracy) over Bridges' superman ethic; at the same time, I like the movie's surprisingly unconventional climax, which manages to reinforce Ford's ethic. Anyway, the film is spotty, at best, but those scenic shots do compensate for a lot.

The White Tower is an allegorical film about the need for cooperation among people and nations. It's no accident that this film was made during the early years of the United Nations when there was so much hope for its success. Maybe we will be one world, one day if we all cooperate.

The story takes place in Switzerland and the White Tower is as yet an unclimbed Alp. Alida Valli's father died making an attempt and she wants to climb it. She manages to convince five guests of the resort hotel she's staying at to climb with her.

Her party consists of Glenn Ford, Lloyd Bridges, Claude Rains, Oscar Homolka, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. The story is what happens on the mountain and what the challenging climb brings out in all of them.

Not all of them survive the trip. But you ain't gonna get me to spill the beans.

Lloyd Bridges is the most interesting of the characters. He's a former Nazi who's doing it to prove Deutscheland is really uber alles. He gets quite a reality check on the mountain.

The White Tower has some good color photography of some really fabulous mountain scenery. The story at times gets a big talky and bogs down, but the climax is both spectacular and real.

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

Old-fashioned in the best sense, this mountaineering adventure boasts a stellar cast--Glenn Ford, Alida Valli, Cedric Hardwicke, Claude Rains, Lloyd Bridges, and Oskar Homolka--and a simple premise: a young woman (Valli) returns to the Swiss Alps to conquer the eponymous mountain that claimed her father's life years before. But she has to persuade several other climbers to brave the perilous ascent with her. Each has his own reason for accepting, while the lone American member (Ford), at first tagging along just to spend time with the beautiful Valli, gradually finds a deeper reason of his own.

The recent Second World War looms large over the story. Indeed, the White Tower itself is a clear metaphor for it: the three main characters all have something left to prove, and the higher they climb, the more the reveal about themselves, the more fractured the team becomes. It's not as psychologically complex as it sounds, though. You can easily work out who's who and how the relationships are going to develop as the story unfolds.

The joys here are the cast, the scenery, several gripping climbing sequences, and a lush score that evokes that aching sense of something lost that's also somehow within reach again...if only love can prevail.

Corny, maybe, but if you like old Hollywood and adventure films, this one will work like a charm.

One of your slower ascensions, made all the more lumbering by its six ascenders having to stop periodically to fight inner demons and examine consciences. And since what is on their minds are questions like "What Is Reality?" and the one that seems to occur, with weary regularity, in all mountain climbing movies, "Why Must I Challenge This Peak?", it makes for a fairly boring expedition, as well. Don't know about you but about forty per cent of the way through I felt like yelling at the screen, "Either shut up or get off the friggin mountain!" And no amount of pretty location shooting (subverted by really phony looking, sound stage "mountain" shooting) and good acting by Valli, Raines, Homolka and Bridges can withstand such a reaction. Give it a C.