Tempête sur le Tibet

STORM OVER TIBET represents the realization of a 20-year-old dream by independent documentary filmmaker Harald Dyrenfurth, and British film producer Andrew Marton: to successfully utilize live on-location stock footage from Dyrenfurth's unfinished documentary titled "MASK OF THE HIMALAYAS", shot in 1934 during an unsuccessful expedition by his entourage to scale Mount Everest. Some of this footage was found and used by legendary film director Frank Capra in his classic fantasy, LOST HORIZON (Columbia, 1937). Fast forward to 1951: Producers Andrew Marton, Laszlo Benedek and Ivan Tors incorporate as Summit Productions to make a new movie using the old footage and new studio production is mounted (excuse the pun). Rex Reason is cast in the lead role after screen tests. His love interest is Diana Douglas, then the wife of star Kirk Douglas and mother of Michael Douglas. A minor league "LOST HORIZON", this film is more than just an old B-movie. It features a hauntingly beautiful music score by classical composers Arthur Honegger and Leith Stevens, magnificent B&W cinematography, and a solid script with fine acting by an ensemble cast. In fact, the stock footage Capra used is also in this film, with the result that Rex Reason appears to be wandering in the snowclad Himalayas just as Ronald Colman had in the Capra film. Rex made an auspicious debut performance, and went on to star in many other classics of the 1950s such as THIS ISLAND EARTH. The film is a fine example of classic studio entertainment. Perhaps Columbia Classics Home Video will someday release it for the world to enjoy again.

Rex Reason is a Flying Tigers pilot on the run "over the hump" during the Second World War. Near the end of his deployment, he shows fellow pilot Myron Healey the Himalayan mask he has gotten and intends to give to his girl. Healy tells him it's wrong, it's a religious object, and how would Reason feel if someone swiped the crucifix from his local church. They get into a kerfuffle, and Reason injures his hand. Healy takes his place on the next flight, and is killed in a crash. Reaosn returns to the US< then back to Asia, convinced that he was supposed to die.

Director Andrew Marton's movie seems to be a partial remake of his own DER DAMON DES HIMALAYA (1935), and a lot of the long shots and images of the Tibetans look like they were lifted from the earlier movies, with DP George Diskant matching the lighting brilliantly. Reason is one of those post-war leading men, very handsome, with a voice as deep as Gregory Peck's, who doesn't show emotion in his face. For a change it works as stoicism, but the combination of mysticism and the stolen-idol plot seems cornball.

Anthropologists may find some of the documentary footage mildly interesting, and this footage has been well merged with a fictional story, but the results still add up to little more than a minor curiosity. The fictional story features a young Rex Reason and partially deals with that old war-time situation where a returning soldier calls on the widow of a dead comrade and finds himself falling in love with her. Laced into this story are some philosophical musings about fate and the wheel of life, but while these musings are treated sincerely and with respect, they never rise above the level of platitudes.

STORM OVER TIBET represents the realization of a 20-year-old dream by independent documentary filmmaker Harald Dyrenfurth, and British film producer Andrew Marton: to successfully utilize live on-location stock footage from Dyrenfurth's unfinished documentary titled "MASK OF THE HIMALAYAS", shot in 1934 during an unsuccessful expedition by his entourage to scale Mount Everest. Some of this footage was found and used by legendary film director Frank Capra in his classic fantasy, LOST HORIZON (Columbia, 1937). Fast forward to 1951: Producers Andrew Marton, Laszlo Benedek and Ivan Tors incorporate as Summit Productions to make a new movie using the old footage and new studio production is mounted (excuse the pun). Rex Reason is cast in the lead role after screen tests. His love interest is Diana Douglas, then the wife of star Kirk Douglas and mother of Michael Douglas. A minor league "LOST HORIZON", this film is more than just an old B-movie. It features a hauntingly beautiful music score by classical composers Arthur Honegger and Leith Stevens, magnificent B&W cinematography, and a solid script with fine acting by an ensemble cast. In fact, the stock footage Capra used is also in this film, with the result that Rex Reason appears to be wandering in the snowclad Himalayas just as Ronald Colman had in the Capra film. Rex made an auspicious debut performance, and went on to star in many other classics of the 1950s such as THIS ISLAND EARTH. The film is a fine example of classic studio entertainment. Perhaps Columbia Classics Home Video will someday release it for the world to enjoy again.