Terreur dans la montagne

Original title: A Cold Night's Death

TV Movie
1973
1h 14m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Scientists Robert Jones and Frank Enari suspect that there is someone or something other than their research primates inhabiting their isolated polar station.Scientists Robert Jones and Frank Enari suspect that there is someone or something other than their research primates inhabiting their isolated polar station.Scientists Robert Jones and Frank Enari suspect that there is someone or something other than their research primates inhabiting their isolated polar station.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.6/10

1.2K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Photos22

+ 16

User reviews43

6.61.1K

Featured reviews

7The_Void

Paranoid and claustrophobic

There were a lot of good made for TV movies released in the seventies, and A Cold night's Death is certainly one of them! The film is set in polar conditions and features a very small cast of just three people. This gives the film a very claustrophobic atmosphere which benefits the paranoid atmosphere greatly. The film begins with a transmission from a madman and shortly thereafter, we follow two more men who go to the polar ice station. It soon becomes apparent that something is not quite right... The production values on show here are surprisingly good considering that the movie is made for television and director Jerrold Freedman more than makes the best of what he had to work with. The acting is very good and features great performances from Robert Cult and Eli Wallach in the lead roles. The film is short at just seventy minutes, but the runtime is used very well and the director certainly gets his point across. The ending is strange and doesn't come as a complete surprise, though it's good to watch and finishes the film off nicely. Overall, this TV movie does leave an impression and I can certainly recommend it.

8J'Ennui

Creepy and, yes, chilling.

I, too, saw this on my L.A. ABC station as "A Cold Night's Death", when I was a teenager. I was really caught up in it -- the tension, the atmosphere, the mystery. And the ending was great, at least at that time. All of this was attributable to several factors, including the writing, directing, acting, sets, and sound effects. I wonder how I'd react if I saw if for the first time now?

By chance, I worked with the director, Jerrold Freedman, many years later. At one point during that harried shoot, I managed to tell him how much of an impression this movie had made on me. Obviously so, since his name stuck in my head over the decades between.

Here's another person strongly urging the release of this obscure gem on DVD, perhaps now, while it's still winter!

Wizard-8

Compelling made-for-TV movie

Although it plays like a somewhat lengthened "Twilight Zone" episode (even at 72 minutes) and the ending is pretty predictable, this is a solid piece of work. The mountain setting is perfect, giving the movie great atmosphere with the cold and isolation. The acting is solid (Culp's agonized trudge through the cold is the highlight), and there are some nice little touches here and there, such as the slowly growing seedly look of the two men.

It's too bad that the many good made-for-TV movies of the '70s like these are almost impossible to see nowadays. ABC and Paramount (who made many of them) could make a guaranteed profit by releasing them on DVD. Why not put two on a disc - that would really increase sales!

burthelukyman

It's on Youtube !!

To ALL of you who were hoping to watch it again : IT'S ON YOUTUBE !!! Yup ! and it's as scary as you remember it ! Especially with that spooky electronic music, the trapped-in-a-snowstorm claustrophobic atmosphere, the cat-and-mouse paranoia between Robert Culp and Eli Wallach and the overall creepiness of those lab monkeys ! Man, talk about a trip back in time !

8yenlo

Interesting thriller

This film was one of the made for TV movies that used to be so popular back in the 70's that are almost never seen now. A small cast made up of two very fine actors i.e. Eli Wallach and Robert Culp play research scientists at a small Polar station that the previous inhabitants of met with bad fortune. An entertaining thriller that has a touch of science fiction and mystery in it.

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Trivia
A COLD NIGHT'S DEATH was also a novel by Barbara Harrison, who crafted a string of medical novels in the 1970s and 1980s. She also had some mainstream novels to her credit.

Quotes
Ryan Horner: [Narrate the beginning of the story] January 17, Base Research Center, Ryan Horner, Project Director. Today is our 5th-day without radio contact with Dr. Vogel. Previous attempts to reach Summit Laboratory of failed because of continuing snowstorms. I fear for Vogel's well-being. Before we lost transmission, his radio contacts were becoming increasingly sporadic and irrational. To the point, that he reported having conversations with such figures as Napoleon and Alexander the Great. I'm deeply concerned that he may not be feeding the monkeys and chimps, nor recording the results of our altitude experiments on them. If this is the case, before years of research for the space program will have been wasted. Our promise delivery date is less than 3 months away and we must salvage the project. Doctors Robert Jones and Frank Enari arrived from the University this morning to relieve Vogel and continue the experiments. I am much relieved that this particular team was made available to finish the project. As it was their research in stress situations man might encounter in space exploration that is the basis of our program. The storm has calmed enough for Val Adams to fly them in along with a new chimp for experiment control. I must confess my deep concern as to what they will find.