The Challenge

Challenge, The (1938)

** (out of 4)

The "Mountain" genre was pretty much a German thing but there were a few other examples made outside that country. This one here finds Luis Trenker, who had just escaped Germany, making a sound attempt at the Mountain film but the end results are rather mixed. In the film he plays an Italian who guides a Englishman (Robert Douglas) up the side of the Matterhorn in 1865. The two men eventually have a falling out and end up going up different sides of the mountain and trying to become the first to reach the top. I've rather new to this genre but I doubt this here is the best example. There are some terrific moments here but sadly the story in between the mountain-climbing footage is rather weak and we also have to sit through some really horrid performances. Apparently Trenker directed the stuff on the mountain and it's too bad he didn't direct the rest of the film because it's the stuff off the mountain that really hurts. I was shocked to see how unprofessional some of this stuff was because it seems like everyone was in a hurry. There are several times where actors would appear to be speed reading their lines just to get through them in a quick time. It really took me by surprise the first time it happened and it was rather shocking when it continued. A couple times it seems like something you'd see in a gag reel where an unknown actor was reading for the first time and just going so fast where a director would eventually jump in and slow them down but that doesn't happen here. The majority of the story centers on the Englishman trying to find funding to go up the mountain and of course his eventual fall out with the Italian. There's even a subplot at the end when four men are killed and rumors get around that the Englishman cut the rope. I'm not sure how factual this true-story is but there are some moments towards the end where things are so over the top it left me scratching my head. There are some good things here and that includes the performances by Douglas and Trenker. I thought both made the film a lot more entertaining thanks to their work. The major reason to watch this is for the mountain climbing scenes that take place at the start and finish of the film. There's a sequence where four men fall off the mountain and even though it's clear we're seeing dummies fall, the sequence is pretty harrowing.

The Challenge can be recommended for the fifteen or twenty minutes of mountain climbing footage that serve as the film's narrative bookends. Directed by and starring Austro-Hungarian mountaineer and filmmaker Luis Trenker, these segments are truly thrilling and at times brilliantly shot by Trenker's long time DP, Albert Benitz. The Matterhorn, long since emasculated by the persistent presence of Mickey Mouse and Goofy on its slopes, has certainly never looked more imposing than it does here. Sadly, the balance of the film is taken up by deadly dull stuff about Briton Edward Whymper's race to beat the bally Eye-ties to the top of the mountain, and you'll be challenged indeed to keep your eyelids propped open during the tedious second act of the film. For those who like their oxygen thin or simply yearn to see a good avalanche, however, this is well worth a look.

This is one of numerous films made in the thirties which were centered around à mountain.Lots of picturesque views of mountains but very little else.There is à story about competing parties of climbers and how à rope broke killing some of thé climbers.It is otherwise a rather dull film.

Depicting the race between competing teams of English and Italian mountain climbers to be the first to reach the top of the Matterhorn in the Alps, there are a lot of good things about this movie. It may lack the special effects touches that modern movies have, but there are some really good scenes depicting the mountain itself, and some good and realistic mountain climbing scenes. Surprisingly graphic for the time was the scene in which four climbers fall to their deaths. Although shot from a distance, watching the climbers tumble down the mountain was actually quite unnerving. The performances involved with this were generally pretty good as well and, after the deaths of the climbers, a predictable but well portrayed scape-goating against English climber Whipple.

There were some things about this that struck me as less than necessary. The romance between Carrel and Felicitas, for example. I didn't find it believable, nor did I find that it added anything to the story. There was perhaps a bit too much attention paid to what was going on in the village at the expense of what the movie should have been about - which was conquering the Matterhorn. Overall, though, it's a decent enough effort for its time.