User reviews

This is a very strange film.Robert Newton is top billed.However after his appearance in the first scene he does not appear for another hour.During that period very little of interest happens.Then with his reappearance the film comes to life and we get a reason for the happenings,revelations as to the true identities of the main characters and the action that had been missing in the previous hour.It is difficult to understand the way the plot is developed,notwithstanding a view on the way a British film studio operated in the forties.However you do get the feeling that many of the cast were wasted not least Dennis Price.

I recently picked up a VHS copy of Snowbound at a good price and I wasn't too disappointed, but it wasn't that brilliant.

A man who works as a movie extra gets a job as a spy and is sent to a remote ski cabin in the Alps to investigate strange happenings there. It turns out there is some Nazi gold hidden underneath it and there are others after it too. Who will get their hands on it?

One or two negative things in this movie include people talking Italian which makes you lose the plot a little (these scenes would have been better subtitled) and the plot itself is a little confusing at times anyway. But there is some nice scenery and a good music score though.

An excellent cast too: Robert Newton (Treasure Island, Tom Brown's School Days), Herbert Lom (Mysterious Island, North West Frontier), Dennis Price, Stanley Holloway (The Titfield Thunderbolt, The Lavender Hill Mob), Guy Middleton and Mila Parely.

Although not brilliant, Snowbound is worth checking out.

Rating: 2 and a half stars out of 5.

In post-war times, Neil Blair (Price) is unexpectedly sent to the Alps by his wartime C.O. Derek Engles (Newton). His mission is to keep an eye, on an Italian ski-lodge, populated with a mixed bunch of folk, most of whom are pretending to be something they are not.

This film is based on a Hammond Innes novel and the plot is -in the broadest terms- quite credible in that folk scoured Europe for loot in the post war years. Obviously there are twists and turns here which I won't go into, but covert activities here are somewhat amateurish for the most part; perhaps audiences in 1947 had a different level of expectation in this regard.

Most of the film was shot in Shepherd's Bush but there was location shooting in the French Alps, mostly using doubles (who could ski properly) in long shots and also for footage that was used in back-projection studio work. The location shooting was beautifully done; marvellous unspoiled snowscapes with skiers (mostly) making fresh tracks in virgin snow. It should be remembered that, at this time, skiing in the Alps was an almost impossibly exotic thing to do. It was the province of the wealthy and not for the unfit or risk-adverse either; proper 'release' bindings and very supportive boots hadn't been invented yet (broken ankles were commonplace) and ski-lifts were a rarity; if you wanted those few minutes of glorious downhill ecstasy, you usually had to work for it, by legging it up the mountain first; for every five minutes of downhill skiing there might be an hour of breathless ascent beforehand.

Fashions change of course but one thing that made me chuckle was Mayne's (Middleton's) headgear; presumably some kind of ear muffs, I did a double take, wondering if he was in fact wearing his underwear on his head for a bet or something.

This film is moderately interesting as a thriller but earns itself an extra star from me for the location shooting, little of it though there is . Seven out of ten.

Snowbound is a 1948 British film starring a top British cast, including Dennis Price, Robert Newton, Stanley Holloway, Herbert Lom, Guy Middleton, and Marcel Dalio.

Engeles (Newton), a film director who was with intelligence during the war, sends a war vet, Blair (Price) to a small hotel in Austria with the assignment of gathering information. He doesn't say why; he just wants information of the people and what's going on there.

It takes a while for the truth to emerge about this disparate group: a Greek (Lom), a Countess (Mila Parely), a Brit (Mayne), and several others. At one point, there is an attempt on Blair's life that very nearly succeeds.

We finally learn that all of these people are searching for hidden Nazi gold that was buried in the small hotel. The Lom character intends to start another Reich with it. All the reasons are different.

We don't really find out any of that for a while. In the meantime, the film has magnificent, soaring skiiing scenes with accompanying music (a little much in some parts) and a stunning search and rescue scene with skiiers with torches in a line. It also has a powerful ending.

The story isn't much, and in fact wastes the cast, but the cinematography and acting elevates it.

Funding the New World Order of the Fourth Reich. Snowbound is directed by David MacDonald and adapted to screenplay by David Evans and Keith Campbell from the novel "The Lonely Skier" written by Hammond Innes. It stars Dennis Price, Mila Parely, Stanley Holloway, Herbert Lom, Robert Newton and Guy Middleton. Music is by Cedric Thorpe Davie and cinematography by Stephen Dade.

In short order form the plot basically finds a group of disparate people up in the Italian Alps involved in the search for Nazi treasure hidden somewhere abouts a ski resort. it's a league of nations up in them thar snowy hills, some with deadly motives, others just caught in the crossfire of nefarious plans.

The screenplay is a little too tricksy for its own good, with the multiple shifts of the key players identities becoming tiresome in the last quarter of film. That it never gets going fully until late in the play is also an irritant, as is the fact there is a dynamite cast list assembled here that are sadly given one note characters to portray. In fact Newton is so criminally under used the writers and director should have been banished to the Alps as punishment. That said, the set designs, cinematography and a strong turn from Lom, make sure it stays above average as viewing entertainment. While the finale is gripping and features a resolution that's deliciously sly.

Marked out by some as an entry in the British Noir pantheon, I'm not willing to suggest it as such myself. Certainly some of Stephen Dade's photography has the requisite noirish tints to it, and it could be argued there's an inevitable feeling of bleakness pervading the narrative that brings it into the film noir realm. As always, film noir is in the eye of the beholder, and to me this is just a better than average drama. Even if it does waste a great cast. 6/10

It has to be admitted that Dennis Price, God bless him, was miscast. He gets blown off the screen by, successively, Robert Newton, Stanley Holloway, Marcel Dalio, Mila Parély, Herbert Lom, and even Guy MIddleton, not to mention several of the minor players, all of whom are good. But the 2nd unit work makes up for everything. The skiing scenes are gorgeous, and the rescue sequence starting from the bell tolling and ending up with the skiers' torches circling inward when they find him is really quite beautiful: apart from the overloud music, a completely silent sequence worthy of some of the best silents.

A British mystery thriller; A story set in the Italian Alps. An actor-turned-soldier is assigned to go undercover in the Alps and keep an eye on a suspicious gang planning to recover gold bullion stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War. The splendid cast deliver spirited performances and the director maintains the mystery and atmosphere capably with location footage that adds to the isolation effect. The soundtrack is a high point. It is tightly scripted, but it is a far-fetched story and unconvincing.

Two of the stars of 'La Regle du Jeu' are reunited under considerably less auspicious circumstance (Mlle Parely curiously receiving an introducing credit) in this garrulous Gainsborough potboiler about an unseemly scramble after Nazi gold supposedly set in the Alps, although only the second unit actually went. It looks good though.

Snowbound is about a bunch of people in the Alps pretending to ski but really looking for secret hidden Nazi treasure. And yes, it's as unexciting as it sounds.

Robert Newton is a film director-a completely random profession; there's no useful reason why he's written to be in the film industry-and he asks Dennis Price to go to the Alps. Dennis is an idiot and completely trusts Bobbie, so off he goes. He continues to be an idiot by falling in love with Mila Parely, even when she's obviously giving a Marlene Dietrich impersonation. Then, he doesn't suspect Herbert Lom might be the bad guy, even though he tries really hard to look as creepy as possible at all times!

Since the lead isn't too bright, there's no real reason to root for him. The bad guys aren't particularly interesting either, and how many secret Nazi movies can you sit through before you get really sick of them? I liked The Devil Makes Three better, but even that one had its weak points.

Here is a very enjoyable (and very underrated) little thriller from the golden age of British movie-making. I really don't think you could ask for much more when given an interesting story, an excellent cast and solid production values. It's one of those nice films that it is very difficult not to like.

Special mention must be made of the superb cinematography of Stephen Dade and the beautiful sets. These contributions will linger in your memory long after you see the picture.

I would have liked to see a little more of Robert Newton since he always gives an enjoyable performance, but that is only a minor quibble.

Seek this one out.

While the movie tries to create a mystery out of the reasons for a disparate group of individuals converging on a ski lodge in the Italian Alps, every film synopsis you see gives away the reason, thereby robbing Snowbound of much of the tension it is trying for. It's still a solid watch, nevertheless, with a number of effective moments and Herbert Lom on top menacing form.

The story is far-fetched, to say the least. Movie director Engles (Newton) picks extra Blair (Price) to keep an eye on people congregating at a ski hut for some sinister purpose. How does Engles know about this gathering? Never explained. What is Blair's sole qualification for this cloak-and-dagger job? He served under Engles in the Second World War and can be trusted. Blair blatantly questions all of the suspects, letting them know they're under his clumsy surveillance. Carla, the sole female in the bunch, promptly falls in love with him, despite her rather checkered past. Engles later stupidly shows up by himself to confront this varied bunch of cutthroats at the isolated hut. Von Kellerman (Lom), an unrepentant Nazi, blurts out the entire story without much prompting (or incentive), saying, "Why not?" The action picks up at the end and everything is sort of resolved in a ridiculous and unbelievable way.

There's plenty of skiing scenes, if you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise, don't waste your time on this tripe.

Rank wasted no time in acquiring the rights to the Hammond Innes best-seller The Lonely Skier and put it into production straight away. It is a faithful adaptation and the skiing scenes which play such an important part in the narrative are notably well done. An abundance of dialogue requires close attention, and given the drawback that in British films of the period, Italians tended to be treated as excitable, volatile people who shouted all the time, it is easy to overlook, for instance, the significance of the auction early on that plays an important part later in the story. There is a good atmosphere and an effective building-up of tension as the mysterious characters gradually reveal their motives leading to the explosive climax. Stanley Holloway, Herbert Lom and Guy Middleton are in their element, and it's one of those films you tend to get more out of with a second viewing.

The actor from the Czech Republic who reinvented himself as Herbert Lom looked quite menacing in this film. In black and white, he has the same sinister demeanour as James Mason. He's likeable though. Swarve, conservative with volatile undertones. I'm surprised he went quite unnoticed during the 40's.

This is included in a 5-pack video from Kino Lorber called British Noir. For the first hour, it's a cinema verite doc on life in an Italian ski resort, with dull comedy from the innkeeper and his wife going unappreciated because there are no subtitles! It's relentlessly talky--and not interesting talk either--until the moment when the scriptwriter remembers that he's supposed to be writing a thriller, then things pick up. Dalio and Price are wasted, and they phone in the work as a result. Lom as a heavy was new to me, and I will say that he does well here, but the story is so dull, so clunky with cliches that you don't care. For cinema buffs, there's Mila Parely who appeared in La belle et la bete and La Regle du jeu, where she was much better used.

Snowbound (1948) -

Because it took so long to establish all of the characters and their "Reasons" for being at the hut, this film did seem a bit slow to start and I was eagerly waiting for the point of it all, just for something to happen.

Based on the synopsis I had expected to see them actually digging for the alleged Nazi Gold in a way less farcical, but much more similar to 'It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World' (1963), with the journey to find it being as important as the actual finding. However, there was too much of that character establishment and attempts to make the viewer second guess who the real bad guys were, making it more like an Agatha Christie story in some ways and less of the anticipated adventure I had expected. Robert Newton, who played Engles, came in at the end to solve everything like some sort of Poirot gathering the suspects together to explain how they were all involved.

And I don't know why, but I've always liked Dennis Price as an actor, ever since I first saw him in 'Kind Hearts & Coronets' (1949). He did a great job leading this film as Neil Blair as well. He just had such a charm and a gentle wit that wasn't all about comedy. His loss was a great shame for everyone, including the cinema goer. I believe that he could have gone on to make some fantastic works and built a reputation to rival the likes of Alec Guinness and so on.

With regards to the production of the film and the performances by the various well known actors, there was nothing to specifically mention, but I did feel that the story might be given a slightly artistic and open, more free approach if it was made again today, without being such a generic production of its time.

I didn't like the ending of this version though. I thought that it was too quick and didn't really resolve anything, which was disappointing after waiting so long for it. I would say that it probably needed another 15 minutes to really polish it properly, or to maybe trim those 15 minutes from the start, but it wasn't a bad film by any means.

532.54/1000.