High Hazard
Britain's first complete rock climbing film, by Stanley Watson. A film about climbing in the Lakes. Norah Johnstone, a teacher at Keswick Grammar School and later Watson's wife, starred as a Victorian climber. The film includes footage of Stanley Watson himself climbing Kern Knotts blindfolded and a young girl, Vivian Verity, whose first climb at aged 9 was up Napes Needle. Stanley Watson is a keystone in the history of British climbing. He established the British Mountain Guides Organisation in 1930.
White Marathon
Documentary on one of the first editions of the Trofeo Mezzalama, the highest ski mountaineering race in Europe, at more than 4,200 meters above sea level, which takes place on the glaciers of Monte Rosa, from Breuil to Gressoney-La-Trinité, crossing the summits of Castor (4,199 meters) and Nez du Liskamm (4,100 meters). The film recounts the last hours of feverish preparation before the start, the teams preparing for the race linked in ropes, then follows the stages of the competition by following the groups of skiers from a plane. Created in 1933, the Trofeo Mezzalama was contested until 1938, before falling into oblivion during the war. A second version was organized from 1970 to 1973. A third biannual version has been organized since 1997.
Devil of the Matterhorn
English-language, dubbed sound and partly re-edited version of Der Kampf ums Matterhorn. During an early, unsuccessful attempt at climbing the Matterhorn, Edward Whymper finds himself rescued by an italian guide, Jean Antoine Carrel. The two men quickly build a friendship and agree to reach the peak together. However, local villagers plot to divide the alliance of Whymper and Carrel and both men join rival teams as they set out in a race to conquer the mountain. A mountaineering drama based on the novel by Carl Haensel and inspired in the dramatic true story of Edward Whymper, who led the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865.
The Fight for the Matterhorn
Sounded version of the 1928 film 'Der Kampf ums Matterhorn'. The added sound track included music composed by Schmidt-Boelckeb and dubbed dialogs by different actors. This version is slightly shorter than the silent film due to the disappearance of the movie titles. The story, based on the novel by Carl Haensel recreates the struggle between Edward Whymper and Jean-Antoine Carrel for the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. In 1938 two new versions of the movie were filmed under the direction of Luis Trenker, who acted again in the role of Carrel. One version was shot in German (Der Berg ruft) and the other in English (The Challenge).
Dead Echo
A young tourist has an accident during a holiday hike in the Tatra Mountains. The romance he begins with the highlander woman who takes care of him leads to tragedy.
The Peak Scaler
The two unemployed engineers Franzl and Bertl want to be the first to climb the Matterhorn from the dangerous north face. They travel by bicycle with Mizzl and Traudl but without telling them about their intentions. The women accompany them on the assumption that it is a touristical trip. All four camp in a tent at the foot of the Matterhorn and Franzl and Bertl secretly begin the dangerous ascent. The girls will have to follow the ascent together with the residents of the village and the guests of the mountain hotel using binoculars. The role of Franzl is played by Franz Schmid, the actual conqueror of the north face of the Matterhorn together with his brother Toni in 1931.
The Sins of the Children
A barber turns down a promising business venture in order to take his sick son to a drier climate out west.
Toot Sweet!
Ham is interested in a girl named Marie and wants to impress her. First he buys a car and then he takes her out to a swanky nightclub. During the course of this disastrous date Ham realizes that Marie isn't the nice girl he thought she was: she only went out with him to make her real boyfriend jealous. The boyfriend is a dancer at the club, and when she sees him kissing his dance partner she becomes enraged and smashes up the place, while poor Ham is stuck with the bill.
Pointed Heels
Fay Wray plays a beautiful showgirl who falls for a rich Park Avenue guy played by Phillips Holmes. William Powell is a producer in love with Miss Wray, but he won't use his influence to take any advantage... as usual, he's a perfect gentleman.
The Film Narrator
Germany in the Thirties. A movie teller realizes that his profession is not longer needed. Silent movies are not produced any longer. Telling stories is the only thing the man was ever good in, so he does not know what to do now. As political circumstances are changing dramatically these days in Germany, he gets new hope that things will again be going better for him...
Gang War
Saxophone player Clyde meets a woman named Flowers, and teaches her to dance. He later discovers that gangster boss "Blackjack" is also in love with her. "Blackjack" is also battling gang boss Mike Luego in a violent turf war.
Demon of the Himalayas
German film about a Himalayan expedition and the search for a mountain spirit, who guarded, according to the tradition of the locals, the peaks of high mountains. The long-lost and recently rediscovered and restored film is now a unique cinematic document because it is the first feature film that was shot directly in the Himalayas (up to 6400 m altitude). Hans Ertl even turned his Bell & Howell to the main summit of Sia Kangri, 7422m. Likewise, the film contains footage from India and Tibet, from a time long before the emergence of mass tourism. Some of the footage was later recycled in ‘Lost horizon’ (1937) by Frank Capra and in ‘Storm over Tibet’ (1952).
Sal of Singapore
SAL OF SINGAPORE was nominated for an Oscar for achievement in Writing during the second year of the Academy Awards. The film, being a part-talkie, nearly disappared from view. However, a preservation print does exist at UCLA, although it is unavailable for public viewing, awaiting restoration.
Mountain Man
The mountain guide Jakob is a controversial figure. His supposed father dies and leaves behind a great heritage to the people. In the town they consider Jakob a bastard, because his parents were not married, which means that without a testament, the lands in which he lives do not belong to him. But the testament indicates that the inheritance corresponds him under a single condition, he must be the first person to climb the east face of Monte Verità. French version of Die weisse majestat, shot the year before in German with the same script in the Eiger/Jungfrau region but with different actors and by a different director.
The Eternal Dream
At the end of the 18th century, the wealthy French scholar Saussure comes to a small Alpine village and offers 1,000 pieces of gold to anyone who can lead him to the summit of Mont Blanc. The young farmer's son Jacques Balmat wants to take on the dangerous task, even though his father has told him from an early age about the mighty mountain spirits who guard a legendary treasure of gold on the mountain peak.
The Prodigal Son
Story of the trials and tribulations of a German who emigrates to the US during the Great Depression.
The Doomed Battalion
Shortly before the First World War, an Italian and an Austrian mountain guides take part in a mountaineering expedition together. Not long afterwards they find themselves fighting on different sides in the same area in the Dolomites, fighting to conquer the same high pass (Col Alto). When the war is over, they meet again. Their friendship has survived the war. American version of the film Berge in Flammen. It uses some scenes from the original German-French version. There is a third version of the film titled Les Monts en Flammes, shot the same year in French.
Glorious Betsy
Vitaphone production reels #2471-2478; third Warner Bros. feature film - the first being The Jazz Singer and the second Tenderloin - to include talking sequences, along with the by now usual Vitaphone musical score and sound effects. A copy of this film survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., but the sound disks are lost.
White Majesty
The mountain guide Jakob is a controversial figure. His supposed father dies and leaves behind a great heritage to the people. In the town they consider Jakob a bastard, because his parents were not married, which means that without a testament, the lands in which he lives do not belong to him. But the testament indicates that the inheritance corresponds him under a single condition, he must be the first person to climb the east face of Monte Verità. There is a French version of the film, titled 'Un de la montagne', shot the year after with the same script but with different actors and by a different director.
Alum and Eve
When Thelma is stopped by a cop for speeding, she tries to get out of it by telling him that she and Zasu are on their way to the hospital.