This is the second film starred by the duo Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner. In the first one (the western Broken Lance, 1954), Tracy acted as the Wagner's father while now in this drama Tracy is Wagner's eldest brother, and also the man who raised Chris Teller (Wagner) in his childhood. So two brothers, who should have the same ideas and ethics in their lives, but paradoxically it was not like that. Chris was a young man very ambitious, able to kill for money while his eldest brother was a hard working man unable to do harm to anyone. A plane coming from Calcutta felt down in a high mountain called Montecarlo in France. The people of the neighboring village organized an unsuccessful rescue. At this point, Chris, knowing that in the plane there were plenty of money and that his brother was the only one able to climb the mountain, decided to compel his brother Zachary (Tracy) to go for rescue. After some arguing and discussion Zachary agreed to do that, for this they have to walk long and difficult ways always guided by experienced Zachary. When they finally reached the plane, they found an Indian lady still alive, and Zachary decided to help her to survive. but Chris wanted to get the money and to kill her. This situation compelled Zachary to beat Chris and to leave him alone, taking the lady with himself to save her. The fact is that Chris alone could not manage and died falling down, but Zachary succeeded back with the lady. When asked about all what happened Zachary said that his brother Chris did everything possible to save the lady and he (Zachary) was who planned to take the money in the plane. He lied but everybody in the village knowing the kind man he was, never believed him. One of the things that I cannot easily accept is the egoism of Chris. If he was raised by his brother, he should have loved him and also should have had the same ethic values as Zachary. This seems to me a bit incoherent in the plot and from the original novel. Everyone is a product of the environment where he/she was raised and lived.
Review of The Mountain
