Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

cmcastl As I watched it for Alida Valli and for no other reason. I am no expert on mountain-climbing but the howlers there must be for any self-respecting mountain-climber who watches this film. They would, I imagine, be shouting at the screen! Such a rag-bag of a climbing team was setting itself up for fall, literally for a fall. And anyway, when the film was set, unlike the film suggests, just after the War, no major Alpine climbs, so far as I know, had not been achieved. So, by way of example, Glenn Ford decides to go for the final ascent without the snow-blindness glasses that Valli offers him? What then happens to him? He almost succumbs to snow-blindness. I am no expert on mountain-climbing but just how dumb is that?I don't know how good the source material was but the script is pretty poor and the marvellous actors, Alida Valli, Glenn Ford, Oskar Homolka, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Lloyd Bridges, and, of course, the inimitable Paul Raines struggle with it and through their combined performances something altogether better emerges.Would you climb the highest mountain for a lady like Alida Valli? I would and I can't stand heights! Watch it for Alida Valli, one of the most beautiful ladies ever to be captured on celluloid. The majority of actresses past and present have their brief season in the sun because of their publicity departments. In the history of cinema and genuinely beautiful leading ladies, Valli, along with Greta Garbo, is forever.Watch this film for Valli.

writers_reign Anyone old enough (say around 20) to have watched this on its initial release, five years after the end of the war would have had no problem with the subtext - for example for them the Lloyd Bridges character may as well have had a sign "Nazi Fanatic" around his neck - but 66 years later a 20-30 year old with little or no interest in history may well be content to watch it as a mild thriller in which an ill-assorted sextet pit themselves against nature in the shape of the eponymous white tower, a peak that remains unconquered. For me the cast is intriguing with only one out-and-out leading man and five top-of-the-line supporting players though not necessarily the team I would nominate to climb a mountain. The team in this case is assembled by Valli, an undoubted beauty and decent enough actress, anxious in this case to finish what her late father started and reach the summit. Oscar Homolka, a mountain guide, and Lloyd Bridges, an unrepentant Nazi, are the only ones with serious credentials and with a reasonable chance of completing the climb, the others are there for various reasons. The movie is guilty of the same errors as Black Narcissus, where David Farrar persisted in walking around naked from the waist upward in spite of being several thousand feet above sea level. Here all six climbers eschew gloves until the very last stages of the climb whilst Glen Ford never does actually don them and Lloyd Bridges wears three-quarter length pants that display his naked calves throughout. Despite all this it's a good yarn and keeps you watching.

Xjayhawker As a film buff,I enjoy who is in this..but as a film lover, I just have to forget some illogical situations..a part played by Lloyd Bridges which may or may not have influenced his acting in High Noon two years later..young gun..so to speak..a young guy who thinks he is superior to the older guy or anyone else..and in each film..gets his comeuppance..albeit in two different ways..but still..beaten..charming Glen Ford..really was a subdued scene- stealer..Valli..the beauty..used here as an anchor of sorts..she's doing it for her dead father..Ford is doing it for her..and everyone doing this climb for their own reasons..but I do have a problem with the climb itself..Swiss Alps?..blowing..snow..near-blizzard conditions..cold..oh so cold..cold enough that you can sit outside in the night cold..just sitting and thinking about your life or lack of one..or later..climbing without your glasses because they are broken and you don't have another pair along for the climb..climbing without gloves in the freezing Alps..with your bare hands while circumventing the dangerous narrow path..getting snow blindness in the process and lest I forget..two people falling in love and getting hitched..see it for the cinematography..not for the plot holes..Oscar Holmolka..Sir Cedrick Hardwick..what's not to like..but I would only say see this when there's not much else on..it's a diversion and you can come up with your own plot holes..and Claude Raines..who shouldn't be climbing any mountains at all and you have a somewhat disjointed movie..unlikely team of climbers doing implausible things..but individually..you know you like the characters from what they did before and after this..and you are hoping this is a good outing..but overall you will be dis-appointed with this..but the high up there scenery is worth looking at..Nuff said..

dougdoepke It's a suspenseful premise—scaling a killer peak. The trouble is that the suspense doesn't really gel until the final few minutes. In the meantime, Valli and Ford get romantically acquainted in several over-long scenes that sap the pace. Technically, the movie combines real mountains (French Alps) with sound stage mountains in pretty effective fashion, certainly better than most process shots of the period. And that location photography of the French Alps produces some stunning shots of gorgeous alpine valleys, which, I suspect, is the real star of the movie.The plot motivation has Valli paying tribute to her dead father by scaling the White Tower. Unfortunately, she takes along a mixed bag of male support that's none too persuasive, including a 61-year old Claude Rains and a 56-year old Cedric Hardwicke, along with a youthful Ford who nevertheless treats the project like a walk-in-the-park. Remember, this is supposed to be a peak never before climbed, and she's a girl with a mission. Nonetheless, some of the dangling-from-rocks scenes amount to good cinema. I just wish someone had told Ford or the director that you don't mountaineer without gloves, especially in snow.The story itself shifts gears abruptly in the final few minutes when WWII is refought on a tense snow bank. Actually, Ford should have suspected Bridges' politics when he first saw that Afrika Korps campaign cap. Instead, he has to prove the advantages of a cooperative ethic (democracy) over Bridges' superman ethic; at the same time, I like the movie's surprisingly unconventional climax, which manages to reinforce Ford's ethic. Anyway, the film is spotty, at best, but those scenic shots do compensate for a lot.