Delightful kids adventure film which benefits considerably from location work in Switzerland, some excellent mountaineering footage, and never playing down to its audience.s
James MacArthur is the determined young dishwasher who desires to climb the "Citadel" (Matterhorn) in part out of memory of his father who died doing it. Michael Rennie is a British mountaineer who encourages his dreams; James Donald is his uncle who wants him to stay at home. Best of all is Janet Munro who is bewitching in admittedly a thankless role, the innkeeper's daughter who supports and loves MacArthur. At least she gets to do a little bit of mountaineering in act two.
It's dealt with in no nonsense fashion and some of it is quite exciting, even with the painted mattes. I wasn't that wild about the ending with MacArthur being stuck helping stroppy whiny Herbert Lom while Rennie and Donald got to climb to the top. I also felt act three could have done with some mountaineers dying, as happened in the real life successful ascent of the Matterhorn.
Still, an example of Disney's good taste an inherent skill at boys own adventure. They should remake this and make it about a female mountaineer.
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