Spencer Tracy plays veteran mountain guide Zachary Wheeler, who is coaxed out of retirement when a passenger plane crashes on high mountain. He decides it isn’t worth risking his life to recover the bodies of the passengers, but hot-headed younger brother Chris (Robert Wagner), hoping to claim the victims’ valuables, talks Zachary into accompanying him to the mountaintop. After their treacherous upward journey, the brothers discover that one of the passengers, a Hindu girl (Anna Kashfi), is still alive. Zachary wants to bring her back to safety, but the greedy Chris would rather abandon her and make off with the valuables. It is, inevitable, then, that not everyone involved is going to get off the mountain alive. A worthwhile character study enhanced by superb location photography.
Spencer Tracy, Robert Wagner, Claire Trevor, William Demarest, Barbara Darrow, Anna Kashfi
1956, colour, 105 minutes