Third Man on the Mountain

Originally published on social media on April 24th, 2022

This film has been roaming my list on Disney + for at least a year now and I finally watched it yesterday. What a true delight it was! I went into it not really knowing what it was about, and I loved all the vintage Swiss culture storybook vibes. The coloring, the costumes, set design, and the grain of late 1950s film cameras are truly lovely. The film had a great message about following your heart and never giving up on your dreams or purpose.

Overall, I give this film , but think everyone should watch it at least once.

The trivia behind this film is truly fascinating and was all copied from The Walt Disney Family Museum website: https://www.waltdisney.org/.../new-heights-walt-and-third...

- Walt had a great love for the cleanliness, the peacefulness of Switzerland, as well as its folk dances, music and traditions. He incorporated much of this into the film and his Oscar nominated documentary “Switzerland” (1955).

- Not only set in Switzerland, the film was all about the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is referred to as the Citadel in the film.

- This fine film’s most enduring legacy may be Matterhorn Mountain at Disneyland Park, for it was during his visit to Switzerland while making this film that Walt decided he would bring the mountain to the Park. The Matterhorn Bobsleds started running on June 14, 1959, five months before the film premiered.

- To help them deal with the demanding conditions of filming in the Swiss Alps, the cast undertook a two-week crash course in mountaineering given by Alpine guides. Much of the cast, including Janet Munro, ended up doing lots of their own stunts.

- James MacArthur took to climbing really well and on his first rest day sneaked off (to the horror of the insurance people), and climbed the Matterhorn. The highest he climbed for filming was around 11,500 feet.

- Walt’s master matte artist Peter Ellenshaw was also in Switzerland for the shoot. Peter designed matte paintings for scenes in with dizzying downward shots, distant mountain peaks that were obscured by fog, and for shots that would have been impossible to capture with the movie cameras