Some years after his wife lost her life on the notorious Pitz Palu mountain, a seasoned mountaineer reluctantly agrees to guide a young couple to its peak with tragic consequences. G. W. Pabst's 'other' film from 1929 is a lesser-known classic in its own right featuring Leni Riefenstahl, a photogenic actress who would go on to become a director of note - and notoriety. Pabst was not a Nazi, but co-director Dr. Arnold Fanck, who filmed the movie's exteriors, did join the party in 1940 and it's tempting to identify an association between this movie's endless glorification of the mountain's imposing natural purity and much of the nation's obsession with racial 'purity' that was to follow in the '30s. Nevertheless, this is a gripping drama with some truly breath-taking cinematography.
Review of The White Hell of Pitz Palu
