Third Man on the Mountain (1959)

[bunniefuu]

- rudi!

Dreaming again?

That's four plates,
three cups, and a platter

so far this week.

You're breaking
your own record, boy.

If it didn't make it too dark,

I'd put a blind up
over that window.

And hurry up over those dishes,

or the water will be cold

and the dishes covered
in grease.

Every day, it's the same thing.

Never any time
to do anything properly.

This is your job, you know.
You should be doing this.

Oh, no.

You'll have me doing
the washing up next.

Almost time
for the tourists to be back

from their morning climb...

hungry as wolves
and harder to please.

If only their climbing were
as good as their appetites.

The citadel would have been
climbed a hundred times by now.

No, all they do
is to come out here to eat.

I wonder if they're as
particular when they're at home.

This one wants no garlic
in his rice.

This one wants something else.

The rest of them want
whatever we haven't got.

Rudi, you'll have to go
and get me a bag of carrots.

Hmm?
Where is he?

Rudi!

- Mmm, something smells good.

- Something smells.

- Where is he?

- He's just passing
frau getz's back garden.

That dog always barks at rudi.

I felt he'd go today.

I felt it from the moment
I woke up this morning.

- Then why didn't you stop him?
- Stop him?

Oh, teo.

Would you try
and bottle up the wind?

- Now, what kind
of crazy talk is that?

Is that what
I'm to tell your father

when he finds out
the boy's gone again?

- No.

But you'll think of something.

- Yes, the truth.

You wait.
This time you'll see.

Bottle the wind...

I'll bottle the wind for him.

- I thought so.
I saw him from the window.

- Well, what if you did?
The boy's gone home.

His mother's sick.
- Well, don't bite my head off.

I only...

- are the tables set,
the sugar bowls filled?

You have time to waste?
- Well, I...

Ooh!

- Oh, teo, practice shows.

You're such a beautiful liar.

Now, I would've stammered
and stuttered.

- I was saving me own skin.

I'm supposed to be in charge
of the young rascal.

Now, leave me alone.
I've got work to do.

- He must be almost
at the high meadow by now.

- Will you kindly go
someplace else?

It isn't fitting
for the proprietor's daughter

always to be hanging
around the kitchen.

- Oh, do you remember, teo,

when the three of us would go
to the felsberg on your day off?

We'd take lunches,
and you'd teach rudi.

- Yes.

Well, those days are over
and finished.

I promised never to mention
the mountains to rudi again,

and I'm a man of my word.

Monte d'oro...

Windowen...

And you.

And you!

Hello!

And you!

Hello!

Hello!

Hello!

Help!

- Hello!

Hello!

Help!

- Hello!

- Hello!

- Hello!

- Hold on.
I'll get you out!

- Is that all the rope
you've got?

- Yes, but I'll think
of something.

Right!

Keep moving.
You must keep moving.

Get on your feet.

- I'll be all right.

Just let me get my breath.

Why, you're only a boy.

- Don't try to talk, sir.

- How did you get up here
at all?

- I come up here all the time.

It's nothing.

- Nothing?
You only saved my life.

- It must be a mistake.

- Why?

- I couldn't have saved
your life.

You're captain winter.

- That's right.

There's no mistake.

- But how could you have fallen
down a crevasse?

- Because I was too busy
looking up at a Mountain

to see what was at my own feet.

- That Mountain?

- Yes, that Mountain.

Tell me, why are you
so interested in that Mountain?

- My father was k*lled on it.

- Your father?

What's your name?

- Rudi Matt.

- The son of Josef Matt.

- Yes, sir.

- I might have known.

What do you think, rudi?

Can it be climbed?

- The citadel?

- Your father thought so.

Of all the guides
in Switzerland,

he was the only one
who thought so.

So do I.

- Is that why you're in kurtal?

You're going to try to climb
the citadel?

- It's not as simple as that.

There isn't a guide in the whole
of kurtal who would go with me.

- Well, have you talked
to my Uncle, Franz lerner?

I've spoken to him about it.

He wants no part of it.

Any other peak,
any other venture,

but not the citadel.

Perhaps I'll go over to the next
valley, over to broli.

There's a guide there
named saxo.

He claims...
- Emil saxo?

- Yes.

But first I mean to reconnoiter
some more, pick a route.

If there is a route.

- There is a route.

- What makes you think so?
No one else does.

- Because I want to.

I believe the story
old teo tells.

- Old teo?

- The other guide
who was with my father.

- What does old teo say?

- On that last day,

sir Edward and teo
waited on a ledge

while my father
went on by himself.

And when he came back,

there was a strange,
excited look on his face.

But before he could tell them
what he'd found,

the avalanche came and swept
them down the Mountain.

Sir Edward was badly injured,

and my father stayed with him
while teo went for help.

- I know the rest, rudi.

When they found them, your
father had taken off his jacket

and his sweater and wrapped them
around sir Edward.

- And at the last,
his shirt, sir.

He covered him
with his red shirt.

- I'd like to have known him,
rudi.

- Good evening, ladies.
- Good evening, herr hempel.

- Have you had a good time,
gentlemen?

- Very exciting.
- Magnificent view.

- Gives you a wonderful
appetite.

- A fine dinner awaits you.
- Thank you.

Americans, lizbeth.

The world is coming
to my hotel.

Oh, I mistook them for English.

They would happily have paid
20 francs instead of 10.

- Now, can you assure us that
we have everything we need?

- Oh, yes, ma'am.

But, uh, perhaps you could
use a good Porter?

- Well, then, meet us
at the hotel at 10:30.

- Certainly, ma'am.

Certainly, ma'am.

Who you looking for?

I'm back.
- Were you away?

- Say, choral group tonight.
I'd be pleased to take you.

- But thank you.

- You'd be better off with me
than that plate-scraper.

- Oh, you worry about me
too much, Klaus.

Rudi hasn't invited me yet,
but if he should...

- Hey, wai...!

Good evening, herr lerner.

I hear the great captain
winter's in kurtal,

asking questions
about the citadel.

- Every man has his weakness.

- Yes, and it's usually
in his head.

- Franz is coming this way.

What are you going to tell him?

- Well, you need practice.
You tell him something.

- Evening, lizbeth.

- Evening, herr lerner.

- Teo.

Where's the boy?

Evening, Gretchen.

- You mean rudi?
- Who else?

- Well, as you can see,
he isn't here.

I sent him on an errand.
- Ah.

Everything all right, then?

Behaving himself?

- Oh, well enough.

- I just thought I'd drop in.

- Herr lerner.
- Mm-hmm?

- Will you tell your sister
I'm sorry she's sick?

- Who said my sister was sick?

- Didn't you say, sir?
Isn't that why rudi got...

- ah, you interfering,
little...

- so! It's that again!

And you, teo, encouraging
and defending him!

One lie piled
on top of another!

- I always lie to nosy women.

- You lied to me!

- Well, who are you to expect
special privileges?

- Oh, teo.

Herr lerner, so much bother
about a few unwashed dishes.

- It isn't a question
of how many dishes.

It's a question of principle.
This is where the boy works!

- Why do you always call him
"the boy,"

as if he were a...
a piece of furniture

that you could put down here,
and here he would stay?

- Because he is a boy,
and this is where he belongs!

- Because you say so?

- I thought you agreed
to keep out of this.

- I have, and I intend to.

But it'll all be the same
in the end.

It isn't in the Matt blood
to be locked up in a kitchen.

And one day, that blood's
going to boil up

and you won't be able
to stop it

any more than you can...
how did you say it?

- Any more than you can
bottle up the wind.

- Bottle up the wind?
What do you mean?

There's something going on here
behind my back!

- Now stop roaring!

Do you want herr hempel

to think I'm stewing a live bull
in here?

- Tell me, what are you
in the village, rudi?

An apprentice guide?

- No, sir.

- What then?

- I'm a dishwasher.

- The son of Josef Matt?

- I'd take the path, sir.

But first,
I must ask you a favor.

Will you not tell anyone
you saw me on the Mountain?

- Not tell anyone?
After what happened today?

Why, you're too modest, rudi.

- Well, please, sir.

If my mother and Uncle knew,
I would be in great trouble.

- All right, I'll see you don't
get into trouble.

- Thank you.

- You know, Franz, perhaps
if you spoke to herr hempel,

rudi could work in another part
of the hotel,

away from old teo.

- What's the good?

There'd still be lizbeth.

- Hmm. It's been on my mind
to speak to lizbeth.

- And risk offending
herr hempel?

No, ilse.
Leave her out of it.

Summer will come.

The boy will go to Zurich for
his training in the business,

and there he'll learn

there's another world
beyond the mountains,

forget this stubborn dream
of being a guide.

- It's like a disease, a curse,

as if that wicked Mountain
wanted him too.

- Stop thinking like that,
ilse.

It'll all work out.

Let me handle him.

- I guess I'm late.

It was very busy
at the hotel today.

There were a lot of dishes.

- Yes. I saw them.

I also listened
to a lot of lies.

Enough for one day.

I don't want to hear any more.

- After giving your word, rudi.

Why?

- I don't know.

- You don't know?

- I mean, I didn't
plan it that way.

But from the kitchen, I could
see the sun on the mountains.

- The sun on the mountains?

- But not the bright future
you can have with herr hempel?

He's so interested in you.

- But I didn't ask herr hempel
to be interested in me.

- No, it was handed to you
on a silver platter.

And not because of you,
but because of who you are.

Your father brought tourists
to kurtal,

climbers from all over
the world.

To him,
herr hempel owes his hotel.

- Don't you see, rudi?

You have a chance to go farther
than any boy in the village.

Someday you might even
be the proprietor

of the monte d'oro hotel.

Can't you see how much better
your life will be

than climbing around
on rocks and ice?

- No.

- Now look at me, rudi.

For 20 years,
I've been a guide.

One of the best.

Where has it gotten me?

I haven't saved enough money
to buy a dozen cows.

And look what being a guide
did for old teo.

Crippled.
Touched in the head.

- No matter what you say,
he still climbed higher

than any other man in kurtal.

He's the only man alive who...
- Rudi.

- That's right.

Stop and think for a moment
of somebody else.

You can make up to your mother

for a little
of what she's suffered.

- Where are you going, rudi?

- Back to the hotel
to finish the dishes.

- Captain winter!
- My apologies, friends.

I looked for you in the village.
They told me I'd find you here.

- Apologies, captain?

It's an honor
for me and my sister.

- The honor is mine, to meet
the widow of Josef Matt.

- And this is her son, rudi.
- Hello.

- Won't you be seated, captain?

- I won't take up your time,
Franz.

I just wanted to see
if you'd be available

for a climb in the morning.

- Of course.

That is, if you don't mean...

No.
No, not the citadel.

I was thinking
of the wunderhorn.

I hear it's a good climb.

- That's true,
and it's a fine view.

- Ah, it's the view
that interests me.

I thought we'd leave about noon

and spend the night
at the blosse hut

and go up the next morning.

- Hmm. That would mean food
and blankets

and probably a Porter.

- By all means, a Porter.

What about rudi here?

- Well, the boy works elsewhere,
but I'll find a good man.

- Please, Uncle.
Just this once?

- Have you forgotten already?

- But this is different,
to go with captain winter!

- Enough!

- Rudi,
what foolishness is this?

- Even if I said yes,
you couldn't do it.

- But I could.
Captain winter knows I could.

That's why he asked for me.

- When did captain winter
set eyes on you before?

- It seems our secret
is out, rudi.

Rudi and I met on the glacier
this afternoon.

- And he told you
he was a Porter?

- No, no.

But it's my pleasure
to tell you

that on the glacier
this afternoon,

this boy saved my life.

- Woof, woof, woof yourself.

¶ ¶

- What's the matter with you?

Have you lost
what little mind you had?

- Yes! I mean, no.
Now, wait till you hear.

Tomorrow, I go
to the wunderhorn.

- Rudi!
- He must have hit his head.

- As Porter to the great
captain winter.

- He has hit his head.

- I told you
they couldn't stop him!

He's running away again!
- Not this time.

My mother and Uncle have
given me their permission.

I've talked to Tony fasler,

and he's going to do
the dishes for me.

- So they've finally given in.

He's going to be a guide
after all.

- Well, just for tomorrow,

and only because
of captain winter.

But it'd be worth it if it was
the last day of my life.

- May very well be.
Now, you calm down.

Remember, you've never climbed
with a party before.

- Who was it who used to go to
the practice Mountain with us?

- Some grumpy old man.

I can just hear him.

One foot slowly,
then the other.

Up we go.
- Stay off my cupboard!

- Feel for your hold.

- A three-legged cow
could do better than you!

- All right.
Break your necks.

Lean back!

Stop hugging the rock!

- Lizbeth, where are you?
- Aah!

Ooh!

- What goes on here?

- We just fell off
the wunderhorn.

- In your nightclothes?

Get back to your room, lizbeth.

From captain winter, for you.

Important, he says.

He's changed his mind.

- What does he say?

- Read the last part.
I want teo to hear.

- "Only a small token
of admiration and gratitude

of your friend and fellow
climber, John winter."

¶ ¶

- What can I do for you, boy?

- I have a note, sir.
- Oh, good day, miss.

- Herr burgener
hasn't got his spectacles,

and we're in a great hurry.

This is what it says.

"Dear rudi, if you will go to
Alex burgener's shop,

"you will find ordered for you

"some things
that may be useful.

"They are only a small token
of admiration and gratitude

of your friend and fellow
climber, John winter."

Rudi!

- There you are.

- But are you sure, sir?

These boots, they're the best.

- The very best.

Captain winter himself
has been in.

They're what he ordered.

Now I suggest you try them on

and trample around in them
for an hour or so.

Break 'em in for the climb.

- Why was there never
a rich englishman

waiting for me in a crevasse?

- But for a guide,
he's not too strongly built.

- Neither was his father.

I say it's good
to see another Matt

going to the mountains at last.

- Good morning, Klaus.

Nice day for a walk.

- Good day to you, Franz.
- Captain.

- To keep you safe.

- Come on, rudi.

- Well, rudi,
this is a bit different

from roaming about the hills
like a Mountain goat, eh?

- Well done, rudi.

It seems we're not alone.

- No. Johann finecker
brought up a party this morning.

Some of your countrymen. Also
a frenchman, and an Italian.

- Well, the evening
won't be dull.

- Ah, my friend,
if you really want some sport,

you should come to my country.

All the best climbs
are in Italy, eh?

- How many times
have I got to tell you?

- That's all for you tonight.

- Forever back in history,

frenchmen have been
climbing mountains.

- Ah, long before history
told of frenchmen,

my ancestors, the romans,
they were at home in the alps.

- Why dwell on past glory when
we have with us the present?

Gentlemen,
I give you John winter,

conqueror of 50 mountains,

and by coincidence,
an englishman.

John winter.
- John winter.

- Thank you.

Yes, by coincidence,
I am an englishman.

But aren't all of us
who climb mountains

considered a breed apart?

- Yes.
- That's true.

- And now, may I pay
tribute to one

who is already a legend
yet not so far from our time?

I speak, of course,
of the great guide Josef Matt.

- Here, here!

- If there ever was
a Mountain man...

- That was the man.

- And may his son
keep alive his name.

- Thank you.
- Now to bed.

- But I'm not tired.
I could stay up all night.

- Off you go,
or I'll put you there.

- Go on, rudi. You need
all the sleep you can get.

- Good night, rudi.
- Good night, rudi.

- Good night.

- Good night, rudi.

- John, where are you taking
your party tomorrow?

- We're going to make a traverse
along the east face

and try to scale that chimney.

It has not been climbed before,

but I've always had the idea

that if we could scale...

¶ ¶

- good boy!

No bundle of firewood here.

- So far, so good.

- One moment, Franz.

- This is when I'm sorry
for anyone

who's never climbed a Mountain.

- I am too.

- This should happen every day,

and tens of millions of people
never know it.

- Come on, captain.

We've still got
this face to climb.

- Look, you can see
the hut, sir,

where my father stayed
on that last night.

Nobody's been there since.

- Come on, rudi. That's not
what we came to see.

- That's what I came to see,
Franz.

- Aren't you going
to the top, captain?

- No.

- In that case,
we might as well eat.

- Well, there it is,
the fortress.

That's what always
stood in my way.

Tell me, Franz.

On Josef Matt's attempt,
did he get above the fortress?

- No, only to the base.
- Yes, but I'm sure...

- I heard that
he found a route.

If he did, it must have been
around the east face.

- Well...
- What do you think, Franz?

- I don't think about it.

I know nothing of the citadel.

- Wouldn't you like to know?

- No, I would not.

It's an evil Mountain.

A k*ller Mountain.

It's been left alone now
for 16 years,

and it's best to be left alone
forever.

Rudi!

- What is it?

- Rudi, stay where you are!

- No, captain.
I'm coming for him!

- I'm taller than you are!

It's easier for me to get back!

- He's my nephew,
and my responsibility!

- Wait, Franz!

Franz, it won't hold!

All right, I can hold you now.

- I'm sorry, Uncle.

¶ ¶

- what happened, rudi?

- I thought I found
a better route.

- Hold it there!

Now!

- Can you see them?

- Well, yes, they're coming
down the Mountain, but...

- but what?

- When the Porter walks between
the client and the guide,

does it mean something?

- Yes, lizbeth.
I'm afraid it does.

- Don't worry about it, son.
We all make mistakes.

What about the other day,

when I walked
straight into a crevasse?

- Good night, captain.

- I have some business
in Geneva,

so I thought I'd take advantage
of the bad weather.

- But you are coming back?

- You know I'm coming back.

Franz,

you know we could climb
the citadel together.

And you know I'd rather
have you with me

than any man in the world.

- Yes, I like to climb
with you too,

but not the citadel.

- Will you make this much
of a bargain with me?

Think about it while I'm gone.

When I return,
we'll talk once again.

Oh, one thing more.

About the boy.
Don't be too hard on him.

- The boy's all right.
He's back where he belongs.

- Get along there.
Come on.

- Good boy, rudi.

No bundle of firewood here.

- And may his son
keep alive his name.

- But you... you just couldn't
keep it that way.

You had to go and...

- rudi, it's time
you were at the hotel.

Don't forget to put on
a clean shirt.

- Mother, where are they?

- Your Uncle took them.

- But he had no right.
They were mine!

- The axe and the knapsack
he can use.

The boots he will try and sell

to another guide
in the village.

The money, of course,
will be yours.

- Why couldn't he leave me
just my boots?

- A clean sweep
is always best, rudi.

- It'd be a waste and a shame

for them to lie idle
in the cupboard

when you will have
no further use for them.

- Uh, good morning, rudi.
- Where did you get them?

- From your Uncle Franz.
- Why did he give them to you?

- Because he's a businessman,

and I was in a position
to pay him 10 francs more

than Klaus wesselhoft.

- Klaus!
Wearing my boots?

- Excuse me,
they are now my boots.

- Excuse me. Your boots,
fraulein hempel.

We saw you come down
the Mountain the other day.

- Like a bundle of firewood.
Do you know what happened?

- Not exactly.
What did?

- The worst. The very worst
that could happen to a guide.

I made other people
risk their lives.

I shamed my Uncle.

And worst of all,

I lost captain winter's
faith in me.

- Well, you can change that.
After all, he's coming back.

- He is?
Are you sure?

- Mm-hmm.

- No. I'll never
climb again.

I'd make even a worse guide
than I would a dishwasher.

- You talk like
Klaus wesselhoft,

only he brags
that he's the best.

You just snivel
that you're the worst.

Rudi!

- Have you something else
to say?

- Well, it's not
very important,

but should you ever want
to borrow my boots...

- no, thank you, I won't
want to borrow your boots.

- You'll find them
in old teo's wood box.

- A wood box?
You want the rats to get them?

- The wood box is where
the cat has her kittens.

And I'll wrap them up
carefully.

- First, see you oil them.
And don't forget.

- I won't forget.

- Your day off tomorrow,
isn't it?

- Yes.
- Hmm.

Think I'll have a day off too.

Gretchen can give them hash.

Meet me at my house
at 8:00.

- What do you mean?
Where are we going?

- To felsberg.
You're going back to school.

- The loan of your boots,
fraulein hempel.

- In exchange for your bundle,
herr Matt.

- You be careful.
Those are my good ones.

- You look how you treat
my boots.

- Come on, come on, come on.
This isn't a picnic.

Now we'll see once and for all

whether you're to be a climber
or a dishwasher.

- We will.
Which face shall I climb?

That little thing?

- It won't be so easy,
carrying this.

- But you
can't expect me to...

- let me help you, teo.

- That's going to throw me
off balance.

- On a real Mountain,
which would you sooner be?

A little off-balance

or dead
from cold and starvation?

Now go on, right up to the top.

- Come on.

I'll race you
to the first ledge.

A three-legged cow
could go faster than you.

- That's as far as you go,
lizbeth.

No nonsense now.

Rudi, you're carrying
a load, a burden.

A real guide carries his pack

as if it were part of his body.

There's a difference, you know.

- Come on,
don't build a nest up there.

I'll have something else for you
to do when you come down.

- Teo, I've been up
and down the Mountain,

and I did everything you asked.

Why don't you say something?

- What do you want me to say?

- Did I do well on the climb?

- Oh, well enough,
but it didn't really count.

- Didn't count?
Why not?

- Because you climbed alone.
A guide doesn't climb alone.

- Everybody knows that.

- But did you ever stop to think
what the word "guide" means?

It doesn't mean to
climb up onto a high place

and not fall off, you know.

It means to lead others,
to help others,

to think of others
before yourself.

The other day, that foolishness
on the wunderhorn,

how did it happen?

- I told you. I was looking
for a better way down.

- I think you were looking
instead

for a way to impress
captain winter and your Uncle.

- Perhaps.

Captain winter
was my only chance.

He's still my only chance.

- Then you did a thing
to be ashamed of.

You were looking for praise
and for gain...

two things your father
never sought...

and he was the greatest climber
of them all.

He could go places other men
could only dream of.

He didn't die because
a Mountain was too high,

nor for conquest or glory.

He gave his life

because he thought
only of the man in his charge.

Well, there's one thing more.

- Why are you doing that?

- I'm gonna climb to the top.

- Teo!

- If a teacher
can't trust his own pupil,

why should anyone else?

Where do you think
you're going?

- I'm coming too.
- No, you're not.

- Do you prefer to go barefoot
or wearing my boots?

- All right, come on.

- And now for our bundle
of firewood.

- Are you ready?
- Yes, I'm ready.

- Hold tight.

- Are you all right down there?

- Don't worry about me.
Yaah!

Uhh!

Do you feel like going on?

- Of course.

- Not bad, boy.
Not bad at all.

We might make a guide
out of him yet.

- Then you'll have to find
yourself another dishwasher.

- I'll keep him around.

- When captain winter
comes back...

- Captain winter,
captain winter.

Don't you ever think
of anyone else?

- Yes. You.

- What about me?

- I don't know.

I guess I never stopped
to think.

- Come on, come on.

- You might ask me if I'm
going to be your partner

for the festival
tomorrow night.

- Well, you are, aren't you?

- Oh, you!

I merely wanted
to know your plans,

since Klaus wesselhoft
has asked me already.

- Klaus wesselhoft?

First my boots, then my girl!

I'll punch him in the nose!

- Rudi, you should climb
a Mountain every day.

- Scorched.
Every last one of them.

- Well, I certainly hope
you enjoyed yourselves.

- Which is more than I can note
for the guests,

you lazy little Lassie.

- As I said to herr hempel,

I wasn't hired to cook.

Oh, and while I remember it,

that captain winter
was here again.

- Teo, did you hear?
- He'd be deaf if he didn't.

He wanted to tell you
good-bye.

- Good-bye?

- He came over this morning

to make some plans
with your Uncle

which didn't work out.

Anyway, he's left.

- Left? You mean he's left
kurtal for good?

- You had better get something
started for dinner.

- Go on, go on, go on,
go on, go on.

- That's right.
For good.

- Just think of it...
twice the usual fee.

Twice, mind you,
if I climb the citadel with him.

A sum like that, it would be
enough to buy a horse.

And a foolish man
might have been tempted.

What's the use of a horse
to a dead man, eh?

- You did right, Franz.

- Of course I did right.

And any other guide
in his right mind

would have done the same.

- Your Uncle's in good form
tonight.

He's laying down the law
in there.

Can you hear him?

Now listen, boy.

You can't let the englishman or
anyone get you into the world.

In climbing, if you can't get
the hand-hold you want,

you take second best,
and second best is your Uncle.

Why don't you
go over there now,

catch him in this mood,
tell him that tomorrow

you're ready to go out again
as his Porter.

- Oh, it wouldn't work.
- How do you know?

You didn't know you could take
us to the top of the felsberg

until you tried.
- Go on, try.

- Yes, go on.

- I know every other guide
in the village

feels the same as I do,
but we're not fools.

We know when something's
impossible.

- Go on.
- Go on.

- Now make me an offer,
and I'll...

I'll make you one just as good.

I said, I'll climb with you
for not twice the usual fee,

but for half.

Any Mountain you like,
any peak from the vicehorn

to the dom,
but he doesn't want that.

All he wants
is that cursed Mountain.

The man's obsessed.
He's crazy.

- He is not crazy!

I would pay captain winter
if he would take me with him

when he climbs the citadel.
- You?

You would have to pay.

But where in Switzerland
is there all that money?

Get back to your dishes
before I lose my temper.

What are you doing here anyway?

- I've come to tell you
that no matter what,

I've decided to be a guide.

- What did you say?

- Captain winter
came to see me.

If he still believes in me,
why can't you?

- Captain winter is famous
for believing in the impossible,

but I doubt if even he
would go that far.

- Be careful, boy.
I warned you.

Please, Uncle.
Won't you try me?

Let me be your Porter tomorrow.

- No!
- Why not?

- Because I have two hands,
two legs, one head,

and I need those for my clients

and to look after myself.

Now get back where you belong.

- We leave early,
do we not, herr lerner?

I think I'll go too
and get to sleep.

- You heard.
So did all the village.

Now everyone knows
that I'm no good,

that my own Uncle
wouldn't have me.

- Let him go, teo.
There's nothing we could say.

- Well, I'm afraid
you lost that partner

for the festival tomorrow.

But of course, I'd always...
- Good night, teo.

- ¶ On the Mountain ¶

¶ my shadows dance and play ¶

¶ gone are the cares
of the day ¶

¶ night is here ¶

¶ up there on the hill ¶

¶ sings a haunted lullaby ¶

¶ the bright autumn moon ¶
- Psst! Psst!

¶ In the dark till it goes ¶

- well, herr klausen,

I must now get ready
to announce the dancing. There.

- ¶ And the gentle breezes
sigh ¶

¶ ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh ¶

¶ ooh-ooh-ooh,
ooh-ooh-ooh ¶

¶ ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh ¶

¶ good night, darling ¶

¶ good night ¶

- and now, everybody, I want you
all to enjoy yourselves.

We start the waltz.

- Rudi!
Where have you been?

The dancing has started
already.

- I'm not coming.
Not after last night.

- Oh, rudi, forget about
last night.

Look at me.

It's the first year I was able
to wear my grandmother's dress.

Her wedding dress.

- You look nice.

I guess, even pretty.

- Do I?

Really?

Then you must come,

if for no other reason than
somebody said you wouldn't.

- Who said?

- Well, what difference,
as long as it isn't true?

- Well, it is true.
How could I go out there?

- Oh, will you stop feeling
sorry for yourself?

- It's almost as though
you enjoyed being unhappy.

Well, I don't.
I want to dance.

¶ ¶

thank you, Klaus.

- Why would you want to dance
with me

if you can have
Klaus wesselhoft?

He says he's the best dancer
in kurtal.

If you've grown up to your
grandmother's wedding dress,

don't you think you should
stop wasting your time

on a kitchen boy?

- Yes, I think I should.

¶ ¶

- rudi. Rudi!

¶ ¶

- And now the polka!

¶ ¶

- You expect us to belief that?

- It's true, I'm telling you.

Someone's on the citadel
tonight.

- Nobody's been up there
for years.

- I saw it
from the blue glacier

when we were lighting
the beacon pass.

- Ah, you're dreaming.

- Peter, tell them what you saw
this afternoon.

- Smoke, coming from the old hut
on the southeast Ridge.

- Who'd be up there?

- But you don't get smoke coming
from an empty hut.

I tell you, there must be
someone up there.

- It's no one from kurtal,
I'm sure of that.

¶ ¶

- There's someone outside,
Emil.

- There couldn't be.

- But there is.

Rudi.

What on earth are you
doing here?

- I've come to join you, sir.

- Join me?

- Yes, to climb the citadel.

I know what you're thinking,

but I've learned
since last time.

- Oh, Emil saxo of broli,
meet rudi Matt of kurtal.

- Kurtal?

- The son of
the great Josef Matt.

- So?

- Come and have
some breakfast, rudi.

We'll talk this over.

Sit down, rudi.

When did you leave kurtal?

- Late last night, sir.

- And what did your mother
and Franz say about you coming?

- Well, they said
it was all right.

- You mean, they gave
their permission?

- Hmm.

- Why would Franz let you come

if he wouldn't come himself?

- The sun is up.

We'd better get going.
- You're starting today?

- No, today we're just
looking around.

Perhaps we'll follow the Ridge
as far as the fortress.

If we can make it.

- I think we can make it.

I think we should make
a trave...

- we? You mean,
this boy is coming?

- Why not?
He can climb. And well.

- Still, no reason
to drag a boy up 6,000 feet

to the top of the citadel,

no matter whose son he is.

- It's not the citadel
we're climbing today, Emil.

- You are the master.

- Now listen to me, rudi.

One thing must be understood.

There'll be no experimenting.

No individual climbing and no
route-finding of your own.

You'll be an apprentice Porter
and that's all.

- That's enough. I told you,
I've learned my lesson.

- All right,
let's make a start.

- All I could find out was,
there's only two of them.

- Did they have equipment?

Porters?
- Nothing.

- No one's been
near that Mountain

for 15...

- what's the matter?

- Haven't you heard the news?

- What news?

- Your friend, the englishman,
is climbing the citadel.

- That's not possible.

- Maybe it's not possible,
but he's trying.

- He may be crazy,
but he's not so crazy

as to try and climb
the citadel alone.

- Who said he was alone?

- You mean, he has a guide?

What guide went with him?

- He's with Emil saxo.

- Who told you that?

- Today, I went to broli
on business,

but no one cared
about business.

- All they would talk about
was this captain winter

and Emil saxo.

How they left yesterday
for the citadel.

- All afternoon, we've been
watching through the telescope,

but we couldn't see them.

- And we won't,

because the Mountain
will strike,

throw them down.

- Saxo.

Emil saxo.
I might have known it.

- Can you see them?

- Yes, I think so.

- Oh!

- And unless there are spots
before me eyes...

you look, lizbeth.

I... I don't want to make
a fool of myself.

- No, teo.

There are no spots
before your eyes

any more than
there were a pair of boots

in the wood box this morning.

- There are three of them?
- Yes.

- They're waiting for me,
over in the tavern.

I mustn't keep them
in suspense.

- Then go,
but don't blurt it out.

Make them suffer.

- Have you seen them, teo?

- I have.

- Oh, yes. Yes.

They're up there, all right.

- I think he means it.

- Let's have a look.

- It's no good looking now.

I watched all the time
they were in sight

until they moved in
behind the Ridge.

- Are you sure of this?

You swear that you saw them?

- Marie, a beer.

Yes, of course I can swear.

For almost five minutes,
I watched

as they moved up, in a row.

One, two, three.

- Three?
Did you say three?

- That's right.

Thank you, Marie.

- Three?
How could there be three?

- You didn't hear that
in broli?

- No. They said nothing
about a third one.

- Let's drink to him...

to the third man
on the Mountain.

To rudi Matt,

the only true mountaineer
in kurtal.

- Angel face, a mountaineer?

- What are you talking about?
Rudi would be the last.

- It is rudi.

It's my fool of a nephew
who's on the citadel.

His bed was empty when
his mother went to wake him.

An axe and a pack
the englishman gave him

disappeared from my house
during the night,

and he hasn't been
at work all day.

We thought he was sulking,
roaming the hills.

- Instead of saving
your foolish faces.

- Watch what you say, old man.

- I will, but what I say
is this...

you call yourselves guides.

I call you a herd of sheep.

Every day, you go out
and climb peaks

that have been climbed
100 times before,

peaks your grandmothers
could climb!

Then you come back and tell
yourselves how good you are.

Well, maybe now, you'll find out
you're not so good.

Three climbers are
on the citadel tonight:

An englishman,
a man from broli,

and from kurtal, who?

A man? No.

A boy.

An 18-year-old boy,

who alone among you
is not afraid.

- Who's afraid?
- You are, big mouth!

You all are.

Since Josef Matt d*ed
16 years ago,

not one of you has dared
set foot on the citadel.

All right, sit in the tavern,
swill your beer.

What do you care
if the world no longer knows

the citadel
as the Mountain of kurtal

but as the Mountain of broli?

- You heard what he said,

and he's lucky
he's standing on his feet.

I'm not a coward,
nor is any guide of kurtal.

We are not fools who want to
throw away our lives.

Too many men have d*ed
on the citadel.

It has not been climbed,
nor will it ever be.

This I will do.

Tomorrow morning,
I will go to the citadel.

I'll go on until I find
the three who are up there,

and when I find them,
I shall talk captain winter

out of his foolishness
and bring down my nephew.

- I'll go with you.

- And me.
- Count me in.

- Also my brother.

- With myself, that makes five.

- Six.

- You?

- I won't hold you up.

This is something
I don't intend to miss.

- All right.

- Oh, teo, you were wonderful.

You were beautiful.

I wish somebody had written
it down for my grandchildren.

¶ ¶

- Look out!

- Captain winter!

Captain winter.

- It's nothing.
It just grazed me.

- Out of the way, boy.

It was stupid, letting you try
this yourself in this weather.

- Do you think it was the
Mountain wanting us back, rudi?

- No, sir.
I agree with herr saxo.

- We didn't even reach the base
of the fortress.

- Don't worry about that.

I've been thinking of a way
past the fortress.

It's either straight up
or around the other side,

towards the east face.
- No.

My father and sir Edward
tried both of those ways.

Teo says there was no route.

- Perhaps they didn't try
hard enough.

- Well, there's no use arguing.

Let's try and get back
to the hut.

- You were starting without me.

- Not to the citadel, rudi.

Today, we're going down to broli
for tents and supplies.

We'll be back in the morning.

The next day,
if the weather's good...

- am I going to broli with you

or am I going to stay here?

- Neither.
You're going back to kurtal.

- What did I do this time?

- Nothing. Even Emil
had no complaints.

I want you to take a message
to your Uncle.

Tell him it's not too late.

Tell him I want him with us.

- What was that?

Who do you want with us?

- The boy's Uncle,
Franz lerner.

- Not with me.

- What do you mean?

- A guide from broli

does not climb
with a guide from kurtal.

- That's petty and ridiculous.

Franz lerner is one of the great
guides of Switzerland.

I've climbed with him
on the vicehorn,

the dom, the donaldberg.
- But not the citadel.

When you asked him
to climb the citadel,

he shook in his boots,
didn't he?

So you had to come to broli
to find yourself a guide,

a guide who did not
shake in his boots.

- I know all about that, Emil.

You weren't afraid, and I
appreciate the fact that...

- please, let me climb
the citadel with you alone,

for the honor of my village.

Alone with you,
not with some...

some coward of a kurtaler.

But why worry?

He won't come anyway.

- All right, rudi.

Get your breakfast
and be on your way.

- Please don't
send me back, sir.

Herr saxo was right.

My Uncle wouldn't come.

And when he sees me...
- Don't argue, rudi.

Just tell your Uncle
if he lets you come,

he can come himself.

We'll meet here
around noon tomorrow.

- Yes, sir.

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

- My father's route.

- I wonder if we'll find them
here yet.

- We'll find no boy
and no Uncle.

- It seems you're wrong, Emil.

- Two men
didn't carry all this.

- Franz, I'm so glad...
- Where's the boy?

- Well, isn't he with you?

- How could he be with us?

Why do you pretend,
when we know he's here?

- Of course, he was here.

He left yesterday for kurtal.

- Why would he go to kurtal

when three nights ago,
he ran away to join you?

- Surely he had
your permission?

- Is that what he told you?
- Yes.

- He had nobody's permission.

- Well, have you searched
for him?

- Yes. Since we got here
at noon yesterday,

up and down the rock face
as far as the ice fall.

- Franz, we'd better start
all over again,

search every crevasse.

- You're the one
to answer for this.

- I? What have I
to do with it?

- Everything.

Only a guide from broli
would stand by like a dumb ox

and let a boy be lost!

- That's enough!
Franz! Saxo!

- Mother of God!

- I found it.

I found it.

- Found what, rudi?

- The way past the fortress.

My father's route to the top.

- All alone?

You got as far as the fortress?

I've been up there all night.

Teo, it's a chimney.

It leads to the top.
- You climbed it?

- No.

There was a storm.

- So, we weren't crazy
after all, were we?

No. We knew.

- Uncle, are you angry?

- What would be the use?

- And my mother?

- So you finally remembered
you had a mother.

- Every minute, I remembered.

- That, I doubt.

But if you don't think of her,
I do.

I told her that if you
were still alive,

I'd find you.

All right, I've found you.

Now I'll take you home.

Come along. It will be dark
before we reach the trail.

- The boy isn't going!

- You stay out of this, teo.
It's none of your business.

- It is my business.

I climbed with Josef Matt
on the citadel,

and I climbed with his son
on the felsberg.

I know what he can do.

- Give the boy a chance,

and he might be even a greater
guide than his father was.

- He's right, Franz.

The boy deserves his chance.

And from me, of all people,
he deserves it.

You know why.

Franz, why did you
come up here today?

- You know why I came.

I came to take back my nephew.

- No, you didn't.

You came because saxo and I
were here,

and you knew we were going to
climb the citadel.

- It is true. It was also
because of saxo.

He has no right here.

- Not even to step inside
this hut.

This hut belongs to us,
and so does the citadel.

The whole world knows it
as the Mountain of kurtal.

- That will soon be changed.

- By whom is it to be changed?

- You listen to me.

I have listened to you
talking and talking.

Now you listen to me.

For ten years,
I have circled the citadel

and explored the routes to it.

Did I ever see you
or any other kurtaler?

How many years has it been
since you slept in...

in your hut?

Stood on your Mountain?

And why did you stir up
your stomachs to come today?

I'll tell you why.

Because you are jealous.
Because you're cowards.

Because you do not want to see
Emil saxo of broli

do what you are afraid
to do yourselves.

- Wait!
You think I'm a coward?

You think I'm afraid
of a Mountain?

- Well, aren't you?

- No, I am not.

I've come here
to climb the citadel.

- I knew you'd join us, Franz.

I never doubted it.

- In that case,
you go without me.

- No, Emil.

I need you too.

We need the strongest team
that ever climbed the alps.

- The weather is clearing.

- We leave in the morning,
the four of us.

That's right, isn't it?
Four to go.

- Now listen,
this is how it'll be.

Somebody must go down to kurtal.
I think you, teo.

- Oh, yeah?
I knew he'd think like that.

- You'll have a job.

- I'm also 65 years,
and I don't intend to miss this.

Besides, you'll need a cook.

- How about Paul?
He's got to go back anyhow.

His wife's expecting a child.

- But I have six children
already.

Believe me, it's nothing.

- All right, Paul, you'll go.

My sister... before anybody,
go to her.

Tell her only
that we found the boy,

that he's here at the hut
and all right.

Don't, on any account, tell her
that he'll be on the Mountain.

For you, captain,
I'm doing strange things.

God grant I shan't live
to regret them.

- Now wait, Emil.

Let rudi take the lead.

He's the one who knows the way.

- Shall I go?

¶ ¶

- is that the place, rudi?

- Yes, sir.

- How do you know
it goes all the way, boy?

You didn't climb it?

- I told you,
there was a storm.

- Then what do you
really know about it?

- What do any of us know
until we've examined it?

I'll take a look at it.
- If you don't mind,

I'm still first guide.

Or am I?

- Yes, Emil,
you're still first guide.

- I could have told you.

It tapers off.

It goes nowhere, and even
if it did go anywhere,

it's too small
for a man to climb.

- Are you sure?
- Want to come and try it?

- All right, Emil, we'll go back
and try your way.

- Oh, it's...
it's nothing.

Let us go.

- May I try it?
I still know it's the way.

Remember that first day?

Not what happened.
What we talked about.

That day, you believed.

There are some things
you just know.

- All right, rudi.

I'll give you a hand.

- Rudi!
Are you all right?

- I'll tell you what it is.
He's stuck.

He could be stuck there
till the end of his days.

I've done it again.

- Rudi!

If you can hear me, answer!

¶ ¶

- I did it!

Hello!

- Well done, rudi!

Send down the rope!

¶ ¶

- well, there it is.

- And also, the way between.
We don't know what we'll find.

- Difficult it is, yes,
but no major obstacles.

- Two hours will do it.

- Is your head hurting again,
sir?

- No, it's nothing.
Let's go on.

- No, captain, this is no good.

At the end of the snow,
we'll stop for the night.

In the morning,
when you're rested,

we'll go on to the top.

- But the weather might change.
We may lose our chance.

- He's right, Franz.
The weather could change.

- A risk we will take.

- Franz lerner.
- Hmm?

- Franz lerner.

- What is it?

- Come out here a minute.

I want to talk to you.

- What's the matter?

Is he worse?

- He is not worse,
but he is not better.

He won't be able
to go tomorrow.

It's the end of it for him.

But it needn't be for us.
- What do you mean?

- Tomorrow,
the weather will be good.

After that, who knows?

If we leave at first dawn,
we could be there by 8:00.

The boy will stay with him.
He won't be left alone.

And it's what
he would want us to do.

- It's not a question
of what he would want.

A guide, a venerated guide
of kurtal,

does not leave his client
on a Mountain and go on alone.

- Do you think he will go on
alone?

- Even of saxo,
I wouldn't believe it.

Go to sleep, boy.

- Let me have a look.

I see someone.

- Where?

- High above the fortress.

- Only one?

- Wait.
Now I see two people.

- No others?

- No. Just two black...

- didn't you say
there were four?

- Well, there were four
yesterday when they started.

May have changed places
higher up.

Captain winter
with saxo, probably.

Hans with rudi.

I... I mean that...

- you mean my son
is on the citadel.

You've lied to me.

You've all lied to me.

- Frau Matt.

- Well, lizbeth,
I hope you're satisfied.

- Yes. Rudi's doing
what he was meant to do.

- What right have you to say
what he was meant to do?

How could you know?

You've never been a wife,
a mother.

You've never lost a man.

- But don't you see?
We both nearly lost a man.

- Why couldn't you
have left him alone?

- But it was rudi himself.
It wasn't me.

Nor was it old teo.

That's what makes it
so right, so wonderful.

- Would you want to be
the wife of a guide?

- Yes.
Or a dishwasher.

Or a hotel proprietor.

But never
the wife of a hotel proprietor

who wanted to climb mountains.

Because a man must do
what he feels he must do,

or he isn't a man.

And no one,
wife, mother, or sweetheart,

has the right to make him into
something he wasn't meant to be.

I'm sorry you didn't know.

I'm sorry they lied to you.

- There's nothing to do now,
is there?

He'll never be anything
but a guide.

- No, frau Matt.

- Where are the others, Franz?
What happened?

- Gone, the two of them.

It's what saxo threatened
last night

when he said
you were too sick to try.

And that crazy boy
has gone after him.

- All right, I'm ready.
- Ready for what?

- To go after them.
- No, captain, you're too weak.

- I'm much better.
The pain's gone.

- Then, if you don't mind
staying here for a few hours,

I'll go on...
- I mind very much.

We're going together.

Don't worry. I won't be
a bundle of firewood.

¶ ¶

- Aah!

¶ ¶

- herr saxo, don't move!

Herr saxo, you're hurt.

- You're badly hurt.

I'll make you a sling.

- Ah, let me alone!

I don't need help from you.

Go on back.
You've won.

Climb to the top
and crow like a cock.

- Herr saxo, there must be
some way I can hold you.

- Go on, boy.
Go on, kitchen boy.

You've won, I'm telling you.

And I've lost.

Claim your victory.
Leave me.

You've left the others.
Why not me?

I'm nothing to you,
not even a friend. Go on.

That's it.
You're no fool.

Take it.

You'll be a hero.

Conqueror of the citadel.

Your father's son.

- I'm making you a sling.

Since we can't go up,
we'll go down.

- It's rudi's pack.

- Rudi!

Rudi!

He must have fallen.

- He could fall, and his pack
would still be on his back.

We'd better push on.

- We can pick those things up
on the way down.

- He brought these
all the way up from kurtal.

I think he'd like them
at the top.

- Aah!

- Herr saxo!

I'm done.
Finished.

- You can't stop now.

The tents are just below.

- No, boy.
You leave me here.

You'll never get me down.

- I will get you down.

Now just try! Try!

- Thanks, boy.

¶ ¶

- come, lizbeth.

- No, it should only be you.

My turn will come.

- I'm sorry
if I made you worry again.

You're not angry.

You're happy.
- Yes, rudi.

And very proud.

All the conquerors
of the citadel,

which stands above our valley,

there it will stand forever,

and all men will know it

by your names,
as your Mountain.

- Forgive me, herr hempel
but you're wrong.

It's not our Mountain.
It's rudi's Mountain.

Rudi.

Rudi, come up here.

- Go on.

- I didn't even
get to the top, sir.

- Look.

- You carried it up.
You put it there.

- No, rudi, you put it there.

You and your father.

- That is true.

He could have been the first.

- And so could his father.

- Long live our dishwasher!
Bravo!

- Well, say something, rudi.

Don't just stand there
like a lump.

Invite them up to see.
- Where's lizbeth?

- There she is.
- Here I am, rudi.

¶ ¶

¶ ¶