I was an eye witness of the shooting in Zermatt. It was impressing, though (fortunately) not comparable to movie sets nowadays. But the narrow location of the village would anyway not have allowed the giant machinery of today. I like the movie very much, though the story does not exactly correspond to the real first access to the top and the names of mountain, village and persons are fictional.My report with photos are on the website of Michael Barrier (Disney expert in US). As Url's are not allowed, I can lead you to the site: Just type "Barrier Disney Third" in your browser.The first climbing took place in July 1865 - the 150th anniversary is the major event in Zermatt just these days !

I watch any Mt climbing movie I can get my hands on. Since I have never seen one about the Matterhorn, I am watching this one. No one called Matt, has ever died on it tho. First ascent was on July 14, 1865 by Edward Whymper, Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow, guide Michel Croz, and the father and son guides Peter and Peter Taugwalder via the Hörnli Ridge, the most common route of ascent today. Just below the summit on the descent, Hadow slipped, knocking Croz off. The rope came tight and pulled Hudson and Douglas and the four climbers fell down the north face. The elder Taugwalder was belaying with the rope over a rock spike, but the impact broke the rope thereby saving the Taugwalders and Whymper from certain death. I would think Disney could have got this historic fact correct. Great movie tho! If you want historic accuracy, watch Into Thin Air. Or, the North Face.

I was eight years old in 1970, when our primary school in Northern Ireland assembled all the students into the gymnasium to see "a film". The film was Third man on the Mountain. A quiet loner who detested the boredom of sports that chased an object around an enclosed playing field, I was captivated by this film, and knew that I wanted to climb. I am 43 years old now, and have spent my life climbing and enjoying the beauty of the mountains. I have just purchased this film on DVD but will wait until Christmas Eve, to see it for the first time in 35 years.In an age where Hollywood gratifies violence, profanity, and promiscuity, caring parents would do well to, not only let their children see this great adventure story; but to sit with them and watch it as a family. As a teenager, I never once attended a 'house-party', drank, or engaged in the trash that often creates arrogant, ungrateful, and belligerent adolescents. The memory of this film never left my mind, and kept me focused in life. Honour, self discipline, respect for our elders and caring about what others think of us; as well as a great story of personal determination and effort, young people today need to be presented with the values that used to be 'normal' in society.The real locations used in the filming provide a welcome relief from the slick, computer-animations and green-screen fakery of modern celluloid, and the climbing depictions are far, far superior to anything that has since been passed off by Hollywood, as 'mountaineering'. Having to EARN respect, working and striving for goals, personal sacrifice, and a good story: parents owe this film to their children.

One of the well hidden Disney classics is Ken Annikens Third Man on the Mountains released in 1959. It stars Michael Rennie as Captain Winters who comes to a Swiss village to climb the Citadel, one of the worlds highest and most dangerous mountains and the peak that claimed the life of Rudy Matt's father, played by James McCarther. It was filmed on location in Zermatt Switzerland where the 14,000 foot Matterhorn stands. It is one of the great adventure films of all time taken from the book Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman. Very few movies have been made about mountain climbing, The Mountain with Spencer Tracy, The White Tower with Glenn Ford and The Eiger Sanction with Clint Eastwood. But Third Man on the Mountain has the most heart. All of the above films are on video tape.