I went to see this film because I am a great admirer of Michael Redgrave and prepared to watch him in anything. Despite the name of Carol Reed on bullhorn I had never heard of this effort and having seen it it's not difficult to know why it rarely surfaces. I've had occasion before now to remark on how pre-war audiences would apparently sit still for anything and this is definitely in the running as the most outre' example of this. Forget the Cinderella aspect - one minute Jessie Matthews hasn't got change of a match the next she is the thirties equivalent of a Super model - forget even that in a film with a running time of 78 minutes Reed squanders five of them in showing trees being cut down in Canada merely to make the point that one of the lumberjacks - who promptly disappears until the final ten minutes - has a sister (Jesse Matthews) living in London of whom we feels protective and is returning to watch over, but just ponder this; having hated him on sight then, in the fullness of time (a reel and a half, tops) decided that she loves him after all, Matthews goes for a picnic in the country with Redgrave where they encounter an escaped lunatic (Francis L. Sullivan) convinced that he is a world-class opera singer. His keepers come to return him to the asylum and that is that (but remember this fruit-cake). With ten minutes running time left Matthews gives Redgrave the air whereupon he promptly lights out for Switzerland as one does in these situations when no mention has ever been made of either Switzerland or his fondness for it. Meanwhile the lumberjack brother has arrived in England and follows Redgrave to Switzerland to give him a thrashing. As it happens Matthews boss at the modelling agency asks her to go to Switzerland on an assignment, natch. When the brother arrives at Redgraves' hotel the concierge tells him that Redgrave is out climbing a mountain and a dangerous one at that; shortly afterwards - 30 seconds - Redgrave appears carrying a ski (SKI!) and announces that the strap broke so he had to abandon his attempt on the West face. I don't know about You but this is the first time I've heard of skis as an essential aid to CLIMBING a mountain. Undaunted he tries again and Matthews, arriving later, sets out to follow him and, lo and behold, who does she run into halfway up but THE lunatic who thinks he's Caruso. No attempt is made to explain HIS presence there probably just as well. Oh, and if you've ever wondered what Alistair Sim looked like stripped to the waist this is your chance to find out. Incredible.
Review of Climbing High
