Available to stream from 17 to 19 August at https://stummfilmtage.culturebase.org
In the 1920s, the mountain film emerged as one of the most popular genres in German cinema. One of its leading figures was the former geologist Arnold Fanck, who popularised the genre with his first feature-length fiction film THE PEAK OF FATE. In mountain films, the central theme invariably focuses on the struggle of »man against nature«, as is the case with this story of a Tyrolean mountaineer (genre star Luis Trenker in his film debut) and the supposedly unclimbable »Devil’s Peak«. The new digital restoration by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation allows the film’s breath-taking location photography to shine in all its splendour.
This reviewer has never seen a picture, on or off Broadway, which has actually thrilled him more than THE PEAK OF FATE. The suspense comes after the first fifteen or eighteen feet. It never lags for a minute after that. Quiet on the contrary, it builds up and up until it reaches a grand climax worthy of applause by hands moistened by the tensity of just having been an onlooker.
The majestic heights of the Alps, with the clouds breaking about some of their peaks, are gloriously photographed. The camera reveals from the base to the tip, depicting walls of sheer rock and the earth thousands of feet below. Witnessing these heights on the screen is like the sensation one usually experiences in his first flight in an aeroplane or the plunge on an exceptionally high roller coaster in an amusement park.
But – that which will send a chill up the widest spine on the hottest day is the close-up of professional mountain climbers ascending these treacherous pinnacles of smooth stone, with nothing to aid them but their hands and feet. These mountaineers of the hardy Alpine country overseas accomplish feats on the screen which would make those of the most daring “human fly” in America appear like the ordinary ascension of a flight of stairs.
THE PEAK OF FATE is further substantiated by being based upon a plausible story, well rounded by human interest. The cast, made up entirely of foreigners, said to be Alpine natives, never obtrudes in the sense that the acting becomes apparent. Every role is essayed so literally that the acting is like the locale. This greatly aids to place the fan in the position of a third party. In other words it tends to infuse in the picture-goer the sensation that he as an individual is imperiling his life in the ghastly but beautiful heights penetrating the clouds.
Tom Waller, in: Moving Picture World, June 27, 1925
