STORM OVER TIBET (1952)

David and Bill are two American pilots flying a supply route between Tibet and India in the last days of World War II. After making 74 flights, David is given orders to return to the States and he promises Bill to visit Elaine, Bill's wife. But just before David is to fly out, Bill discovers that David has stolen a Buddhist temple mask of the demon god Sindja who supposedly guards the treacherous peak of Amne Mandu. Bill tells him to leave the mask but David wants it as a souvenir. The two get into minor fisticuffs and David cuts his hand on glass. Because of his injury, David is left behind, even though most of his stuff, including the mask, is packed, and Bill takes his place on the flight. But the plane's compass malfunctions and it winds up going off course over Amne Mandu where the it goes missing, with the pilots presumed dead. David is guilt-stricken and when he tries to pay a Buddhist monk money for the stolen (and now missing) mask, he is told, "Atonement is not for sale." Back home, David visits Elaine and the two soon fall in love. She assures him that Bill's death wasn't his fault and they eventually get married. One day, a package arrives addressed to Elaine: the stolen Sindja mask. Deciding that Bill may have survived the plane crash, David and Elaine join a UNESCO scientific expedition to Tibet and plan to visit Amne Mandu. On the way up, they stop in a temperate hidden valley (a non-magical version of Lost Horizon's Shangri-La) and during a religious ceremony, David sees a Sindja mask and freaks out after having a disorienting premonition of a deadly avalanche. Despite this, the group goes on. A superstitious native tries to sabotage their climb, but they make it. David sees the crashed plane on the mountain, but their progress is halted when an avalanche (as predicted by David's vision) threatens their lives.

This B-film, directed by Andrew Marton, has strong story potential that its low budget can't quite fulfill, but it's an interesting footnote in movie history. A good chunk of the 90 minute running time is taken up with location documentary footage of an actual Himalaya climb that was shot in 1934 and used by Marton for a German adventure film called Demon of the Himalayas, released in Europe in 1935 but never screened in the United States. The scenes of Buddhist rituals, mountain climbing, and an avalanche are genuine, and Marton did his best to match that footage with his studio-shot scenes, but the 1930s scenes are slightly sped up, almost like a silent film would be, so the connections are not seamless. However, if you throw in a good amount of suspension of disbelief, it all almost comes together. The handsome deep-voiced Rex Reason (pictured), better known for the sci-fi films This Island Earth and The Creature Walks Among Us, is just fine as the conflicted hero. Diana Douglas (Michael Douglas' mother) is so-so in the fairly thankless role of the worried wife. I also liked Jarmila Marton (the director’s wife) as a UNESCO doctor (who was also in the earlier Demon of the Himalayas and so is matched up quite well in the older footage). The snaggle-toothed villain, who was apparently also in the 1935 film, is given little motivation for acting the way he does. In fact, all of his screen time may well be from the older movie. I enjoyed this, though I wish the semi-mystical tone of the film (another Lost Horizon echo) had been pulled off better. [YouTube]