Anyone old enough (say around 20) to have watched this on its initial release, five years after the end of the war would have had no problem with the subtext - for example for them the Lloyd Bridges character may as well have had a sign "Nazi Fanatic" around his neck - but 66 years later a 20-30 year old with little or no interest in history may well be content to watch it as a mild thriller in which an ill-assorted sextet pit themselves against nature in the shape of the eponymous white tower, a peak that remains unconquered. For me the cast is intriguing with only one out-and-out leading man and five top-of-the-line supporting players though not necessarily the team I would nominate to climb a mountain. The team in this case is assembled by Valli, an undoubted beauty and decent enough actress, anxious in this case to finish what her late father started and reach the summit. Oscar Homolka, a mountain guide, and Lloyd Bridges, an unrepentant Nazi, are the only ones with serious credentials and with a reasonable chance of completing the climb, the others are there for various reasons. The movie is guilty of the same errors as Black Narcissus, where David Farrar persisted in walking around naked from the waist upward in spite of being several thousand feet above sea level. Here all six climbers eschew gloves until the very last stages of the climb whilst Glen Ford never does actually don them and Lloyd Bridges wears three-quarter length pants that display his naked calves throughout. Despite all this it's a good yarn and keeps you watching.
Review of The White Tower
