Itala-Film

Cretinetti sulle Alpi is a drama about alpinism. It was produced in 1909 by Itala-Film. It features André Deed.

In 1911, Mario Piacenza filmed the ascent to the Dent du Geant. The copy of the film that is preserved, restored by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema of Torino, shows a collection of scenes of three roped climbers ascending to the highest point of the Dent du Geant and then, using ropes to descend from the rock pinnacles. The editing of the film seems to be imprecise and without the intention to constitute a documented narration of the ascent. With better results, Piacenza filmed the year after, the notable 'Ascensione al Cervino', and this suggests that maybe 'Ascensione al Dente del Gigante' served him as a test film for the more ambitions Matterhorn film.

Mario Piacenza filmed in 1911 an ascent to the Matterhorn from the italian side, by the Lion Ridge. In the film, a party of four climbers ascend from Cervinia to the Colle del Leone. From there they start the real rock climbing part. The team ascend the chimney using a fixed rope with knots to reach the Luigi di Savoia Hut at 3830 meters and later, the snow covered Tyndall Peak. Finally the team arrive to the Italian summit and two men cross to Swiss side. The film ends with a panoramic of the Matterhorn from Zermatt, suggesting the descent down the Swiss face.

The mountain guide and ski instructor Hans Turri has been hired by the tourist Gregory Milacz to make a route in the mountains. Both are caught by a storm, so while Milacz is waiting at the Concordia Hut, Turri returns to the valley again. On the way back, Milacz has disappeared. Suspicions turn against Turri as a murder suspect for the jealousy he might have for the beautiful Mary Dulac. To get rid of the accusation of murder, Turri sets out to find Milacs. There is a French version of the film (Les chevaliers de la montagne), shot the same year by the same team but with different actors.