The Avalanche

The Avalanche is a 1946 Czechoslovak crime film, directed by Miroslav Cikán. It stars Otomar Korbelář, Marie Glázrová, Helena Bušová. Synopsis Treasury agents Steve Batchellor and Red Kelly are sent to an Idaho mountain lodge to arrest wealthy industrialist Giles M. Gilby for tax evasion. At the ski lodge, Steve and Red are greeted by Ann Watson and ski instructor Sven Worden. Later, in the lodge lobby, they meet a guest named Malone, and Red remarks that he is wearing a shoulder holster. In addition to Ann, Sven, Gilby and Malone, the other guests include Gilby's masseur, Jean; Duncan, the manager; wealthy Carlton Morris and his wife Eva; and heavy drinkers Austin Jeremy and his wife Claire, an actress. Gilby has not returned from a skiing trip, and when a series of slides is announced over the radio, Steve and Sven begin a search for the missing man. Eventually, Sam, an old skiier who lives on the mountain, leads them to a body whose face had been blown off. Sven identifies the corpse as Gilby. Back at the lodge, Malone reveals that Gilby owned a .38 caliber automatic gun, the same type that was used to kill him. Steve examines Gilby's room and finds his gun. While he sifts through the ashes in the fireplace, he is hit on the head with a cane. Continuing snow slides prevent everyone from leaving the lodge, and Steve takes the opportunity to question the staff and guests. Claire insists that everyone there hated Gilby. Ann tells him that Gilby bought his way into the ski club, took over the mortgage and fixed the club up. He then hired Sven to teach him to ski. Later, Malone reveals that Gilby had $500,000 in his possession and states his belief that the industrialist was killed for that money. Steve also learns that Malone came to the lodge to collect $20,000 in gambling debts from Gilby. Later, Steve discovers that the dead man was actually Eddie, one of Malone's gunmen. During a puppet show presented by the Jeremys, Austin is killed with the same gun that killed Eddie. When the snow slides abate, the guests all go outside, and Gilby's body, stabbed with a ski pole, is found on the ski lift. Red theorizes that Malone murdered Gilby to avenge Eddie's death. When Claire reports that Jean had quarrelled with Gilby, Jean responds that she and her husband often fought with Gilby. Then Morris explains that Eva often imagined attractive men like Gilby had fallen in love with her, but there was nothing between them.