The Mountain Road is a 1960 American war film starring James Stewart and directed by Daniel Mann. Set in China and based on the 1958 novel of the same name by journalist-historian Theodore H. White, the film follows the attempts of a U.S. Army major to destroy bridges and roads potentially useful to the Japanese during World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. White's time covering China for Time magazine during the war led to an interview with former OSS Major Frank Gleason Jr., who served as head of a demolition crew that inspired the story and film. Gleason was later hired as an uncredited technical adviser for the film. The film is a rather somber treatment of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. This includes themes that were taboo for Hollywood duri