If you're wondering what James Bond, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and a little girl named Heidi have in common, the answer is simple: They've all brought film attention to Switzerland.

And the movies in which they starred are still as exciting as when originally filmed. Would you believe that curly-haired little orphan has probably attracted far more attention than any of them? But, of course, Heidi has been around a lot longer than the others.

And in large part, her fame has its roots in tourism. Johanna Spryi, born in 1827, married a lawyer and lived in Zurich. Vacationing every year in Switzerland's Engadine district, she began writing a series of books, eventually 48 in all.

Her wildly popular Heidi books have been translated into 58 languages, selling more than 50 million copies. Bring up www.heidi.travel on the Internet, request the English translation and a little girl will invite you to join her in touring the region where the most recent Heidi film was made.

That incredible scenery shown in the film can all be visited. The Graubunden district has outlined a series of tours reaching all the sites . . . from the 200-year-old "Heidi Hut" to the "Heidi Trail" from Maienfeld village where Spryi took holidays.

Scuol near here in the lower Engadine, along with the small village of Sent, were some of the film's major locations. Although we've been to St. Moritz in that region, next trip we intend to spend more time following in Heidi's footsteps.

Heidi has come a long way since the early Shirley Temple version, but the worthy message remains the same and the settings will definitely be enough to lure your whole family there.

Each film covered here tries to outdo the other where scenery and drama is concerned. Mountain climbing and Switzerland's Alps are almost synonymous.

With massive peaks seemingly everywhere, mountaineers are constantly tempted to scale those sheer walls and pick their way across icy glaciers.

It seems an unlikely spot to encounter art professor / government agent Clint Eastwood climbing skyward on an assassination mission in the adult-oriented The Eiger Sanction (1975).

En route up the treacherous north face of the Eiger, he is to be certain a mysterious murderer does not make it back down again. Meanwhile, there is the usual Eastwood violence and James Bond-type girls.

Interestingly, it starts in Arizona on the Navajo Reservation where the ageing Eastwood is being trained to brush up his climbing skills under tutelage of George Kennedy. It seems he twice failed ascending Eiger.

Once he arrives in Switzerland, viewers are taken along the river in Zurich, with church steeples flanking the shore as the River Limmat moves through the city from Lake Zurich. That's the tranquil, peaceful part.

It's not too long before viewers feel they're desperately clinging to the Eiger's sheer north face that has taken so many dozens of lives.

A Celtic cross caught our attention at the small, interesting Grindelwald cemetery there overlooking the Wetterhorn. It commemorates the death of two climbers and their guides killed on its summit in 1902.

As travellers who feel local cemeteries reveal much about an area's history, we've found those in climbing areas contain a depressing number of casualties. Grindelwald's is unique with its dramatic setting.

Since these accidents happen with some frequency, we preferred to imitate climb watchers in the film by sitting on the sunny terrace of Murren's Eiger Hotel sipping peppermint tea, watching as the "foehn" moved across the summit.

Those "foehns", caused by dry warm air from North Africa, resulted in disaster for three climbers in the movie. There have been fierce storms where Sahara red sand actually etched glass in sections of Switzerland.

But travellers can climb an Eiger-area Alp minus risk, but full of awesome panoramas, by taking the lift up above Grindelwald.

What was Robert Redford doing at Wengen across the valley from Murren and just below the Jungfrau? Skiing while scouting locations for The Downhill Racer (1969) which explored the fast-paced, high adventure life of international ski racing.

"We wanted to prove that two hours of snow won't make an audience feel cold," he said.

Ski competitions raced across Europe from Wengen's Lauberhorn, on to the Arlberg-Kandahar in St. Anton, Megeve's Grand Prix and Kitzbuehl's Khahnenkamm.

But it would be hard to exceed the skiing drama of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Secret service gadgets and super-gimmickry which amused and amazed audiences in previous Bond films are gone. In this one the superspy hero, played (just once) by Australian George Lazenby, survives through his own physical skill and ingenuity.

And what ingenuity! Image a scene 10,000 feet up in the Bernes Oberland area of the Swiss Alps. Arch villain Telly Savalas is intent on destroying the pride of Britain's Secret Service.

And they're soon off and running across glacier and ice fields with cameras focusing on a wide-screen, eye-filling panorama which includes the Jungfrau, Monch and Eiger. The director of photography called it "a cameraman's dream".

This sensational chase is rated as one of the longest, most action-packed ever filmed. Certainly it's one of the most scenic.

Beginning on skis at the summit to the Schilthorn high above Murren and the Lauterbrunen valley, it switches to bobsleds, continues through an ice carnival in the mountain village of Murren, changes to an auto which skids into the midst of a stock car race on ice and is finally climaxed by a thunderous man-made avalanche.

To capture both the action and dazzling views on film properly, ski champion Willy Bogner, Jr. skied backwards down the mountain filming with a hand-held camera. On these steep slopes it's enough of a challenge to concentrate on getting down in one piece going forward.

For some sequences a cameraman was suspended 18 feet below a jet helicopter in a specially built harness while the pilot "buzzed" mountain peaks and glaciers.

Much of the action was actually filmed atop 10,000-foot-high Alpine Schilthorn where luxurious Piz Gloria summit house served as mountain fortress of villainous Savalas.

Because the story line required an adjoining heliport, 500 tons of cement and equipment were hauled to the peak via cable car and helicopter to build one. Last this traveller heard, the Piz Gloria is still the world's highest revolving restaurant, with the kind of view that makes it difficult to concentrate on food. It's definitely a must-see.

Because filming was in October, they flew over to the glacier for some of the skiing sequences.

United Artists stars and crew headquartered at Murren and were as impressed by the view as we were. There is no way to exaggerate what one sees from here.

There are so many cable cars, cog and funicular railroads in this region, a traveller could literally spend days riding them.

And we haven't even yet taken you up to the Jungfrau, an experience worth an article all its own. What were Saudi princes doing at the Eiger Hotel during our visit? Same thing we were . . . enjoying the view from one of Switzerland's most incredible locations.

No wonder repeat business is 75 per cent.

"There's a Swedish baron who has been coming for 35 years," confided the hotel owner.

And Rita Hayworth?

"I'll never forget seeing her standing alone at the train station, leaving when Ali Khan's wife arrived unexpectedly. Rita later married him and came with daughter Yasim," the owner added.

In case this begins to sound like a gossip column, we'll sign off for now.

Next week: Is there an Alp in your future?