Skeleton on Horseback
| Skeleton on Horseback | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Hugo Haas |
| Produced by | Hugo Haas |
| Written by |
Karel Čapek Hugo Haas |
| Starring | Hugo Haas |
| Cinematography | Otto Heller |
| Edited by | Fannie Hurst |
Release date | 21 December 1937 |
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | Czechoslovakia |
| Language | Czech |
Skeleton on Horseback (Czech: Bílá nemoc) is a 1937 Czechoslovak drama film directed by and starring Hugo Haas. It revolves around an infectious disease which breaks out during a war. It is based on the play The White Disease by Karel Čapek.
Cast
- Hugo Haas - Dr. Galen
- Bedrich Karen - Prof. Sigelius
- Zdenek Stepánek - The Marshal
- Václav Vydra - Baron Krog
- Frantisek Smolík - The Citizen
- Helena Frydlova - The Citizen's Wife
- Ladislav Bohác - Krog's Son
- Karla Olicová - The Marshal's Daughter
- Jaroslav Prucha - Dr. Martin
- Vladimír Smeral - First Assistant
- Vítezslav Bocek - The Citizen's Son
- Eva Svobodovna - The Citizen's Daughter
Reception
In a contemporary review, the film was reviewed in Variety in 1940, who noted that Capek's conception "isn't entirely clear, he appears to be taking the dramatic theme that Fascism is a sort of white plague that scourges the people who follow its philosophy." The reviewer noted that Capek's "thinking is logical [but] he has certainly over-simplified the struggle between war and peace."[1][2] The review continued that the film contained "many gripping scnes" praising "moments such as the meeting between the doctor and the dictator and the solitary vigil as zero hour for the invasion approaches, while "mob scenes are comparatively inept, and such matters as sound, lighting, photography and so on are inferior."[2]
References
Footnotes
- ↑ Willis 1985, p. 65.
- 1 2 Willis 1985, p. 66.
Sources
- Willis, Donald, ed. (1985). Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews. Garland. ISBN 0-8240-6263-9.