Miracle of the White Stallions

1963 film by Arthur Hiller

March 29, 1963 (1963-03-29) (U.S.)

Running time

118 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBox office$2,550,000 (US/ Canada)^[1]

Miracle of the White Stallions is a 1963 American adventure war film released by Walt Disney starring Robert Taylor (playing Alois Podhajsky), Lilli Palmer, and Eddie Albert. It is based on the story of Operation Cowboy which was the evacuation of the Lipizzaner horses from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna during World War II. Major parts of the movie were shot at the Hermesvilla palace in the Lainzer Tiergarten of Vienna, a former hunting area for the Habsburg nobility. The music for the soundtrack was based on the first movement of Franz Schubert's Marche Militaire no 1, D733.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

In 1945 Austria, during World War II, Austrian Col. Alois Podhajsky sets out to protect his beloved Lipizzaner stallions - purebred white horses with centuries of tradition as dressage horses - from starving refugees and the advancing Soviet Army, which might also view the mares and foals being kept at a German-controlled breeding farm in Czechoslovakia as a food source. Hoping to surrender them into safekeeping, Podhajsky seeks out U.S. General George S. Patton, a noted horse fancier.^[a] Podhajsky and his team from the Spanish Riding School of Vienna perform for Patton with their Lipizzaner stallions a precision dressage exhibition and the individual "Airs Above the Ground" with the hopes Patton will see the value of horses and help him rescue the mares and foals in Czechoslovakia.

Cast

Robert Taylor - Col. Alois Podhajsky
Lilli Palmer - Vedena Podhajsky
Curd Jürgens - Gen. Tellheim
Eddie Albert - Rider Otto
James Franciscus - Maj. Hoffman
John Larch - Gen. George S. Patton
Brigitte Horney - Countess Arco-Valley
Philip Abbott - Col. Reed
Douglas Fowley - General Walton Walker
Charles Régnier - SS-Brigadeführer Streicher
Fritz Wepper - Rider Hans
Guenther Haenel - Groom Sascha
Hans Habietinek - Innkeeper Hager
Philo Hauser - Dispatcher
Michael Janisch - Refugee Leader
Max Haufler - Engineer
Robert Dietl - German MP Captain
Erik Schumann - German Capt. Danhoff
Helmuth Janatsch - Intruder
Michael Tellering - Stryker's Adjutant
James Dobson - Southern GI

Comic book adaption

Gold Key: Miracle of the White Stallions (June 1963)^[2]^[3]

Notes

^ Patton came from a wealthy and distinguished family, riding since childhood. Commissioned into the Cavalry, he represented the United States in the 1912 Olympics in the Modern pentathlon; one of its five events includes Show jumping. He designed the M1913 Cavalry saber (famed as the Patton saber), and went on to become the Cavalry's top instructor, then the Army's first "Master of the Sword". Always a devoted rider, even during wartime, he was known until his death for wearing riding breeches and boots as his distinct personal uniform.

References

^ "Top Rental Features of 1963", Variety, January 8, 1964 p 71. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
^ "Gold Key: Miracle of the White Stallions". Grand Comics Database.
^ Gold Key: Miracle of the White Stallions at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)