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 horses - purebred white show horses with centuries of tradition as war 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
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.
See also
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)
