Behold a Pale Horse

This post naturally follows last Thursday's.

Behold a Pale Horse is a 1964 film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn. The film is based on the novel Killing a Mouse on Sunday by Emeric Pressburger, which loosely details the life of the Spanish anarchist guerrilla, Francisco Sabaté Llopart.

Despite promotional tours by Peck (in the U.S.) and Zinnemann (London and Paris), the film did not have a large reception (the box-office receipts not being enough even to recoup the costs of production). According to Zinnemann, this was because the Spanish Civil War had slipped from the memories of its audience.

"I thought the Spanish Civil War was still with us, but apparently it is dead, in spite of all those refugees. There were other troubles too - with the Franco government. I was to blame for playing the Spanish Civil Guard as 'heavies.' They are sacred cows. Columbia suffered heavily through the Franco ban on their films because of 'Pale Horse' but they were wonderfully good about it."

Fred Zinnemann in the New York Times.