Behold a Pale Horse (film)

''Behold a Pale Horse'' (a title quoting the Book of Revelation 6:8, "behold a pale horse Death]") is a 1964 American drama (film and television), drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn. The film is based on the 1961 novel '' Killing a Mouse on Sunday'' by Emeric Pressburger, which loosely details the life of the Spanish anarchist guerrilla Francesc Sabaté Llopart.

Plot

The movie opens with shots from the Spanish Civil War, and a line of Spanish refugees crossing the border into France after defeat by the Francoists. Republican guerrilla fighter Manuel Artiguez (Gregory Peck) turns away from the border and back towards Spain. His friends stop him, saying "Manuel, the war is over!".

The story returns twenty years later, to a young boy named Paco (Carlo Angeletti), who asks a man named Pedro (Paolo Stoppa) why Artiguez, who is legendary for his fierce resistance to Franco even after the defeat of the Republicans, has stopped his guerrilla raids against the Francoists in Spain. Pedro sends Paco into France to find his uncle and Artiguez. Paco tells Artiguez that he wants him to kill Viñolas (Anthony Quinn), a ''Guardia Civil'' officer, for killing his father. Paco lets Artiguez know that his father was killed because he wouldn't tell the police where to find Artiguez, whom Viñolas must capture if he is to retain his rank in the Guard.

Meanwhile, Viñolas has learned that Artiguez's mother (Mildred Dunnock) is dying, and sets a trap at the hospital in San Martín to capture Artiguez, presuming that he will come to see his mother. Like all Republican sympathizers, she is contemptuous and deeply suspicious of all Catholic clergy, some of who collaborated with Francoist Spain, both during and after the war. In return for information about the layout of the hospital and surrounding area, Paco tells Artiguez to "bump into Viñolas" for him.

A priest (Omar Sharif) visits with Artiguez's mother, who initially refuses to speak to him, but his kindness and sincerity win her over enough to ask him to warn her son not to come to see her, as she knows the Guard will be waiting for him. After Viñolas has laid his trap, Artiguez's mother dies, but Viñolas sends a spy to convince Artiguez otherwise, and to come visit her. When the priest appears at Artiguez's house, he's gone, so the priest tells Paco to pass on the message that Artiguez's mother is already dead, and not to go to San Martín. The priest also gives Paco a letter to warn Artiguez that he saw a collaborator at the Guard headquarters.

Paco flushes the letter down the toilet and doesn't pass on the verbal message because he feels sure the priest must be lying. Afterwards, Paco recognizes the man (Carlos) in Artiguez's house as the informer, and tells Artiguez about the priest's message. Pedro believes the boy, but Artiguez can't believe his friend Carlos would betray him. Trying to clear up the mess, Artiguez takes Paco and Carlos to Lourdes to find the priest. But the priest was delayed on the way, and since he's not there, they let Carlos go. On the way back, however, they see the priest, and forcibly take him to Artiguez's house. When Carlos returns to Artiguez's house for his rucksack, Artiguez asks the priest to come out. Carlos, knowing he is exposed, attacks Artiguez and escapes.

The priest tries to overcome Artiguez's antipathy for all clergy and Artiguez confesses that he knew all along that his mother was sick but didn't visit her before her death because he is no longer as brave as he was in his youth. Embarrassed by admitting his vulnerability, Artiguez allows the priest to go free and, after much internal debate, he decides to go to San Martín anyway, presumably with the mission of killing Viñolas. Once in San Martín, Artiguez encounters a Francoist sniper on the roof of the hospital and attacks him, sending him to his death. Picking up the sniper's rifle he sees Carlos the informer (who is with the police in a nearby building) looking out a window to see what has caused the commotion ; Artiguez pauses briefly then shoots Carlos, killing him. Once inside the hospital, he kills a few officers, but is finally shot.

Soldiers and officers congratulate Viñolas on at last killing his enemy, but he asks one of his lieutenants, knowing his mother was already dead and a trap would be waiting for him, why did Artiguez come back? The final shot is of the morgue, with the soldiers Artiguez killed and Artiguez himself (and his dead mother), wheeled in on gurneys and arranged in a row, dead.

Cast

* Gregory Peck as Manuel Artiguez, an aging Republican guerilla
* Anthony Quinn as Captain Viñolas, a Francoist Guardia Civil captain
* Omar Sharif as Francisco, a priest
* Raymond Pellegrin as Carlos, a friend of Artiguez, also his traitor
* Paolo Stoppa as Pedro
* Mildred Dunnock as Pilar Artiquez, the dying mother of Artiguez
* Christian Marquand as Zaganar
* Carlo Angeletti ("Marietto") as Paco
* Daniela Rocca as Rosanna
* Rosalie Crutchley as Teresa Viñolas
* Michael Lonsdale as Reporter

Production

''Behold a Pale Horse'' was co-produced by Columbia Pictures, along with Zinnemann (Highland Productions) and Peck (Brentwood Productions). The production resorted to filming exterior shots across the border in France: Biarritz on la Côte Basque, and locations in Béarn such as Pau, Oloron, Gotein-Libarrenx, La Brèche de Roland, and the basilica at Lourdes, as well as Studio St. Maurice in Vincennes.

Originally, Anthony Quinn had requested the role of Artiguez, but Zinnemann felt it would be type-casting him, and gave him the opposing role of the villain Viñolas.Zinnemann, Fred, (1992). - ''A Life in the Movies: An Autobiography''. - New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. - pp.184–195. - As well, several Spanish refugees were used to play the parts of Franco's ''Guardia Civil'' officers. The American leftist political activist Allard K. Lowenstein

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