This is something as rare as a war film about horses produced by Walt Disney while he was still alive, being about simultaneously produced with "Mary Poppins", but this is no fairy tale although it seems to contain elements of it, but it is a very true story, and general Patton was part of it himself. Not only was it an impossible task to save the Spanish riding school from the Nazi occupation of Vienna under bomb raids and threats of the approaching Russian army, but a more challenging necessity was to save the Lipizaner mares from their refuge in Czechoslovakia. The Russians had already seized the Budapest riding school and eaten the noble horses, and Czechoslovakia was consigned for the Russians. How then did the Spanish riding school of Vienna with the world's most celebrated horses manage to survive? It's a long and wondferful story.
Robert Taylor makes a fine performance as the director of the cschool in charge of all the worrying operations, while Lilli Palmer seconds him brilliantly. Eddie Albert is one of the master riders and even sings a song in a Viennese taverna. Brigitte Horney plays an important part as the countess housing the school in St. Martin, while Curd Jurgens' performance as a desillusioned German officer is more melancholy but the more important. On the whole it is a brilliant film and a must for all horse lovers, and who could not be a horse lover viewing a film like this?
