The Headless Horseman (1972 film)

The Headless Horseman (Russian: Всадник без головы, romanized: Vsadnik bez golovy) is a 1972 Soviet-Cuban Western film directed by Vladimir Vajnshtok based on the eponymous novel by Thomas Mayne Reid.[3][4] The film was the first Soviet Western. It was a box office success, 51,7 million tickets were sold and the picture holds the 33rd place in terms of cinema attendance in the Soviet Union.[5][6]

The Headless Horseman
Directed byVladimir Vajnshtok
Written byThomas Mayne Reid
Pavel Finn
Vladimir Vaynshtok
StarringLudmila Savelyeva
Oleg Vidov
Aarne Üksküla
Eslinda Núñez
Aleksandr Milokostyj
Ivan Ivanovich Petrov
Music byNikita Bogoslovsky
CinematographyKonstantin Ryzhov
Edited byYe. Sadovskaya
Production
company
Release date
  • 1972 (1972)
Running time
104 minutes
CountrySoviet Union
Cuba
LanguageRussian
Box office51,7 million tickets sold[1][2]

Plot

The film takes place in 1850, Texas, United States. Louise, daughter of the wealthy plantation owner Poindexter, master of the hacienda Casa del Corvo, falls in love with a poor mustanger Maurice Gerald. The night their secret rendezvous happens, her brother Henry disappears. Suspicion in murder falls on Gerald, who was found covered in blood, with signs of struggle on the body and on Henry's cloak. One more minute, and an angry crowd would have Gerald lynched, but then the mysterious Headless Horseman appears...

Cast
  • Oleg Vidov: Maurice Gerald
  • Ludmila Savelyeva: Louise Poindexter
  • Eslinda Núñez: Isidora Covarubio
  • Enriques Santiesteban: El Coyote
  • Alejandro Lugo: Woodley Poindexter
  • Aarne Üksküla: Cassius Calhoun
  • Ivan Ivanovich Petrov: Zeb Stump
  • Rolando Dias Reyes: Major
  • Aleksandr Milokostyj: Henry Poindexter
  • Platon Leslie: Pluton

Production

The picture was filmed in Crimea; Yalta, Bilohirsk served as the locations. The manes and tails of horses were painted with silver. Cotton fields were created by decorators scattering ordinary cotton around and the cacti were plastic. The slaves were played by black medical students from Simferopol. Many actors spoke Spanish and the mouth movements do not always match the Russian dubbing.[7][5]

References
  1. "40 лет назад на экраны вышел фильм "Всадник без головы", который за год посмотрели 52 млн зрителей (фото)". Segodnya.
  2. "Всадник без головы". KinoPoisk.
  3. "Всадник без головы (1973)". kino-teatr.ru.
  4. "Всадник без головы. Х/ф". Russia-1.
  5. ""Всадник без головы": техасские прерии под Белогорском". RIA Novosti.
  6. Sergey Kudryavtsev. "Отечественные фильмы в советском кинопрокате".
  7. "Для съемок "Всадника без головы": лошадей выкрасили серебрянкой, а хлопковые поля сделали из ваты". Komsomolskaya Pravda.


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