“The Proud Stallion.” This movie popped up recently when I was searching for free movies on cable. It had a black and white photo with a sentence about a young girl and a wild stallion. I clicked on it assuming it was a boring account of a kid who found a wild stallion out on the prairie and brought it home to tame.
Boy was that wrong. This is a superb movie, especially considering where and when it was produced.
How about Czechoslovakia in 1962? It was dubbed in English and released in 1964. The names on the screen gave it away. Eastern European, definitely not Polish, not likely to be Hungarian. I picked the Czech language – that is where my mom’s family emigrated from.
Edited to add 3/22/2024: When I added “1964” to the search I got several links that should be for the English release. Searching for “the proud stallion” alone will likely get you the 1962 links which are the original release in Czeck. Apple tv, Amazon Prime video, Sling, Roku. Amazon offered a free trial of Prime.
I was enthralled from the start. The cinematography is amazing. The score is a minimal contemporary style that suits the movie extremely well. The performances are top notch. It is about Linda, around 12 or 13, a genuine tomboy who hung out with the boys; little interest in the girls playing house. They all run around in bare feet. The horse is a big black stallion (gelding?), named Primo who is not “wild.” He is badly mistreated by the owner. He is turned out adjacent to her family’s farm, and she has access to the fence. She is determined to make friends with him. You can learn about softness, making friends with a horse, and growing up – “when can I wear a brassiere mom?”
I love it. I’ve watched it three times in the past week. The only problem is the cable company putting ads on top of the content. It is on YouTube – haven’t watched it there yet. I don’t have my TVs hooked up to the internet. Old fashioned, I guess. I’ll have to watch it on my desktop PC.
Historical note: Czechoslovakia was known as Bohemia centuries ago. I think mom’s family came here before 1900. It was taken over by Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. It became a communist state in 1948 (the year I was born!) and was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1968. It became the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1989, which is how it is known today.
