Skeleton on Horseback

Skeleton on Horseback aka The White Disease is a 1937 Czechoslovak drama film directed by and starring Hugo Haas. It revolves around an infectious disease which breaks out during a war. It is based on the play The White Disease by Karel Čapek. Cast Hugo Haas as Dr. Galén Bedřich Karen as Professor Sigelius Zdeněk Štěpánek as The Marshal Václav Vydra as Baron Olaf Krog František Smolík as Krog's Accountant Helena Friedlová as Accountant's Wife Ladislav Boháč as Krog's nephew Karla Oličová as The Marshal's Daughter Aneta Jaroslav Průcha as Dr. Martin Vladimír Šmeral as First Assistant Vítězslav Boček as Accountant's Son Eva Svobodová as Accountant's Daughter Reception In a contemporary review, the film was reviewed in Variety in 1940, who noted that Čapek's conception "isn't entirely clear, he appears to be taking the dramatic theme that Fascism is a sort of white plague that scourges the people who follow its philosophy." The reviewer noted that Čapek's "thinking is logical [but] he has certainly over-simplified the struggle between war and peace." The review continued that the film contained "many gripping scenes" praising "moments such as the meeting between the doctor and the dictator and the solitary vigil as zero hour for the invasion approaches, while "mob scenes are comparatively inept, and such matters as sound, lighting, photography and so on are inferior." References