Customer Reviews

Horse Without a Head [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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THE STORY: When a famous French mail train is robbed in a rural area, the thieves stash their loot inside an abandoned factory in a poor village, planning to return when the heat dies down. They hide the key inside a wooden horse that the local kids play with. The local children stumble on the key and the cash, and fight to keep the crooks from it. The movie has comedy, drama, and suspense and is quite a little gem.

BEHIND THE SCENES: All of the actors selected for this project were new to the Disney Studio except the young girl, played very well by Pamela Franklin, who appeared again in a Disney theatrical feature 3 years later, "A Tiger Walks". The actors and plot are very good, and the costumes and set are very authentic due to high quality art direction by Michael Stringer. While the film is supposed to be set in France, almost all of the shooting production was actually completed in England at the Pinewood Studios. The outdoor set of the French village was built entirely from scratch on the studio backlot and was one of the largest movie sets the British film industry had ever seen at over a million square feet in size. It took 8 weeks to construct, and used 50 tons of concrete. It is completely convincing on camera, and you would never know it is all a studio set. The village was kept intact by Pinewood Studio and Disney producers used the set again 3 years later, after doing an incredible job of redressing it to become a Scottish village for the film, "The Three Lives of Thomasina".

"Horse Without a Head" was originally released theatrically overseas in 1961, but never in the US. This is curious because the production values and quality of the film are much higher than many other projects that Disney distributed to theatres at the time. Two years later it finally aired on the Disney television show, "Wonderful World of Disney", for the first time in two parts beginning on 9/29/63. It re-aired in '64, and '67. It was later serialized on The New Mickey Mouse Club. I recommend you track down this little gem, we enjoyed it immensely.

I saw this story first on WALT DISNEY'S WONDERFUL WORLD OF COLOR in the 1960s and still enjoy it immensely. Five poor children have only one toy, a large wooden headless hobbyhorse that the eldest boy's father found in an abandoned house. The children use it as sort of a "thrill-ride" down the steep streets of their town. In the meantime, a gang of thieves are planning to steal a bank shipment from the train that must slow down on a nearby curve, enlisting the help of a local peddler, who hides the key to the place the loot is stashed in the kids' horse. When they discover this, the thieves steal the horse and of course the children try to find it. Jean Pierre Aumont co-stars as the good-natured police inspector trying to find the thieves and the cash. The highlight of this movie is Pamela Franklin, who plays Marion. Marion has a special way with dogs; she cares for any stray she finds, then gives them homes, but before they leave her, they are taught to respond to her whistle. Needless to say, whenever the kids are in trouble, Marion's whistle brings a rescue pack of dogs in some very funny sequences. Franklin is bright and ingenuous in the role, foreshadowing her future lively performance in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE.

I just recently bought a copy of this movie @ a video rental store that was going out of business.

I popped it into the VCR thinking that it was going to be one of those regular old Disney films like A Tiger Walks. I was surprised it is one of the best early Disney films that i have ever seen. It is about a group of poor french children who have a toy horse that they love dearly. Well one day the head falls off why they are playing with it and they have the kindly fixer fix it for them. But they don't know that there was a key that they put in the head. Well a group of crooks had just stolen 400,000 pounds from the French bank. And that key was the key to the warehouse where the Money is in. Well the crooks will do anything to get that key back. Even commit Murder! Well the kids save the day as they do in all of the Disney films. And the crooks are taken off to jail. Great Disney film.

I really enjoyed this as a child when it was shown, every few years, on Wonderful World of Color aka Disney. It's a mystery, taking place in France. It involves children and a toy horse on wheels that the head is missing from. Enjoyed this movie as much as I did over 40 years ago as a child.

This is certainly not the most dynamic Disney movie produced. It had a weak story line but if someone just wanted to relax and watch a video this one will work.

I too, saw this film at the local cinema when I was young, It was a small film that used to be shown before the main movie, which I think was Tarzan's Three Challenges.
I have only seen the film this once, I went with my older brother and I remember he laughed so hard he nearly fell off his seat. I don't rember the plot really, just that it was a wonderful, Ealing Studios type, mayhem of laughter and fun. I am going to get the tape and show it to my grandchildren.
Do watch it! I imagine a modern day equivilent would be The Goonies.