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Poster for Black Stallion (1939)

Black Stallion (1939)

Also known as King of the Sierras

1939 · Feature film · 53 min · dir. Samuel Diege

  • Western
Watch now On the Internet Archive

Synopsis

An unusual film in that it was composed of new film footage tacked onto an original film produced by M. H. Hoffman Sr. and Jr.,and never released because of the collapse and merger of the Hoffman's Liberty Company into the newly-formed Republic operation in mid-1935, and consequently has two different sets of actors and production crew members. The "Hoffman" group was made up of director Arthur Rosson, writers Frank Gay (who also doubled as Associate Producer) and W. Scott Darling, cameraman Tom Galligan, editor Dan Milner, assistant director Milton Brown, noted animal trainer Jack Lindell(who also had a film role) and actors Frank Campeau, Wally Albright, Edward Peil Sr. and Morgan Brown. It was filmed in the vicinity of Fredonia, Arizona and this group in no way functioned as a 2nd unit. They were making their own film. The film went unreleased, and George A. Hirliman took it over for his Condor Productions unit at Grand National, and shot additional footage directed by Samuel Diege, with Jack Greenhalgh on camera, Carl Pierson editing, two songs from Lew Porter, and Arthur Hoerl and Paul Franklin writing additional dialogue for the "Hirliman" flash-back cast of Hobart Bosworth, Harry Harvey and his son Harry Harvey, Jr. The Hoffman group was in Arizona, where a group of ranchers in the area south of the Utah border and east of the Colorado River had appealed to the Department of the Interior for relief against the great herds of wild mustangs that roamed the range,…

Synopsis from OMDb

Details

Director
Samuel Diege
Studio
George A. Hirliman Productions
Released
1938-12-11
Running time
53 minutes
Language
English
Collection
Feature Films

Cast & crew

Reviews on the Internet Archive

★★★★★ · Black Stallion · trueblue1144 · 2005-10-16

Wonderful family movie. Heartwarming story with all the right elements. Horses, a child and the wise father figure. You can't go wrong with this one.

★★★★★ · Loved it · Palomin0 · 2020-11-28

I love a good horse movie. This one has lots of shots of beautiful horses galloping through gorgeous views. This horse Whitey played Starlight in the movie "Fighting Stallions".

★★★ · Unique Horse Story · four hooves · 2009-12-22

This movie really would have been a treat for the Saturday matinee kiddo cowpokes to see wild horses in their natural environment. The movie is also interesting in that it tells the story of wild roaming mustangs in the sierra nevadas. The human actors perform primarily as narrators in order to tell the story of a White Stallion (named "Whitey"), and his harem of mares, and a rival Black Stallion (named "Diablo") who is intent on stealing those mares away from Whitey. If you watch closely you can learn a little bit about herd dynamics by watching the way the horses relate to each other with…

★ · Yes, it's that Bad · bearpuf · 2004-08-15

It's got lots of footage of horses, kicking, biting, running away from fires, from wolves (actually German Shepherds), and standing around in herds. The stock footage used is a phenomenon in itself. If there's a purposeful story line it was buried with the gold that lies beneath the western mountains where it was filmed. It is unfortunate that there are productions of this nature that would bore even a ten year old to tears waiting to see or hear the reason of such a movie in it's unclear narrative storytelling. I can imagine that when this movie first played and when the kids were let out of…

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