Name: NET Playhouse: The Journey of the Fifth Horse
Genre: Drama
Released: 1966-10-14
Duration: 2 h
Rating: 7.4
Cast: Jack Aaron, Susan Anspach, William Bassett

A superb filming of a superb staging of a superb book

This is a deeply moving film. It features Dustin Hoffman's first screen performance, and he is so brilliant that words are inadequate. The stage play which forms the basis of this film is based upon Ivan Turgenev's novel Diary of a Superfluous Man, which I have not read, even though I am an admirer of Turgenev. The play adaptation was by Ronald Ribman, and he did a truly wonderful job of it. The play was filmed very creatively, and is not handicapped by "staginess" at all. It comes across as a fresh work. There were two directors, and as far as I can make out, the film version was directed by Larry Arrick, based upon the play as directed by Earl Dawson. The film is two hours long, in four acts, but time flies when one sees it, and it never drags. As I was watching it I nostalgically recalled the time in the mid-sixties when I saw a young actor named Dustin Hoffman make what I think was his first stage appearance at the American Place Theatre in Manhattan. (I have the programme somewhere but cannot recall the title of the play.) I loved the American Place Theatre in uptown Manhattan and went there whenever I could. It was run by an Anglican vicar named the Rev. Sidney Lanier, a distant cousin of Tennessee Williams (whose middle name was Lanier, of the Tennessee Laniers; the name is pronounced "laneer"). He was such a good and impressive man, and he had such excellent taste in drama. I got to know him fairly well. Every production there was exciting, and included plays by the poet Robert Lowell for instance. So imagine my surprise when at the end of this film I saw that the stage production had been at the American Place Theatre. How positively appropriate! The TV film was produced by Jac Venza, a truly wonderful man whom I also knew for a while. Venza was a dynamic culture hero, and one of Manhattan's most admired (and in some cases adored) cultural figures. This film explores the type of people who existed in 1890s Russia. It is sad, tragic, satirical, hilarious, and very profound. The entire cast are excellent. Susan Anspach was in the cast, an early cinematic appearance for her. It would be impossible to give a satisfactory brief summary of this complex film. But I recommend it to one and all. It is a typical product of the glory days of Manhattan's cultural scene in the sixties. Where are they now, all those wonderful fizzing talents of those days? All that genius? At the time this film was made Woody Allen was still a stand-up comic and had not yet made his first film. Dick Cavett was doing stand-ups in the Village. Joan Rivers was wondering if she could ever make it. Broadway had plenty of real plays on, not only musicals. At that time New York was the center of American culture. And it was a friendly place, congenial and welcoming. And what is most important of all, it was genuine, authentic and in earnest. See this film for a small taste of the real stuff that was going on then, and hope, just hope, that some of it might come back one day.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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NET Playhouse: The Journey of the Fifth Horse

Dustin Hoffman in The Journey of the Fifth Horse (1966)

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The Journey of the Fifth Horse

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