The Horsemasters

The Horsemasters (1961)

American students are having a difficult time at a prestigious English riding school. Dinah Wilcox is overly cautious because of memories of an accident, but Danny Grant gives her confidence. The strict, but admired, instructor fears she must sell her favorite horse because of school tradition, but the students end up taking up a collection to buy it back for her.

Date of release
1961-10-01
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Adventure, TV Movie
Director
William Fairchild

Casting

Interesting facts

The Horsemasters is a 2-part episode of the Disneyland TV show from 1961 which screened theatrically in some countries.

Production

It was based on a 1957 novel by Don Stanford. Film rights were bought by Walt Disney, who authorised a television film version to be shot in England. Disney made a number of films in England around this time, including Greyfriars Bobby and The Prince and the Pauper.

In August 1960 Annette Funicello and Tommy Kirk were cast. It was Funicello's first co-starring role in a feature.

The musical number, "Strummin' Song", performed by Annette Funicello and written by the Sherman Brothers marked the first song the Sherman Brothers ever wrote for a Disney project. (Although they had written songs for Annette Funicello previously.) It led to them being hired to write a song for The Parent Trap.

The film was shot on location in England. Filming started September 1960. Funicello and Kirk were sent to England several weeks before filming started to practise their riding.

It was the last of four films Janet Munro made for Disney. Filmink noted she "played a grumpier character than usual."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended