The Fifth Horseman Is Fear
Director: Zbynek Brynych
Year Released: 1964
Rating: 1.0
A Jewish doctor who works as an office clerk in Czechoslovakia - because Jews at the time were 'forbidden' from practicing medicine - operates on a soldier for the Resistance during WWII, and goes on a mission to find him morphine. There are echoes of Kafka in this - namely the frenetic dinner party scene and inside the hospital - but the result is oddly negligible, and the characters are poorly developed stand-ins for real people. I guessed towards the beginning that the police would show up and that there would be an informant, yadda yadda - before arriving at this expected conclusion the picture dawdles and drags. I'm not sure I like the jazz score, either - or think it fits the mood.
