Behold a Pale Horse is a 1964 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn. The story relates to the period in Spain and France twenty years after the Spanish Civil War.
Artiguez (Peck), a member of the defeated Republican forces, lives in exile in France and formerly conducted raids against the Franco government in Spain. Vinolas (Quinn), a Spanish police officer, desperately wants to capture or kill Artiguez.
A message is sent to Artiguez to come visit his dying mother in Spain. It is a trap. A priest (Sharif) is sent by the mother to tell her son not to come. Artiguez comes any way.
On Saturday night, September 26, 1964, my brother Paul and I attended a screening of Behold a Pale Horse at a movie theater in Center City Philadelphia. Just before the movie began, four large men sat down in the row directly in front of us.
Directly in front of me was Dick Modzelewski, a member of the Cleveland Browns football team that would play the hometown Eagles the next day. Even though I only saw him from the back, I recognized him from his brush hair cut. I was familiar with Modzelewski from his time with the New York football Giants, my favorite team.
The Browns beat the Eagles that Sunday. I was in attendance at Franklin Field and saw Modzelewski a second time. The Browns went on to win the NFL championship that year, 1964, the last time they did so.
I did not know that Modzelewski and I shared the name Blair, my first, his middle. I also didn't know that he went to the University of Maryland, class of 1953, where my son Bret went, class of 2007.
Modzelewski died in 2018 at the age of 87.
I was reminded of all this when I saw Behold a Pale Horse recently on YouTube for the first time in more than 60 years.
