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NET PLAYHOUSE: THE JOURNEY OF THE FIFTH HORSE (TV)

Summary

One in this series of plays and films. In his first starring role on television, Dustin Hoffman recreates his Obie Award-winning performance as Zoditch, a lonely, minor functionary in a publishing house. This faithful adaptation of Ronald Ribman's acclaimed 1965 off-Broadway drama, loosely based on a short story by Ivan Turgenev and set in nineteenth-century Petersburg, concerns two superfluous men: Nikolai Chulkaturin, a sensitive young gentleman who deeply feels his isolation from all of mankind after he is rejected by the woman he loves, and Zoditch, a lowly but self-important first reader at a publishing house. When Zoditch reads the diary of the recently-deceased Chulkaturin, he reluctantly discovers similarities between Chulkaturin's sad life and his own. As the play opens, Zoditch becomes annoyed when Chulkaturin's servant, Terentievna, visits the firm and asks him to read her master's diary so that it can be published and she can receive some income.

At the same time, Zoditch becomes jealous when his late employer's lovely daughter Miss Grubov (with whom he is in love) returns from her father's funeral with his supervisor, Pandalevski. Pandalevski overhears Zoditch's refusal to read the diary and orders Zoditch to comply with Terentievna's request. At home, Zoditch mutters angrily to himself about the task at hand and is deeply troubled by jealous fantasies concerning Miss Grubov and Pandalevski. As Zoditch begins to read the diary, Chulkaturin's image appears before him and narrates the diary's contents, which we then see unfold before us. Attended to by his blood-letting doctor and his lawyer, twenty-nine-year-old Chulkaturin reveals his terminal illness. He makes the analogy between himself and a "fifth horse on the coach of life" and recalls his one brief moment of happiness, when he fell in love with Liza Ozhogin, the seventeen-year-old sister of a college friend. Chulkaturin's story is interrupted by Zoditch's maid, Feathers, who offers Zoditch extra coal for his freezing apartment. This leads Zoditch to fantasize that his landlady, Katerina Prolomnaya, is in love with him.

Later, his neighbor Gregory visits to complain about the extreme cold and his lack of coal. Zoditch refuses to help Gregory and asks him to leave, telling him that nobody ever offered him help when he needed it. As Zoditch continues reading the diary and making petty, pedantic, and sarcastic observations, Chulkaturin reappears to narrate the diary's anguished contents. Events in Chulkaturin's life are re-enacted, including his unsuccessful attempt to court Liza during the sweet summer in which his "heart stood in tune with every living thing"; his duel with a rival, Captain Ivan Petrovich, for her affections; and Petrovich's abandonment of Liza. Zoditch is distracted from his reading when his landlady, Katerina Prolomnaya, asks to see him. Zoditch deludes himself that the landlady wants to marry him and imagines the randy woman's attempted seduction while he recites a laundry list of chores he'd expect her to do and boasts of his assets; he is terrified by Katerina Prolomnaya's imagined passion. In reality, however, when he finally sees her, she only wants to tell him about a price increase for coal. He agrees to pay the increase and eloquently proposes marriage to his landlady, but she mocks him and cruelly rejects his proposal. Angry and hurt, Zoditch convinces himself that she used poor judgment. When Chulkaturin's story resumes, Liza's father gives him permission to marry the pregnant and deserted young woman, but Liza herself proposes to another man. Zoditch compares Chulkaturin's situation to his own with Miss Grubov and Pandalevski, and he is angered that Chulkaturin blames himself for losing Liza. At the drama's conclusion, Zoditch dismisses Chulkaturin's story as a tale of lies and distortions and rejects both the manuscript and the man. Zoditch finally confronts Chulkaturin and, despite having been rejected, convinces himself "I am the one that is loved" as Chulkaturin offers his hand.

Details

  • NETWORK: WNDT-TV (New York, NY) / NET National Educational Television / PBS forerunner
  • DATE: October 14, 1966 8:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:57:47
  • COLOR/B&W: B&W
  • CATALOG ID: T89:0255
  • GENRE: Drama
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Russia; Romance
  • SERIES RUN: WNDT (New York, NY) - TV series, 1966-1970
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Jac Venza … Producer
  • Virginia Kassel … Associate Producer
  • Larry Arrick … Director, Directed for television by, Directed for the stage by
  • Earl Dawson … Director, Directed for television by
  • John Howes … Direction (Misc.), Associate Director
  • Ronald Ribman … Writer
  • Ivan Turgenev … Based on the story by
  • Dustin Hoffman … Cast, Zoditch
  • Michael Tolan … Cast, Nikolai Alexeevich Chulkaturin
  • Susan Anspach … Cast, Miss Grubov and Liza Ozhogin
  • Lee Wallace … Cast, Pandalevski and Bizmionkov
  • Catherine Gaffigan … Cast, Katerina Prolomnaya
  • William H. Bassett … Cast, Rubin and Capt Ivan Petrovich
  • Charlotte Rae … Cast, Terentievna
  • Jack Aaron … Cast, Gregory
  • Susan Lipton … Cast, Miss Feathers and Volobrina
  • Mark Hammer … Cast, Dr Korvin
  • Nicholas Saunders … Cast, Mr. Ozhogin
  • Jim Doerr … Cast, Lt. Zimlin
  • Martha Greenhouse … Cast, Mrs. Ozhogin
  • Harry Miller … Cast, Lawyer Levinov
  • Patricia Stich … Cast, Tania
  • Ron Seka … Cast, an Officer
  • Brian Turkington … Cast, an Officer