Himself (archive footage)
Using newsreel footage, this Sportscope entry chronicles the race toward running's four-minute mile, highlighting several important contests. It starts in the 1920's, when Finland's Paavo Nurmi set the record for the distance at 4 minutes 10.4 seconds. It continues through Roger Bannister's first run under 4 minutes in 1954, and ends in spring 1956, when Australia's Joe Bailey became the first to break 4 minutes on US soil.
Symbolizing the destiny of man, Hora imposes her destiny on everyone. She appears to a petty bourgeois trying to escape from his mediocre life, to a frivolous mother, to a reveler in nightclubs, to a man stranded without money in a restaurant, to a young sportsman, to a singer tired of the selfishness of his listeners and to a condemned man. To each, she brings the imperative message of Time...
A poetic sports documentary featurette on a French middle distance runner popular during the start of the Depression, who represented his country in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.
