1961 - SCARLET SAILS, a Russian fairy tale

 From filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko comes this romantic fairy tale filmed on an elaborate scale.   Ptushko loads the film up with epic photography, large scale sets and characters who are more symbolic than real people.  It kind of tends to overwhelm the story but that's the way Ptushko liked to make films.

This is a very uncomplicated love story/fairy tale.  A young girl living on a coastal town, is filled with stories from some old geezer sailor about how she will meet her true love when he sails into port on a ship with scarlet sails,  Parallel to this plot is the story of a young aristocrat who longs for a life at sea  away from the stifling environment of his rich parents and estate.  Since the film is called Scarlet Sails  he ends up becoming captain of a ship and there isn't much doubt that this twosome will meet and fall in love. 

I always enjoy Ptuhko's films.  He usually worked on a vast canvas in widescreen and with lots of special effects and amazing large scale scenes.  The word subtle was not in his vocabulary.  Putshko's early films were in the stop motion field and I believe some of them are floating around on YouTube and might be worth a look.  

Scarlet Sails running time is short which is probably a good thing especially for such a simple fable.  This film is available on YouTube in a good copy

The screenwriters were  Alexandr Yurovsky and Semyon Nagorny, the running time is 88 minutes. 

1959 - THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE , aka Sampo

Another large scale mythological fantasy film from Aleksandr Ptushko.  This film complements my previous viewing of his large scale Russian epic Ilya Muromets.

The film was photographed in wide screen in Finland on some impressive wilderness locations.  The special effects are fairly decent for a 1959's film.

The story once again is a larger than life tale involving and evil witch capturing the sun which plunges the world into winter and darkness.

If you have a fondness for this type of epic film this and Ilya Muromets are worth a look

The screenplay is by Väinö Kaukonen Viktor Vitkovich and Grigori Yagdfeld.The film exists in many different versions, I watched the 91 minute edit.

1956 - ILYA MUROMETS, incredibly large scale Russian epic

 It's big, it's crazy, it's a large scale Russian epic and I do mean large scale. 

Everything about the film is larger than life, the widescreen photography, the cast of thousands, the overacting, the sets, you name it.

 

The film ends with a spectacular battle using an actual fire breathing dragon all of things. Very impressive and remember this is 1950's technology.

 

I've said it before but this a one of it's kind watching experience.

Running time 83 minutes. Written by Mikhail Kochnev.