The Day the Earth Froze (1959)

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely Fantastic

The first must-see film of the year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Evil witch Louhi (wizened old crone Anna Orochko) kidnaps sweet fair maiden Annikki (lovely blonde Eva Kivi) from her peaceful village in order to get her rugged blacksmith and magician brother Ilmarinen (solid Ivan Voronov) to build her a magical device known as a sampo. After honest, decent woodmans Lemminkainen (likable Andris Oshin) and Ilmarinen rescue Annikki from Louhi's vile clutches, the wicked old hag retaliates by stealing the sun and putting the village in a permanent state of dark bitter cold. Director Aleksandr Ptushko relates the compelling and imaginative story at a steady pace and does a sound job of maintaining a pleasant, charming tone throughout. Moreover, there's a cool sense of quirky creativity evident in the narrative: Among the funky oddball touches are a field of deadly snakes that Lemminkainen has to plow, a killer flying cloak, a whiny talking tree and talking road, and the villagers making magic harps to combat the witch with. Best of all, the simple and straightforward plot about good versus evil proves to be quite engaging thanks to its refreshing lack of pretense. Igor Morozov's sweeping, dramatic score, Marvin Miller's melodious narration, the nifty special effects, and the crisp cinematography by Gennadi Tsekavy and Viktor Yakushev all further enhance the considerable appeal of this nice little movie.

This is going to start to sound confusing because I feel exactly the same about The Day the Earth Froze as I do the other two movies I've seen directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. My comments for The Magic Voyage of Sinbad and The Sword and the Dragon are applicable here (and this is where it gets confusing) – "'The Sword and the Dragon seemed to be filled with such broad overacting that it became absurd. I realize that the movie was made over 50 years ago in the Soviet Union. I understand that the movie is filled with messages and other pro-worker propaganda. And I appreciate the importance of the film as a relic of the communist system. But none of that means I have to actually like the movie.' If you change the title of the movie, this quote accurately reflects my feelings on The Magic Voyage of Sinbad." – This time, substitute The Day the Earth Froze and you've got a quote that accurately reflects my feelings on the movie. Also, I'll add that, if anything, The Day the Earth Froze is actually duller than the other two movies. Even with the Mystery Science Theater 3000 commentary, I had to wake myself at lest two times before I made it through.In the end, while these movies may appeal to some people, they're not my cup of tea. Just being honest here.

Dull, confusing Finnish piece of crap about some obscure bit of Norse mythology involving a weird magical device called a Sampo? The gist of the story seems to be that an extremely mannish(who was actually played by a woman!)witch kidnaps the pretty sister of a legendary(at least locally)smith and forced him to create one of these odd machines so that she can use it to make salt, or gold, or streusel, or something. The main hero is not the smith but this guy named Lemon-Kynin(or at least that's what it sounded like). This useless idiot tries to retrieve the Sampo after they save the girl, and manages to wiz it thoroughly. He ends up destroying the thing, after which the whole village celebrates his failure happily.There's some weird bits about the witch having the four winds in Hefty bags in her cavern/castle, and the 'hero's' Mom talking to a whiny complaining birch and an equally whiny bit of road about her idiot son. Then the witch 'steals' the sun in retaliation, don't ask me how she accomplished that. So everything gets really, really cold(so how is that any different from any other day in Finland?), and the villagers fashion harps(harps?!) and use them to defeat the witch and release the sun. That's what I call a Just Don't Ask situation. The color in the film is so washed out it looked like somebody spilled a can of 7-Up on it. The dubbing is atrocious, and the character names hysterical. While it isn't quite as naturally funny as Jack Frost, it's still pretty amusing.

Sampo......who can get that word out of their head??? It seems to be an infernal machine that makes gold, or salt, or flour, or something but whatever it does, everybody wants it and will go to any lengths to build one. This Scandanavian film has an unusual look to it but it appears that the print is faded, hence the washed out look. Or maybe it's because of all the snow and ice. But I must admit that I found it rather fascinating.The lead actors play it pretty much without emotion except for the witch who is a total pain in the butt. It took me a while to figure out if it was a man or a woman; regardless he/she was irritating. It moves along pretty slowly and there are times when it is difficult to figure out exactly what is going on.....that may be due to the terrible dubbing. I hate dubbing.....give me sub-titles anytime.The ending with the harps is insane. We should advise our military that harp music can be deadly and is a lot less messy than live ammunition. However, there is something rather endearing about this film that makes it worth watching. Of course, you need to see the MST3K version.... it is a lot more fun. Can you say Sampo?