Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Morozko (aka Jack Frost)

Published Dec 23, 2022, 11:01 AM

This week on Weirdhouse Cinema, Rob and Joe discuss the classic 1960s Russian fairy tale spectacular “Morozko,” better known to many fans as “Jack Frost.” It’s a tale of love, evil stepmothers, mushroom wizards, animal transformations, Baba Yaga and of course the Russian personification of winter, Morozko or Ded Moroz. 

Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema rewind. This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And Rob and I are out on holiday break this week, but we've got a great classic episode for you. This is our episode on Morosco a k a. Jack Frost, the the the Russo Finished fairy Tale from Another Universe. It's uh it, what can I even say? I'm speechless. It's you're gonna love it. Yeah, It's a magical film that I think people of all all times and ages can really get into. It's it has become for my family our Thanksgiving viewing tradition. And so this is the Weird House Cinema episode where we discussed the film. Uh. This was a lot of fun, and I remember I really enjoyed hearing after the fact from folks who grew up with this movie, either within the Mystery Science theaters, the thousand traditions tradition, or outside of that tradition, uh, you know, watching it on on TV and Europe, or or being familiar with it doing due to um a family history. So we heard from a number of people regarding this film and it was a delightful experience. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind a production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamp and I'm Joe McCormick, and this is gonna be I think it's gonna be the last new episode of Weird House Cinema for the year before we return in the new year. And it's pretty exciting because we essentially have one last holiday selection here. It's one that is near and dear to my heart. I can safely say at this point it's it's my esteem for this film has built up over the years, over the decades, and I feel like I'm I'm at a level of just maximum appreciation for it now Christmas with the Cranks. No, no, uh no, we're gonna be talking about the nineteen sixties Russian fairy tale spectacular Moroscoe, better known to many fans in the West as Jack Frost. I think it's sometimes called Frosty or Father Frost. You might recall our mention of this film in the in past episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind that touch on things like mushroom culture and Russian folklore. Now, I did not know that it was called Frosty, but that would make sense. Because immediately I think of how some people I don't do this, by the way, but some people who get the frosty is at Windy's dipped the French fries in them. And this movie is very much like that. It is a is like a salty fried potato product dipped into something sweet and cold on the tongue. Uh. It is a mash up of different kinds of fairytale flavors and genres. It is a scatter gun blast of of weird magical elements of folklore. Now, of course, if you grew up in the United States, particularly during the ninth nineties, then your introduction to this film I think it was likely through Mystery Science Theater three thousand, episode eight thirteen, which aired inn Uh, this was a riff of this film. Um. But if you grew up in Russia or in parts of Eastern Europe, then this movie was likely far more than a weird oddity for your amusement. Uh. This may have been your holiday viewing tradition, either around Christmas or New Year's. In fact, in the late nineties, I remember that this would have been not too long after it actually an MST episode actually aired. I was I instantly loved it. Um, I couldn't necessarily, you know, explain why I loved it. And that's when I think the beauties about Mystery Science Theater three thousand is. Like I've said before, I feel like you kind of showed many of us that these sorts of films existed and taught us at least some ways of appreciating them. Um. But but anyway, I really liked the episode. And I was hanging out with um a friend from high school and a are An exchange student from the Czech Republic who was staying with that friend at the time, and for some reason I either described this episode to them, or perhaps I actually showed them part of the episode, like I put it on a VHS tape or something, and Marcatta, the student told me, instantly recognized it and said, oh, this this is the film we watch every year. This is our Christmas tradition, Um, that they show it on TV every Christmas, and it's just an essential part of the holiday, you know, as as Christmas e as the baby Jesus lowering gifts from Heaven on a golden string. Now, on one hand, that is very strange to me, because I like you first encountered this on Mystery Science Theater, where I you know, the mindset I was in when I first saw it was what a you know, strange mushroom to find in the forest, Like it was just this bizarre oddity from from out of the nineteenth dimension. But now seeing it again, especially without the Mystery Science Theater, just watching the movie on its own, it has the same kind of weird texture as a as a lot of Christmas classics that that we did grow up with, like, um, I don't know, like the stop motion Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and things like that, except more earthy. I mean, this feels more rooted in in actually in real folklore and and archetypes and imagery that goes way back. Yeah, this this film is Is this not one of those films where you're like, Okay, I guess I need to research my Russian history or my Russian folklore before I watched this so I know what's going on. No, all that is great and and helps you appreciate it more. But but all of this like speaks on on a level that I feel like like most of viewers, especially the the sort of intended viewer, the child either the actual child or the child at heart will instantly get what's going on throughout most of this film. And in a case in point, um, this film has been a viewing that the MSTD version of this has been a a ritual of of my wife and eyes for many years now. We watched it every Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving me, I believe, we introduced my son to it and he was like, Okay, this is interesting. And this year he said, I said, hey, do you guys want to watch Jack Frost? And he said, yeah, but I think we should watch it quote without all the jokes. So he wanted it unriffed. And so I was delighted to try because I've been wanting to try that out as well, because I knew at this point that that, you know, the grubby visual um film grade that we have in the MST episodes is not a proper reflection of the film. Uh So I really wanted to watch a high definition version of it anyway, and so we we watched it and it was an absolute delight. Everybody enjoyed it. He loved it. Um. So, you know, nothing against the MST version. I think it's a lot of fun. But if that is the only version of Morosco you've watched, then you're missing out on just so many extra dimensional colors. I think you're entirely correct. I don't remember when we had this conversation, but you were telling me this, uh sometime away back and uh so I finally watched it in in a higher definition transfer. And this movie is beautiful. Uh, it is, truly. It's it's colorful. A lot of the locations are gorgeous. That I mean, they picked really wonderful wilderness settings, especially in the first half of the movie that takes place in the in the spring or summer, I guess. And uh so there are these hills and forests and caves and meadows and uh and and the colors of the costumes just pop. Uh. It's really wonderful. Yeah, it's um like, it just transforms the film in so many ways. To watch it in this this full colorful version. Uh. You know, for starters, like if you have especially to Western viewers, you have these scenes of uh, you know, people in Babushka's uh you know, wandering about in the woods. Uh. If you have drab colors, that takes on a drab quality. But when it is so bright and so beautiful in the babushkas are so you know, vibrantly uh decorated. Um. You know, it paints an entirely to picture of of like rural living. It it actually allows you to taste the the the folkloric ideal. Uh. That's clearly this film is celebrating. You know. It's funny. I mentioned the Rudolph the Red Nose Reinder your thing. I just looked it up and it came out apparently the same year as Asco, both nineteen sixty four films. Okay, yeah, and it is weird with with Moroscoe. I've I've seen different dates for it, Like sometimes I see nineteen sixty four, sometimes I see sixty five. Um, but at any rate, that is the time period mid nineteen sixties, uh that it emerges. So yeah, this is essentially a big budget folklore spectacular for children, for the whole family, and it has everything. It has the personification of winter, it has the the evil which Baba Yaga and their chicken footed house. You have these troll like bandits milling about, you have magical animals, you have mushroom spirits, arranged marriages, folkloric lodge, and just much much more. So in terms of an elevator pitch for this movie, I the only the best thing I could come up with is looking for a change in life, consider wandering into the Russian folkloric wilderness and see what happens. The other way, I'd frame it is always be polite to magical old people you meet in the woods. Absolutely, I mean, that's that's just universal. All right, Maybe we need to hit some trailer audio. All right, we's playing hide and seek with me? Not oh you yes, are you a sorcerer? Granddaddy? I dabblings us for a little, But the truth is that I get bored. You get bored. I get bored. Come on, play with me. Let's play hide and seek together with you? Play hide and seek? Yes you're joking, I catch you in no time. Pick so, yes, I think so if you catch me, I'll give you a well bent bow and some nice eat ross. That a bargain. It's a bargain, Father Mushroom. Okay, just kidding that that wasn't the trailer, because apparently we we don't know if there is a trailer that has any like English narration. But I think there's a trailer at least with some singing yeah, yeah, And it's possible in missing something because I did find trailers with English language for other films from this particular director, who will get to in a bit now. Before we get to the connections, we do want to talk just a little bit about about folk tales and Russian folk tales and the Russian folk tale that is at the key at the center of all this UM. But before we do so, I wanted to just mention a few quick points that are actually from our episode on the list she uh from last year that concerns Russian folklore. UH. These were points made by Jack V. Haney in the the excellent book or series of books and mythology and Anthology of Russian folk Tales. So, first of all, he contends that more folk tales may have emerged from the Russian people than any other UH do in part to the fact that rural oral traditions lasted well into the twentieth century. He also says that Russia has the second largest number of tale types according to the International Classification System, and within these tales, who find lots of animal stories. Frequent villains include Baba Yaga, which is nasty, dwarves, shape shifting magicians. However, Baba Yaga is also sometimes a donor or a helper, so you know, some sometimes she's a she's a villain. Sometimes I guess she's kind of at an anti hero or something, uh, somebody that begrudgingly helps our hero out. And that's good to keep in mind in this film because she's kind of both at times. Um frequent characters in general, You've got Baba Yaga and her Hut the Firebird, uh Coshi, the Deathless uh Ivan. Different versions of Ivan pop up, and this is key. The hero frequently wanders through the woods at some point and receives help in his quest from an animal or some sort of supernatural aid. Now, the movie Morosco or Jack Frost actually seems to smash together a number of different fairytale archetypes. But I would say that the the core, the core of the story, the core situation, and backbone is based on a classic Russian fairy tale known as moros Co or Father Frost, which appeared in printed folk tale collections going back at least as far as the nineteenth century, maybe before then, and it appears to be a variant of an extremely widespread folk tale archetype the essence of which is that there are two girls, two sisters or step sisters, a kind one who is rewarded in a wicked one who has punished. Now, I thought it would be great to actually, just uh, to read through a version of the Father Frost fairytale. And this is the version collected by the Scottish poet and anthropologist Andrew Lying in the nineteenth century. So, Robert, are you game to read this folk tale with me and then see how it relates to the movie. Let's do it. So this is Andrew Lang's rendition of the story of King Frost. There once upon a time was a peasant woman who had a daughter and a stepdaughter. The daughter had her own way and everything and whatever she did was right in her mother's eyes. But the poor stepdaughter had a hard time let her do what she would. She was always blamed and got small thanks for all the trouble she took. Nothing was right, everything wrong, And yet if the truth were known, the girl was worth her weight in gold. She was so unselfish and goodhearted. But her stepmother did not like her, and the poor girl's days were spent in weeping, for it was impossible to live peacefully with the woman. The wicked shrew was determined to get rid of the girl by fair means or foul, and kept saying to her father, Send her away, old man, Send her away anywhere, so that my eye as shan't be plagued any longer by the sight of her, or my ears tormented by the sound of her voice. Send her out into the fields, and let the cutting frost to do for her. In vain did the poor old father weep and implore her pity. She was firm, and he dared not gainsay her. So he placed his daughter in a sledge, not even daring to give her a horsecloth to keep herself warm with, and drove her out into the bare open fields, where he kissed her and left her, driving home as fast as he could, that he might not witness her miserable death. Deserted by her father, the poor girl sat down under a fir tree at the edge of the forest and began to weep silently. Suddenly she heard a faint sound. It was King Frost, springing from tree to tree and cracking his fingers as he went. At length he reached the fir tree beneath which she was sitting, and with a crisp, crackling sound, he alighted beside her and looked at her lovely face. Well maiden, he snapped out. Do you know who I am? I am King Frost, King of the Red Noses. All healthy, you great King, answered the girl in a gentle, trembling voice. Have you come to take me away? Are you warm a maiden? He replied? Quite warm, King Frost, she answered, though she shivered as she spoke. Then King Frost stooped down and bent over the girl, and the crackling sound grew louder, and the air seemed to be full of knives and darts. And again he asked, maiden, are you warm? Are you warm, beautiful girl, And though her breath was almost frozen on her lips, she whispered gently, quite warm, King Frost. Then King Frost gnashed his teeth and cracked his fingers, and his eyes sparkled, and the crackling, crisp sound was louder than ever, and for the last time he asked her, maiden, are you still warm? Are you still warm? Little love? And the poor girl was so stiff and nun that she could just gasp still warm. King. Now her gentle, courteous words, and her uncomplaining ways touched King Frost, and he had pity on her, and he wrapped her up in furs and covered her with blankets, and he fetched a great box in which were beautiful jewels and a rich robe embroidered in gold and silver. And she put it on and looked more lovely than ever, and King Frost stepped with her into his sledge with six white horses. Okay, here we got intermission on the folk tail. So so it seems like not complaining about being cold worked out really good for her. She was humble, right. I think the point is supposed to be that she's like, she's so kind and polite that she won't even that she won't even complain about the cold, maybe because it would be like she's out in his domain, and it would be like, you know, offensive to complain about the cold to Grandfather Frost when you're out of it's kind of like going to somebody's house and saying it smells bad. That's the way I made sense of it, because otherwise I don't really know what it is that's so kind about saying you're warm when you're not. I think it's that she's in his house right In the meantime, the wicked stepmother was waiting at home for news of the girl's death and preparing pancakes for the funeral feast, and she said to her husband, old man, you had better go out into the fields and find her daughter's body and bury her. Just as the old man was leaving the house, the little dog under the table began to bark, saying, I don't know how to do dog voice? Okay here? Uh? Oh the hell you do you know how to do a dog voice? I do? I do a scooby doo voice. Here. Yes, your daughter shall live. Your daughter shall live to be your delight. Her daughter shall die this very night. Hold your tongue, you foolish beasts. Go to the woman. There's a pancake for you, but you must say her daughter shall have much silver and gold. His daughter is frozen, quite stiff and cold. But the doggie ate up the pancake and barked, saying, his daughter shall wear a crown on her head. Her daughter shall die on wood on wed And then old woman tried to coax the doggie with more pancakes and to terrify it with blows, but he barked on, always repeating the same words. And suddenly the door creaked and flew open, and a great heavy chest was pushed in, and behind it came the stepdaughter, radiant and beautiful in address, all glittering with silver and gold. For a moment the stepmother's eyes were dazzled. Then she called to her husband, old man, yoked the horses at once into the sledge, and take my daughter into the same field, and leave her on the same spot exactly. And so the old man took the girl and left her beneath the same tree where he had he had parted from his daughter. In a few minutes, King Frost came past, and looking at the girl, he said, are you warm, maiden? What a blind old fool you must be to ask such a question. She answered angrily, can't you see that my hands and my feet are nearly frozen? Then King Frost sprang to and fro in front of her, questioning her and getting only rude, rough words in reply, till at last he got very angry and cracked his fingers and ashed his teeth and froze her to death. But in the hut, her mother was waiting for her to return, and as she grew impatient, she said to her husband, get out the horses, old man, and go and fetch her home. And see that you are careful not to upset the sledge and lose the chest. Is the mother becoming irish? I think, yeah, she might be. She might be. I mean, as we'll discuss, like, it's impossible to read these lines without thinking of the the actors in this movie, and particularly the English dub of those characters. And uh yeah, so, and then I'm also drifting in my accent here. Okay, okay, But then so we got a couple more lines. So the dog beneath the table began to bark, saying, your daughter has frozen, quite stiff and cold, and never shall have a chest full of gold. Don't tell such wicked lies, scouted the woman. There's a cake for you now say her daughter shall marry a mighty king. But at that moment the door flew open, and she rushed out to meet her daughter, and as she took her frozen body in her arms, she too was chilled to death. And that's the end. Man, These old fairy tales are so mean, yeah they this is, as is often the case. Yeah, the old tales didn't play around they they were. They were often rather brutal in ways that you might expect a film adaptation to then soften things a bit and maybe not go so hard not people, especially if they're not, you know, doing anything particularly evil. But even if they are, like Frost is just going around just murdering everyone. Um, how how are the children going to connect with that? Right? So the skeleton of this folk tale absolutely appears in the movie. But but yeah, like you say, the the edges are dulled a little bit, so so the the spoiled mean daughter is is not frozen to death along with her mother. Instead, she's just sort of uh made a fool of Yeah, yeah, and shein only there's just now that we've read through the story, like, I admired the script even more because they found great ways to soften the thorny nous of the story, like instead of the instead of the old man being like, well I better, I better do what she says and and abandoning his daughter to die in the in the in the cold, they do an alteration on that where he is going to do that, he's driving her out into the wilderness to abandon her. But then he has a change of heart and says, nope, I'm gonna go back and give her a piece of my mind. But but but Nostinka is so good, she's so good she can't see her her father go back and and and you know, and and watch the stepmother unleash hell on him for disobeying her. So she slips off and goes out into the wilderness to die in her own right, she decides she's going to freeze to death in the woods because she doesn't want to make trouble, right, I would say, by the way, you know, I'm a sucker for stories that have a moral about being kind and stuff. But that's that's a little too kind. I mean, I think it's okay. I think it's okay to not want to freeze to death, even if that's going to create some headaches for your dad. Yeah. But but like, like you said that, the skeleton of the story is there, but then other elements are added in to to give it. You know that this sort of an epic full motion picture feel. Baba Yaga is thrown in because she's a delightful villain. Um, you have a male hero thrown in in the form of Van, you have various other high jinks going on, a little bit of a sleeping beauty trope thrown in as well. Oh yeah, Morosco's got it all all right. Well, we'll come back to the plot here in just a minute, but let's take a moment to discuss the various people involved in this um because because you, like me, may not be familiar with any of the people that were involved in the making of Morosco. I've been watching them for years, but I didn't really know anything about them, and it was, it was it was really fun to research this a little bit the other day. So the director of this film is Alexander row Uh. That's often spelled UM r O U for in English, but you also see it spelled r o w e uh. So he was born in nineteen o six died in nineteen seventy three, legendary Soviet filmmaker of Irish and Greek heritage. So his father was an Irish engineer working in Russia. And U and uh and and and uh. Apparently I think there's some story about the father ended up like leaving the family uh in Russia. Uh. At any rate, Alexander grew up, you know, as as a Russian as a as a and then and then working his way into what would become the Gorky Film Studio and just becoming a mainstay there. He directed twenty fantasy films, mostly based on Russian folklore and Russian literature, and also some non fantasy films thrown in there as well. But this was his, his his thing um, and you know, certainly that's such a rich well to draw from. His films include such notable works as A Wish upon a Pike from nineteen thirty eight. This one features Czar Gorok and the Princess who never smiled. There's That's at least the Beautiful from nineteen forty. This has the Bobba Yaga in it as well as the frog Princess. There's the Humpbacked Horse in nineteen forty one film that has has Van in it. There's Cache the Immortal in nineteen forty five film that has a caste the Immortal. There's Firewater and Brass Pipes from nineteen sixty eight that has cost Babba Yaga Vodiano the water Spirit as well as apparently some were wolves. There's Barbera the Fair with the Silken Hair from nineteen seventy which has the Underwater King or the Underwater Zre in it being known as Chuto Yudo. And then there's The Golden Horns from nineteen seventy three, which was I believe his last film and I think another director had to had to complete it for him. But that is a film centered around the Bobby Yaga as well. Well. It is no was surprised at all that this filmmaker has a long running uh affair of the heart with with the Witch of the Woods, because the Babba Yaga in this movie is wonderfully realized. She lives in a house that walks around on legs, and all of her scenes are just pitch perfect. Yeah, all of these films feature similar folkloric threads, uh you know, because for example, Bobby Yaga pops up in four of them, um Yvan is in two of them, k is in two of them, and some of the same actors pop up in several of his films as well. Discuss So so basically, the deal seems to be that that Row popularized the epic folkloric fantasy film in Russia and set a standard that that that is that was certainly emulated by other directors of the time period, but it's also still reflected to this day in Russian cinema, including the films of the Walt Disney Company c I S, which produced the live action Russian fantasy films The Book of Masters in two thousand nine and the Lost Warrior trilogy from two thousands seventeen through. I believe the third film in that saga's coming out in two These are films that feature most of the characters that I just highlighted, So, you know, just a modern retelling of these various folkloric stories with modern cinematic tools and styles. I gotta say, I've never heard of any of these. Um, yeah, these are I have not seen any of them, but now I would like to check out some of them. I looked at some trailers and some clips, and uh yeah, I'm I'm impressed. I mean, apparently you have the likes of Steven Spielberg, who has spoken admirally about Row in the past. So uh, for for those who know, uh, this guy was a master. Now, as far as the screenwriters go, there are there are two credited screen Lighters writers. The first one is Nicolay Erdman, who lived nineteen hundred through nineteen seventy a Russian playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best known for the suicide Uh this is a play, and he turned to his cinema when his playwriting career ran a foul of Soviet authorities. And then there's Michael Voltan who lived nineteen o two through, a Russian screenwriter who frequently worked with Erdman. Together they also wrote Rose, Firewater and Brass Pipes of Open also wrote the nineteen sixty one animated film The Key, which apparently ran a foul of Soviet sensors due to its criticism of social conformity. Right now, onto the cast. Let's start at the top with the actor who plays Morosco, who plays Father Frost. This is Alexander Kivyallya who lived nineteen o five through nineteen seventy six, a Russian actor of stage in screen. He worked with Rowan several different films, including Golden Horns and Firewater and Brass Pipes, as well as the really interesting sounding row film titled Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors, which apparently involves a mirror world and crooked mirrors that brainwash people through these various subtle changes in reality. UM, I may have to look that one up. He was also in Rose n One The Night Before Christmas, based on a Nicolay Gogol story. He does not play Santa Claus in this in case anyone's curious. For anybody wondering, is Father Frost Santa Claus, Well, no, but there's some significant aesthetic overlap. Yeah, yeah, they it's enough to where you sometimes see people described describe Father Frost has the quote the Russian Santa Claus, which is which is incorrect. But they're kind of cut from the same cloth. You know, there are similarities once you get into the amorphous you know, collective unconscious. Um, you know, I guess you could make an argument that they're essentially the same being. Both have long white beard, both right around in the sleigh, Both are associated with the winter months. Both have a scepter that freezes people solid upon touching. They both have a big beard, though, and then sometimes they bring gifts. Well, no, he's okay, Father Frost says the scepter, but Santa Claus has the flower to disappear if you know, well, yes, if you're watching um, yeah, you're watching Santa Claus. Uh, the well, that's the nineteen sixties movie as well. Wasn't it that Santa Claus versus the devil? All right, the rest of the cast. So you have Nastinka, the beautiful, perfect girl, the the uh you know, the step daughter, played by Natalia Sack who was born in ninety eight, still alive as of this recording. A former Russian figure skater and ballet dancer. She was also in Rows, Firewater and Brass Pipes. Hard to miss. She has just enormous eyes. Right, So not Nastica or Nastia corresponds to the good sister, the good daughter in the folk tale, the one who's who's very nice and polite and is treated very harshly by her by her hateful stepmother. Now let's let's go ahead and talk about the bad sister, the step sister. Here. This is Mafushka, the step sister, played by in A Chakova born nine and uh, I have to say that this was the performance that I always admired, knowing nothing about this actor. Like she's tremendous in this like just you know this this uh snarling, but but at times at times kind of vulnerable, um uh human being, you know, like like she she is an outrageous caricature. But at times you feel for her too. Well. She's detestable but also pitiable in the way that all spoiled children are, because you know, like there's nothing more revolting than a spoiled brat child, but you know that, you know they were made that way, and you get to see how her her how her mother's sort of abusive doting causes her to be the way she is, so you feel bad for her. Yeah, and you know, given how good this performance is, it it probably shouldn't come as a surprise, but it might surprise some people to know that, Okay, this was only her third screen role, but Chakova went on to have this just highly successful acting career in Russia and is highly acclaimed. Like she's essentially the the Russian Meryl Streep, Like she's that level of successful. If you if you look up lists of of like famous Russian UM actresses, unless it's you know, some sort of just modern list it's not taking in the like the full scope of Russian cinema, you you may very well find her on that list. She was born in nineteen forty three, uh still active today. UM she is. She's married to acclaimed Russian director Gleb Penvalov and has started several of his historical films, including three Vassa. She's just wonderful in this every moment on screen, she's doing something interesting now. The character of Ivan, the male hero, was played by Edward Izatov, who was born in nineteen thirty six died in two thousand and three. Tall, handsome Russian actor whose career lasted throughout the sixties and seventies, but was apparent Lea derailed in the early eighties due to some manner of financial or real estate scandal. I couldn't get the full details on it, but he was also in Rows, firewater and brass Pipes. All right. Then there's the step mom. This is played. This part was played by Vera Altaskaya, who was born in nineteen nineteen died in nineteen seventy eight, another established Russian actor and a frequent cast member in Row films. In her later career, apparently she found her niche playing this, this exact sort of domineering moms step mom character. So apparently this is she. She had a later career based on this type of character. Wicked stepmother for life, yes, all right? And then Baba Yaga the witch. Oh this is such a great character and such a great screen presence in this film. She is played by the actor um uh G Glory mil Jar who lived nineteen o three through nineteen So this this guy was a comedic Russian actor who also seems to have specialized in playing supernatural folkloric villains. He played Baba Yaga five times for for Alexander Rowe, and he played um Kashkai the Immortal something like four times. He also played Judo Uto, He played our um Goroko, various devils and demons. So if you needed, if you needed somebody to play this kind of menacing but also slightly comedic villain, uh, this was your guy. He he has given it his all. I don't want to cheapen it by this comparison, but for like modern American audiences think like a level of commitment to to a frantic physical performance, sort of like like Jim Carey in the nineties. Yeah, yeah, like if in like in a sense, he's kind of like, you know, a big name monster player, you know, like a Boris Karlaf But imagine if if Boris Karloff were merged with you know, you know, you know, with one of these just outlandish physical comedians. Uh, this is what you might have, all right. We also have an interesting bandit chief character who pops up in this played by Anatoly Kubotsky who lived nineteen o eight through two thousand and one. Character a Russian character actor who often played heavies and bandits and kings and frequently worked with Alexander Rowe. Uh. He's pretty fun in this. It is not a huge part, but you know, he has a lot of you know, snarling of scenes where you know he's he's staring off and and uh off screen and looking very suspicious and uh and greedy. So it's it's a fun role. He has a great line that really sticks in my head where in the English dub after Van has like apparently magically thrown all of the bandits clubs up in the sky so that they don't fall back down until months later, the bandit chief just says, that's odd. I love it. Yeah, alright, I just one more name to minh and since we do tend to to to point out who did the music, Uh, it was an individibal by the name of Nicolay Budashkin who lived nineteen ten through I don't know much about him, but he also did the music on through fire Water and brass pipes. Uh, and yeah, I mean the score is delightful in this it's uh, it's it's it's beautiful and magical. Now. I don't really remember this introduction from the Mystery Science Theater version. Maybe it's in there. But the movie kicks right off letting you know it's a fairy tale, because it begins with with a grandmother sort of opening some like the wooden windows, the wooden shutters of a playhouse, and she leans into the window and and says the you know, once upon a time an old man and an old woman lived in a village with their daughters. So it's like you're you're being told a a fairy hill. Buy your babushka, right, you know, before bed or something. Yeah, yeah, this this is a great opening, And apparently the exact same opening occurs in other Row films with with I don't know if it's the same grandmother type character, but a very similar storyteller um saying yes, this is a folk tale, let me tell it to you. And uh, yeah, this was cut from the MS T three K version, I'm sure for for time as they frequently did with those films. But I also love it because if you remove her from the film, there aren't really any like nice old Russian ladies in the movie. You know, it's like mostly the evil step mom, a you know, a would be mother in law who's also kind of scheming, and then a matchmaker who, um, I don't know. I guess the matchmaker isn't isn't terrible, but still she lacks the charm of this this grandmotherly storyteller who's here to entertain us. I think, I think Yvonne's mom is you want to meet her for a second, But she like gives him, she gives him good advice that he doesn't obey though he should have right And she also, I mean, she's just like like she's desperately like trying to to tell him to live his his his life correctly as he's leaving the house. So I don't know, it's it's a very desperate scene and not really a warm one. I guess you give me a nice blind lady later on, but but nothing like the grandma here who is speaking directly to us. No, but you've got to give a shout out to Vaughan's mom and she's right about everything. He's like, I'm running off to cause trouble. I'm I'm gonna go rolling through the woods, getting into getting in all kinds of mischief. And she's like, wait, respect your elders. If he'd only listened to her, she could have saved him a lot of grief. But isn't that always the way? Well, anyway, so you get the introduction that she says, you know, she she explains the situation, which is similar to the beginning of the original folk tale about grandfather Frost. You get the two daughters. Uh, Nastica was the daughter of the old man. Marfushika was the daughter of the old woman, and uh. And then you fade to these idyllic scenes of rural life. So you've got sunrise on a river that's very smooth, in an old house deep in the woods, and you see the family sleeping inside, or at least most of the family, because the first character we get to see is Marfushka. Again, this is played by by inachure Cova. She is sleeping. And so there's a thing I was wondering about, whether this is a real feature of I don't know this time and place. Something you would find in these rural Russian houses, or if this is saying something about the character, but she's like a like a teenager sleeping in what appears to be kind of a crib, like it's like a wooden box. I think that maybe rocks And I wonder if that's supposed to be like, oh, she's spoiled like a baby. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I always thought it was just, yeah, she's kind of a big baby, so of course she's in something like a crib. But it's possible that this is some sort of traditional box bed. I know we have some we have some Russian listeners and listeners with uh with with Russian roots or or or a greater knowledge of of Russian customs. Perhaps you can chime in on this. Is this something that an adult would actually be sleeping in or is this just about telling us that she's a big baby? Well, I think something that has got to be true to the original, to the Russian setting is the fact that she is being bothered by mosquito. Is they're they're buzzing around her face, you know, I hear the mosquitoes can be really rough h in the Russian woods and so they're they're buzzing around and her her mother wakes up and she sees what's going on. Oh no, my my poor baby is being bothered by mosquitoes. So she wakes up her husband and makes him sit at Marfushika's bedside to wave a branch over her face to keep the mosquitoes away while she and she also gives her a lollipop to enjoy while she's sleeping. Is that Is that normal or is that just a fairytale thing? I don't know. I mean, all all babies would love to have a lollipop whilst sleeping, but you know, the only parents are not going to give it to them. Uh, But yeah, I don't know. I can't speak to that. But the the interesting thing about the lollipop is that, again the MST three K version of this, the video quality, certainly on versions that lasted after the show went away. Initially, the video quality is so poor that I all I saw was red lollipop. It wasn't until I watched a nice HD version of it that I saw that the red lollipop is in the shape of a rooster, and so I I looked into this. So it's like, why why Is it in the shape of a rooster? Is this a thing? And yes, it is indeed a thing. There's this If something is in this film, I guess there's a very good chance that it. I mean, it's there for a reason. Um. There's a whole history to this. According to the website Russia Beyond Russian lollipops or leadin its uh date back to the thirteenth century. The rooster is there a tradition. There are other molds that are used other animals, but that the rooster is the main one because the rooster is a quote magical and regal bird in Russian fairy tales, and by the nineteenth century it was especially a big deal. So they're not always red in color. I think this might have to do with the use of beat sugar, or perhaps then using beat sugar and then beat juice to to color it. Uh so. But sometimes they're more of a of a brown color, and sometimes they're more yet more caramel colored in nature. But they're still around. You can still buy them. You can order them online. Um, and they're still sold in Russian candy shops. Oh my god, what a good Christmas gift. Getting somebody a bunch of more Fushkill lollipops. Yeah, I really, after I've learned this, it's like, oh man, now I want one. I don't know if I want to sleep with it. That you know I want one. You know, I've outgrown certain concerns about looking cool and there's something, you know, like dignity questions I don't really care about. But I will not eat the rooster lollipop. That's that's a line that will not just in general or only at night. Never what, well, I'll have to get you one. You might change your mind, Okay, But anyway, I think we're supposed to get the message. Okay, you know they're giving her a lollipop all she's sleeping, So I guess Marfushka is a spoiled brad even win asleep. But then meanwhile we get the mother going into the next room to see her stepdaughter, Nastia, who again corresponds to the good daughter from the folk tale The Nice One and Uh. Nastia is staying up through the night to knit a pair of stockings that her stepmother asked her to make for Marfushka, and when she comes in and finds her hard at work, the stepmother is still not satisfied. She She's like, I told you to make the stockings, but I didn't tell you to click your needles like that. You'll wake up, my darling girl. So Nastia has sent outside in the cold to finish knitting, and the stepmother is so mean. She says, the stockings have to be finished by the time the rooster crows, and she says, otherwise, my precious little girl, I will tear your braid off. There's a lot of threats of braid violence in this movie, yeah, the removal of braids. And then, of course it's revealed that the stepsister does not have an actual braid, she has a store bought braid. So, yeah, I guess you know commentary on you know which daughter is legitimately beautiful and good and which one is artificially beautiful and good, which, of course is based entirely on hair length. We can't respect that enough, right, Yes, hair length directly corresponds to moral virtue. Yeah, but I like, I noticed the little thing. This is also in keeping with the fairy tale, at least the version chronicled by Andrew Lang, which is that the family dog barks at the wicked stepmother when she's being mean Dynastia, so like the dog is taking nastias side, just like in the story the dog takes the good daughter's side. Back at home, She's like, you know, I'll give you a pancake if you say that that the good daughter is bad and the bad daughter is good and the dogs like, no, I won't. Yeah, that the dog is important in this movie as our other animals, like, they're not just they're not just hanging around like they have agency, even if the movie didn't go to the degree of having them actually speak with dubbed human voices, though some of the animals in the movie do speak. Yeah, like do they speak? As I was trying to remember just now, I was like, the pig speak, does the cat speak? The rooster speaks? You remember, Oh, yes, that's right, that's coming right up. So the sun's about to rise and a rooster hops up into frame. Remember the stepmother was like, Okay, if you don't finish these stockings by the time the rooster crows, I'm gonna tear your braid off. And then uh, Nastya goes and negotiates with the rooster. She's like, give me a little time, please, pretty rooster. Uh, I guess she's flattering him, or no, she's not, probably not flattering because she's she's good and honest. So she just genuinely thinks the rooster is pretty and throws that in there just to be nice, and the rooster, actually talking with the human voice, says, uh, sorry, roosters only obeyed the sun. So you'll have to go. You have to you gotta talk to my boss. You gotta, you gotta go deal with the rosy finger Dawn. So she goes to plead with rosy Finger Dawn. And she so she goes up on this hillside with these trees behind her, and it's like this crest crest of grassy hill that rises up by the river, and she faces the sun and pleads with it, and apparently the sun is so moved by pity for her it sinks back down over the horizon and gives her time to finish the stockings. And I guess I think this was the first moment in the movie where I was like, huh, Like, so far it's been interesting and funny, but this scene is actually quite beautiful. Yeah, yeah, And I have to admit when we recorded our our current, I guess is the current series on time travel fiction. I kept thinking of this like this, in some ways is kind of a folkloric time travel into the past. That the literal turning back of the clock, but not the clock on the wall, but the clock, the celestial clock, the great celestial clock of the the the the actual movement of the sun. It's like Joshua stilling the sun in the sky so he could finish his battle. Yeah, and it works. So so it works. She she has to him to finish the stockings before the brewster crows. But you know what, the wicked stepmother is just still not impressed. She comes out and she's like, so you did it on time. Why you wicked little viper, You wicked little witch. I'll give you much harder work next time. Uh. You know, which is relatable dynamic to a lot of people. Maybe, I'm sure at some point in your life everybody might have had the experience of trying really hard, you know, working hard to complete some task that seemed impossible, only to discover that doing so is maybe not really rewarded or appreciated. Instead makes people expect even more of you in the future. Maybe that's more often a work thing than than a family thing. I don't know, well, I've encountered shades of it when in Dungeons and Dragons, like when the dungeon master gives you an encounter and things go a little bit too easy. Yeah, they just sort of like ad hawc make up another one to punish you, Yeah, or like next time, I don't have to make it harder, like it's okay to with with. Sometimes we need a cake walk, sometimes we need to win Natural twenty why you wicked Little Vipers exactly. But as a reward, of course, Yeah, she's going to get more chores, stuff like watering random stumps and so forth. Yes, yeah, exactly. So she's sent off with this big list of other chores to do around the farm. Uh. And then we cut to meeting one of our other main characters. I guess our two main characters are Nastia and then this new character, Yvonne. And so we see him coming out of his house. We learned he's from another village nearby, and immediately we get the vibe about Yvonne that he is young and strong, but proud and vain, And so he walks out of his house sort of, you know, chest puffed out looking looking into a handheld mirror and and just really enjoying himself, enjoying his own reflection and uh, like we were talking about a minute ago, we see his his mother comes out behind him, and she really worries for him. As as he's leaving the house, she implores him not to forget her. So it's as if he's just going off to maybe never return, who knows. And she tells him that he should should not harm the weak and that he should respect his elders. Yeah, and he yeah, he is a character cature of of of arrogance and uh and and beauty. But also, I mean the thing about Vane, and again it's my understanding that they are sort of different versions of Vane that you encounter in the stories. Like he has all the tools to back to back it up, Like he is a beautiful man. He he does have like almost godlike powers. He is he's like a Russian Hercules. Um uh. And he's also he's he's he has a is a great mind. He's he's able to trick people out of hurting him without necessarily getting into a physical battle with him. But he is just crushing le Vain, right, I mean, I think it picks up on a folk tale theme that I find interesting. Many folk tales concern concerned characters who are themselves vulnerable to some more powerful uh threat within the story of monster or a bear and animal of banded or something um. But there's another type of folk tale that is about the reckless arrogance of the strong young man. It's not that he's vulnerable, it's that his that his strength and his freedom make him a danger to himself and others right right, and he he can't even though he has all the tools to be a true hero, He's not going to be one until he learns like the right path in life and and and actually starts um that, you know, acting on the true values of of moral life. But as soon as we see Vans setting out from his house to to go on his wanderings, a song and dancing begins, and I just I also don't know if I remember this song and dancing from the Mystery Science Theater, but I loved it. It's it's sort of like Van's w W E entrance music. Uh. The song is not translated in the dub, so I truly don't know what they were singing about. But I'm guessing it's about how everybody, including van On thinks Yvon is really great scenes that way, And yeah, this is definitely a scene that was not in the MST three K cut. Uh. So it's it's it's it's kind of like this delightful uh bonus you get from watching it. You know, you get to watch all these scenes you've you've seen a million times transformed into something beautiful and then occasionally all new scenes. But this leads into iv ongoing singing in a tramping through the forests in the hills, and it's just a really excellent musical scene. The song is good. Again, it's not dubbed, so I don't know what it's about, but I assume once it's Von by himself in the woods singing, it's just, you know, I'm awesome, I'm the best. I'm going to sing about myself. And then we go straight into the bandit scene, which I did remember from the from the other version, and the bandit scene is a classic. It's how would we describe this one? Do you want to take it? Oh? Well, it's just this band of really only like watching this, It's it's easy to imagine that they're not even humans, but there's some sort of dwarves or trolls or something or gnomes. Because it's just a bunch of very rugged looking, mostly bearded men in mismatched garments setting around a campfire and they're they're plucking the petals off of daisies. Uh, and they're in they're they're trying to decide, they're trying to use the daisies way to decide how they're gonna how they're gonna go about their day, chanting we will rob them, we won't rob them, we will eat them, we won't eat them, et cetera. But the next one is we will beat them, we will be beaten. So what happens if they pick we will be beaten? They just still get beaten. I don't think I never really noticed that they were saying that part. Yeah, and the some of the some of the bandits are like up in the trees as lookout. So I love the set up here, but of course that we're gonna have a clash of the strong against the strong. Yvonne comes along whistling his theme song, uh, still doing the tune of his entrance music, and the bandits come up to him and they say Hey, you're captured. Now we're going to rob you. I think that's literally a quote, um, and so he says, all right, then robbed me and he drops his satchel, which I guess they would assume has his money in it, and they start fighting over his satchel, and in doing so, they dropped their clubs, and then Vaughan sets to grabbing the clubs and chucking them way up in the air. And then when when they're when they figure out what's going on, they're like, hey, what do you do with our clubs? And he's like, well, I threw them up in the sky and they'll come down next winter. Okay, yeah, it's great. I mean, the bandits are fearsome but but not the smartest, and Yvan is easily able to to outsmart them without even really having to fight them. So moving along, Van just goes about his business and then the narrator comes in. I love that there were just a few moments where a narrator suddenly talks. There's not much narration in the movie, but every now and then you get like a sentence or two, and it's kind of jarring because it's like, whoa where did that come from? But the nar vader says, how long did our young hero Yvonne wander over hill? And Dale frankly, we have no idea. And I was laughing when I saw that, because I was like, who is we? Is this like the God speaking like you know in Genesis? Let us make man in our own image? Anyway, so the narrator says, the fact remains that Ivan eventually reached far away in unknown lands. And here is where we get another classic scene. I think we talked about this scene a little bit in our Mushroom Foraging episode, but this is the chase scene between yvon and the old man Mushroom or grandfather Mushroom. So Von meets this old man who wears a hat that looks like a mushroom cap and uh he he keeps disappearing and reappearing, and Von goes up to him and says, are you a sorcerer, granddaddy? And uh he says, I dabble in sorcery a little, but the truth is that I get bored. And what does that mean? Does he get bored? Well, Grandfather Mushroom wants if On to play hide and seek with him. Uh So, so they work out a deal. If a Van can catch Grandfather Mushroom, he'll he will receive a well bent bow and some straight arrows. But it is hard to catch Grandfather Mushroom because he has the power to disappear and teleport. So this does not really seem fair. So Van loses, but because he admits to losing, the old man gives him the bow and arrows anyway. But in keeping with the themes of the original folk tale, here's what. So a Vaughan is not in the classic Grandfather Frost, at least the version chronicle by Andrew Lange, but the same rules apply. So he has met a magical old man in the woods and he is not courteous to him. He forgets to say thank you for the bow, and he just sort of he just sort of was like, Okay, I'm gonna go about I'm gonna go about my business. And the old man is like, hey, aren't you gonna say thank you and bow to me? Bow your head and if Vaughan says, those who bow run the risk of losing their head, the bear or will bow before you if you like, but not Yvonne, and this this is bad news. So so Grandfather Mushroom is like then so be it. Things will come to pass as you say. The bear will bow before me down to the ground, but it is your back that will bend. So here we get the again, always be polite to old magical people in the woods. But eventually we got to have our our two protagonists or two plot lines collide. Right. So, so Yvonne comes across a carving on a rock that reads, find a feather in the fields and throw it to the winds, and if you follow that feather, you will find your destiny. So he has a uh, somewhat aggressive way of finding a feather in the fields. He shoots a bird with an arrow and then picks a feather off of it throws it. It floats all over all over the place, and he follows it and eventually it lands at a riverside where he finds Nastia. She is they're drawing water from the river. She's got her loyal buddy dog at the side, and she's singing this melancholy song, and she is pouring water over a dead stump, and I Vaughn sees her falls in love at first sight, and he walks up to talk. She is, of course, hard at work watering the old stump. She says she's going to water it until flowers bloom out of it, something her stepmother told her to do, and I Vaughn's like, that's crazy. She she must she must be very mean to you. But Nastia does not complain. She's like, oh, no, it's fine, and you know I'll do it, and so ivn uh, I don't think there's really any lead up to this. He's just like, hey, will you marry me? So he's being very smooth, and she is like, I do not think we would make a good couple. And he wants to know why, and she says, well, it's because you're a braggert and I am not, and I like that. His response is, well, I'm not a braggert because I'm actually very good at everything, so he explains, so I guess not bragging if it's true. So he says he's a good fighter, he's a good fisherman, he's a great dancer, and he's a great hunter. And then he decides to show off how good he is at hunting by pulling out his bow and he says he's going to shoot a bear on the other side of the river and Nastia greatly opposes this. She says, no, she has cubs and she tries to stop him. So she calls out to her dog, who barks, and that scares the bears and they run off, and then Nastia throws a bucket over Van's head. And then when the bucket comes off, the movie kicks into high gear because oops, here we get grandfather mushroom magic. And now yvon has a bear head and he sounds like Zoidberg. Yeah, I guess he does a bit, but yeah, it has this fabulous bear head that, um, I think it's actually well crafted, you know, I mean within the context of the of the film and the times. Uh, you know, it looks kind of terrifying but also kind of alive. Yeah. It's a very creepy looking also sometimes funny looking, and and his voice has changed. She no longer just sounds like Yvonne. He He's like, whoa, what has happened to me? And uh, when he realizes he has a bare head, he thinks that Nastia did it to him. He thinks that she gave doesn't he I think he thinks she gave her head. Yeah, okay, yeah, because he starts saying, I curse you forever, you witch. Um, and he runs off and and is freaking out. This also looks very funny because he's just running between the trees sort of swinging his arms around and moaning, and Nastia is very sad and her tears fall in the river and for some reason this makes flowers bloom out of the dead stump that she was watering. Yeah. Yeah, and I think this is where we also have just a very beautiful, lengthy scene that I think was cut from the MST version where we just see this wonderful reflection in the water and you know, she's having this emotional moment and it's it's like again one of those where you just you just admire the look of the film. Oh yeah, you're very right. I mean, so there it is genuinely a sort of sad moment here, But then it cuts back to being kind of funny because then we see Van just like roaming all over the place, growling and moaning and feeling really sorry for himself. Um, and he somehow he gets back to grandfather Mushroom and he's like, I gotta know how to get this get this head, you know, barehead off of me. He begs him to teach him what he can do to become a man again, and Grandfather Mushroom says, you've never done a good deed, and then Barehead Avon just runs with it. So he's like, oh, so I must do a good deed and then I'll return to normal. And Grandfather Mushroom is trying to protest. He's like, no, it isn't that simple, but Barehead is always he's already running off to get it done. So it's still that that youthful sort of prideful, foolhardiness. He's not going to even read the full instructions. Yeah, And and from here we get kind of a montage with scene try where he's running up to people, random folks and just like he's saying, what can I do to help you? But he's a bear monster, so he's terrifying people and they're just running away from it. Right, Yeah, I mean it's it's kind only Frankenstein, right, Michelle, you know he he uh, the creature just just wants friends, but but he's scary looking, so people are going to run away. Oh, it is very it's in fact, it mirrors Frankenstein in in another way. They we'll get to in a second. Now, cutting back to the house where where Nastia and Marfushka live, there is a really funny scene leading up to I guess it's supposed to be a matchmaking scene where a suitor and his parents come to the house and uh, they're trying to set up Marfushka with this with this marriage bile bachelor, and so they're getting her ready for that, putting all this makeup on her, but it looks like clown makeup. And she's wearing this extremely colorful outfit with a with a red and yellow crown, and it's it's the colors look great. And again this is one reason that it really is worth watching the good HD version. But also I thought the scene is very funny because like the bachelor is this super dopey looking dude. He he slightly has a bit of um the energy of the guy in the who plays um microft homes in the BBC version of Sherlock, but like dope, he or with long flat hair and uh, and so there's a scene so they're trying to the parents are trying to get him to him and his parents to agree to marry Marfushka. But everything really goes wrong somehow. She ends up falling into the lake and then her fake braid comes off and it just it just all goes to hell and and the other people are making fun of her, and so the stepmother is really mad and uh. And then the worst thing of all is that the suitor dude is like, hey, what if I married Nastia instead? And that just makes the stepmother go like ballistic. Oh. And then eventually, after after a long interlude, Van does get his his original head back, and I think it's because he picks up a dick thinking it belonged to an old woman that he helped carry back to her home over a mountain, and he's like, oh, this is her stick. I better take it back to her, And for some reason that's the thing that does it. Then Grandfather Mushrooms like, okay, you deserve a human head now, yeah, and an old blind woman. So it kind of mirrors Frankenstein in that respect that he ends up. Initially, he's he ends up helping her by carrying her home, but it's but it's seeing her stick and thinking, oh, she needs that stick. I need to get that back to her. So it's almost like I mean, this is something that the MST three k Riff had fun with, you know, the idea that it's like he didn't actually do anything nice, he just thought about doing something nice and and that was enough. But if I'm going to re into it more, I feel like it's the idea that that he was doing it without any kind of a scheme behind it. You know, he he wasn't helping her because it would help him. He was just doing it as a reflex, you know. It like kindness was no longer something that he had to force himself to do. He could do it instinctually. Oh well that makes more sense, Okay, I I can accept that. But yeah, when it does come down to it, is very funny to point out that that he just thought about doing it and he gets rewarded for it. And uh, I don't know. I think sometimes people do sort of work that way, like they maybe congratulate themselves a little too much, not for actually doing anything good, but for becoming convinced that they would do something good if given the opportunity. Yeah, I think we've I think we've we've looked at some studies on that. For the core stuff to blow your mind episodes Okay, well, here sort of we hit the transition point because we skip ahead in time, so we we we skip ahead to winter. Previously, I don't know, I guess this was supposed to be in summer before. Uh, and and now we go to winter, and here's where we sort of really get into the meat of the original folk tale. I also think at this point we might we might skip over some things and describe in less detail. But there is so much wonderful stuff and magical characters in the second half of the movie too, because here's where we're gonna get Bobba Yaga and and Grandfather Frost. So the second part begins with the premise of the Grandfather Frost story, which is that the old man is taking Nastia out into the out into the frozen woods to die because presumably because suitors keep wanting to marry her instead of Marfushka, and stepmother is is tired of this, so she's like, an old man, you will kill your daughter for me? And uh, he's really broken up about it, but he's doing it like he's taken her out there on the sled. But then he while he's out there, he's like, no, no, I won't, and he tries to turn the sled around to take her back home, But like we talked about earlier, Nastia apparently doesn't want to cause trouble for her father, so she just hops out of the sled, so I guess, so as not to be a burden. She's just like, it's it's all right, dad, I'll just die of exposure. I don't want you to have a rough afternoon. I'll say again that is pathological kindness, that there's no reason to be that nice. But now, also in the in the same time period and the dead of winter, we find Yvonne out wandering the woods and what he's trying to find Nastia again. He's like, hey, I've got a human head again. I'm a better man. I'm not so selfish in vain now I am. I am a more suitable bachelor who who could marry Nastia because now she'll see I'm actually a good person. So he's out trying to find her and he comes across the cabin of of the Witch of of Bobby Yaga, which is up on legs, I think, as it is often depicted in these stories, and there's this great scene where they're they're like where he and the witch are both trying to order the house which direction to face. Yeah, that's that's a wonderful scene. And and this whole sequence is just great with with all the costumes and and the sets and everything. So yeah, she gets a bunch of trees to attack Yvonne and bring him inside because she wants to eat him. Uh, and she's going to load him into the then to cook him, but he tricks her in classic fairy tale style. He's like, oh, hey, you're you want me to sit on the shovel so you can put me into the oven. But I've never sat on a shovel before. You gotta show me how. It's like the youth have today. We're not taught anything. She's going to demonstrate it. So she gets on the shovel and and he shoves her into the oven. And then she's like, oh, get me out, so he lets her out. But then they're negotiating. He's trying to get her magical help to find Nastia. The interior of Bobby Iaga's hut is fabulous because it looks like Mario Baba was the end. It was the interior deck right here yes, blue and purple light everywhere, fog. It's full of animals. They're owls, pigs, cats, spider webs. I think some of the snakes other things I'm probably not even remembering. Uh. And then meanwhile, so while Yvonne is encountering this magical being, uh, Nastia is encountering grandfather Frost, and we get basically the same interaction that they have in the folk tale. So he's like, are you warm? And she says yes, even though she's obviously freezing, and he's like, uh, you know, you're a very nice girl, uh, because she you know, she's not gonna talk smack about how cold his forest is. And then he offers her his coat, but she's like, what about you, won't you be cold? But of course he's you know, he's Father Frost. He's not going to be cold. So it goes exactly this is this is this is a fashion coat. Um. So, just as she's about to freeze to death, father Frost is like, oh, she needs help, So he covers her up in his warm coat, takes her away in his sleigh, and they go to his house, which looks kind of like a church. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's it's it's another beautiful structure inside and out. Inside especially it's just this this blue crystal palace with you know again, I'm kind of reminded of of Mario Bava films, except it's it's as if Mario Bava made a fairytale movie for children instead of you know, some sort of uh thriller. Right well, there there is something quite deadly within the house though, because Father Frost he leaves his scepter in there, and wouldn't you know it, uh Nastya's. Nastia's curiosity gets the better of her because she's like, what's the deal with de scepter? She goes to check it out, touches it, and it freezes her solid. She's in a chunk of ice. We we learned from Father Frost that that whoever touches the scepter will never wake again. And he comes back and finds her frozen like that, and he really beats himself up about it. He's like, you knit with you, donkey, you didn't watch over her. Meanwhile, somehow the Witch sends van off Um chasing after some kind of object. I think it's a sheep skin or something that will allegedly lead him to Nastia or a pig sled. Maybe that's the pig that lives in her hut is transformed into a pig sled, magical sled. It will take him where he needs to go. Uh. And she when she's alone, she has these scenes with like a cat and an owl and a snake where she's just lamenting that she did not get to cannibalize Yvonne. She really wants to eat him. I would remember the cat was doing her bidding by helping to engineer the moment where she touches the scepter and it's frozen. That's right. Yeah. But eventually von meets Nastia's loyal dog, you know, her buddy dog from way back in the beginning, and and the dog. I like this movie because this is a movie that appreciates the quality of a good dog, and the dog is a good friend. The dog leads him to Father Frost's house, and when he gets there, if An's love wakes her up and defrosts her basically, Oh and then, uh, what does the exchange they have? It's like she gets defrosted and he's there with his head back to normal, and she says something like um. She she says, well, she gives him the I guess it's the diminutive form of his Evenushka, she says, Evenushka, how nice you are? Now I like you better. And then he he brags now that he does good deeds all the time, and she seems to accept this, and then we we get sort of a happy ending. But the funny thing is the movie is not over yet, so you would expect that this is you know, the music kicks in and we go to credits, um, but it's not quite there yet that we do see the happy ending. Uh. Nastia and Ivonne arrived back at the family home in a regal sleigh. They're dressed like royalty with a box full of Jim's so it seems like they're married and they're happy and they're rich. And Marfushka is furious. She keeps saying I want stones so um so much like the fairy tale. Her mother demands that the old man take Marfushka out into the forest as well, so that the same thing can happen to her, because from their point of view, it's like, well, okay, daughter was left in the forest, came back. Uh. Married, happy and rich. So you know, we just assume the same will happen to the other daughter. But when father Frost comes across her, she basically beats him up. I think she actually hits him or something. Yeah, yeah, she's she's abusive and and awful to Frost. Uh And in the original folklore like he freezes her to death for it. But in this we get a you know, we get a sanitized version of that, right, so instead of him him killing her in the stepmother Marfushka is sent back home in uh not with a husband or not like royalty in a sleigh with a handsome husband, pulled by white horses and a box full of jewels. Instead she is by herself on a sled pulled by pigs, with a box full of crows. Yes, And there's also a great sort of epilogue scene where Van and Nasti are are riding off together and they get attacked by the bandits from earlier in the movie at the behest of the Witch the way. Yeah, this is kind of our final battle. So she's rallied the bandits and there's all there's a great scene where she comes flying in um in her in her mortar, which is which is her traditional means of flying about. And it reminded me so much of an illustration from the Enchanted World's book. Uh. It was this this really bright illustration by Ivan uh Billibbin from I believe nineteen hundred um. It was in the book on Witches and Wizards. But you can also see this image if you just go to the Wikipedia page on Bobba Yaga. It's like the top image and it's it's really cool. So, yeah, she's coming in. She's bribed the bandits, she's organizing them. So yeah, now you have the worst thing you have the Bobby. You have Bobba Yaga committed to bringing down Yvon and Nastinka, and she has convinced all of these bandits to work with her. The bandits aren't very smart, but now they have a general telling them what to do, right, And she I think she still wants to eat Von right like she's like, he looked so tasty. Yeah, yeah, she feels she cheated out of that meal. So she's gonna she's gonna get it right. So so the bandits attack, Nastia gets tied up. The bandits are beating up Yvon, but then we get, uh, just save the day. We get a couple of things. First of all, the loyal dog unties Nastia from the tree, and then the bandits are knocked out by their own clubs. We get a call back from earlier when when Yvon threw all the clubs up in the air. Yeah, I believe the riff and they miss T three K version is it's raining cinematic payoff, which I love. I love that riff and I think about in anytime something like this happens in a movie. And then I guess we get the epilogue to the epilogue, which is like we see our our Nasty and Van at their wedding here or at some kind of celebration. They're in a They're in a house with a bunch of people gathered for a feast, and it's like the most colorful scene I have ever witnessed. The colors are just like violent. Yes, it is absolutely beautiful. Do just faberge egg pastel explosions. It's it's gorgeous and they're on the table. You see bowls of food, apples, there's a rooster bowl. Um, everybody's here. And it's a great shot too, because we begin it, they're into the table and then we we we we pull back. Uh you know, we we're moving down the table, down this feast table. We feel like we're part of the feast, right. Yeah, So so you know what the this is a wonderful holiday film. This is It does make for great comedic fodder on on MST. But this is also just a really gorgeous, creative and fun movie. I I give it ten out of ten talking roosters. Yeah, Like most of the best MST three K films, it stands on its own without the riff. The riff is not necessary to enjoy it, uh in my opinion, so uh, I recommend everybody consider giving it a go, especially if you're a fan of the episode. You'll still love it. You've probably seen the Rift version enough that you've memorized all the good riffs, so you can just think them or say them while you're watching. Pretend there are yours. Yeah, yeah, pretending pretend there yours um And Lucky for you, you can buy or rent this digitally on a number of platforms, including Amazon Prime, where I think there are like two different versions of it. I'm I'm not sure about the quality on those, but whatever you end up finding, go with the high quality. If you find make sure it's the vibrant colors. Um you know, shop around. You can watch it in Russian with subtitles that you can also watch it again with this very fun English dub um. Uh. There's also a physical um Ruscico DVD that you can pick up for a quite reasonable price online if you want a physical disk to put into your DVD player. Nice. So I think this was our our what our second Russian film on Weird House Cinema. There was the Teams in the Universe, Oh yeah, the sci fi one with the great robots, also ultimately a children's film, and uh, and here we are with another Russian children's film. Well, and to understand, there's plenty more where that came from. It seems like, especially maybe the sixties and seventies have a lot of great, uh great looking fantasy and sci fi films from Russia. Yeah. Yeah, And we've heard from some listeners who have given us some recommendations that also look great and and I've also run across some older films that that also looked pretty good. There's a particular Russian horror film that is that is on my list uh that we we may have to get to in the months ahead, or rather in the year ahead, because like we said this, I believe this is gonna be it for this year. We're gonna have a couple of repeats in the weeks ahead, a couple of Weird House Cinema rewind episodes, but then we'll be back with something new Christmas with the Cranks in January, as it should be. All right. If you want to listen to other episodes of Weird House Cinema, you'll find it every Friday in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed We are primarily a science and culture podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Monday's we do listener mail, on Wednesday's we do a short form artifact episode, and on Fridays we set aside most serious matters and we just talk about a weird and interesting film. Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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