Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema rewind. This is Rob
Speaker 1: Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And Rob and I
Speaker 1: are out on holiday break this week, but we've got
Speaker 1: a great classic episode for you. This is our episode
Speaker 1: on Morosco a k a. Jack Frost, the the the
Speaker 1: Russo Finished fairy Tale from Another Universe. It's uh it,
Speaker 1: what can I even say? I'm speechless. It's you're gonna
Speaker 1: love it. Yeah, It's a magical film that I think
Speaker 1: people of all all times and ages can really get into.
Speaker 1: It's it has become for my family our Thanksgiving viewing tradition.
Speaker 1: And so this is the Weird House Cinema episode where
Speaker 1: we discussed the film. Uh. This was a lot of fun,
Speaker 1: and I remember I really enjoyed hearing after the fact
Speaker 1: from folks who grew up with this movie, either within
Speaker 1: the Mystery Science theaters, the thousand traditions tradition, or outside
Speaker 1: of that tradition, uh, you know, watching it on on
Speaker 1: TV and Europe, or or being familiar with it doing
Speaker 1: due to um a family history. So we heard from
Speaker 1: a number of people regarding this film and it was
Speaker 1: a delightful experience. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind
Speaker 1: a production of My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird
Speaker 1: House Cinema. This is Rob Lamp and I'm Joe McCormick,
Speaker 1: and this is gonna be I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: the last new episode of Weird House Cinema for the
Speaker 1: year before we return in the new year. And it's
Speaker 1: pretty exciting because we essentially have one last holiday selection here.
Speaker 1: It's one that is near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 1: I can safely say at this point it's it's my
Speaker 1: esteem for this film has built up over the years,
Speaker 1: over the decades, and I feel like I'm I'm at
Speaker 1: a level of just maximum appreciation for it now Christmas
Speaker 1: with the Cranks. No, no, uh no, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: talking about the nineteen sixties Russian fairy tale spectacular Moroscoe,
Speaker 1: better known to many fans in the West as Jack Frost.
Speaker 1: I think it's sometimes called Frosty or Father Frost. You
Speaker 1: might recall our mention of this film in the in
Speaker 1: past episodes of Stuff to Blow Your Mind that touch
Speaker 1: on things like mushroom culture and Russian folklore. Now, I
Speaker 1: did not know that it was called Frosty, but that
Speaker 1: would make sense. Because immediately I think of how some
Speaker 1: people I don't do this, by the way, but some
Speaker 1: people who get the frosty is at Windy's dipped the
Speaker 1: French fries in them. And this movie is very much
Speaker 1: like that. It is a is like a salty fried
Speaker 1: potato product dipped into something sweet and cold on the tongue. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is a mash up of different kinds of fairytale
Speaker 1: flavors and genres. It is a scatter gun blast of
Speaker 1: of weird magical elements of folklore. Now, of course, if
Speaker 1: you grew up in the United States, particularly during the
Speaker 1: ninth nineties, then your introduction to this film I think
Speaker 1: it was likely through Mystery Science Theater three thousand, episode
Speaker 1: eight thirteen, which aired inn Uh, this was a riff
Speaker 1: of this film. Um. But if you grew up in
Speaker 1: Russia or in parts of Eastern Europe, then this movie
Speaker 1: was likely far more than a weird oddity for your amusement. Uh.
Speaker 1: This may have been your holiday viewing tradition, either around
Speaker 1: Christmas or New Year's. In fact, in the late nineties,
Speaker 1: I remember that this would have been not too long
Speaker 1: after it actually an MST episode actually aired. I was
Speaker 1: I instantly loved it. Um, I couldn't necessarily, you know,
Speaker 1: explain why I loved it. And that's when I think
Speaker 1: the beauties about Mystery Science Theater three thousand is. Like
Speaker 1: I've said before, I feel like you kind of showed
Speaker 1: many of us that these sorts of films existed and
Speaker 1: taught us at least some ways of appreciating them. Um.
Speaker 1: But but anyway, I really liked the episode. And I
Speaker 1: was hanging out with um a friend from high school
Speaker 1: and a are An exchange student from the Czech Republic
Speaker 1: who was staying with that friend at the time, and
Speaker 1: for some reason I either described this episode to them,
Speaker 1: or perhaps I actually showed them part of the episode,
Speaker 1: like I put it on a VHS tape or something,
Speaker 1: and Marcatta, the student told me, instantly recognized it and said, oh,
Speaker 1: this this is the film we watch every year. This
Speaker 1: is our Christmas tradition, Um, that they show it on
Speaker 1: TV every Christmas, and it's just an essential part of
Speaker 1: the holiday, you know, as as Christmas e as the
Speaker 1: baby Jesus lowering gifts from Heaven on a golden string. Now,
Speaker 1: on one hand, that is very strange to me, because
Speaker 1: I like you first encountered this on Mystery Science Theater,
Speaker 1: where I you know, the mindset I was in when
Speaker 1: I first saw it was what a you know, strange
Speaker 1: mushroom to find in the forest, Like it was just
Speaker 1: this bizarre oddity from from out of the nineteenth dimension.
Speaker 1: But now seeing it again, especially without the Mystery Science Theater,
Speaker 1: just watching the movie on its own, it has the
Speaker 1: same kind of weird texture as a as a lot
Speaker 1: of Christmas classics that that we did grow up with, like, um,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like the stop motion Rudolph the Red
Speaker 1: Nose Reindeer and things like that, except more earthy. I mean,
Speaker 1: this feels more rooted in in actually in real folklore
Speaker 1: and and archetypes and imagery that goes way back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this this film is Is this not one of those
Speaker 1: films where you're like, Okay, I guess I need to
Speaker 1: research my Russian history or my Russian folklore before I
Speaker 1: watched this so I know what's going on. No, all
Speaker 1: that is great and and helps you appreciate it more.
Speaker 1: But but all of this like speaks on on a
Speaker 1: level that I feel like like most of viewers, especially
Speaker 1: the the sort of intended viewer, the child either the
Speaker 1: actual child or the child at heart will instantly get
Speaker 1: what's going on throughout most of this film. And in
Speaker 1: a case in point, um, this film has been a
Speaker 1: viewing that the MSTD version of this has been a
Speaker 1: a ritual of of my wife and eyes for many
Speaker 1: years now. We watched it every Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving me,
Speaker 1: I believe, we introduced my son to it and he
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, this is interesting. And this year he said,
Speaker 1: I said, hey, do you guys want to watch Jack Frost?
Speaker 1: And he said, yeah, but I think we should watch
Speaker 1: it quote without all the jokes. So he wanted it unriffed.
Speaker 1: And so I was delighted to try because I've been
Speaker 1: wanting to try that out as well, because I knew
Speaker 1: at this point that that, you know, the grubby visual
Speaker 1: um film grade that we have in the MST episodes
Speaker 1: is not a proper reflection of the film. Uh So
Speaker 1: I really wanted to watch a high definition version of
Speaker 1: it anyway, and so we we watched it and it
Speaker 1: was an absolute delight. Everybody enjoyed it. He loved it. Um. So,
Speaker 1: you know, nothing against the MST version. I think it's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. But if that is the only
Speaker 1: version of Morosco you've watched, then you're missing out on
Speaker 1: just so many extra dimensional colors. I think you're entirely correct.
Speaker 1: I don't remember when we had this conversation, but you
Speaker 1: were telling me this, uh sometime away back and uh
Speaker 1: so I finally watched it in in a higher definition transfer.
Speaker 1: And this movie is beautiful. Uh, it is, truly. It's
Speaker 1: it's colorful. A lot of the locations are gorgeous. That
Speaker 1: I mean, they picked really wonderful wilderness settings, especially in
Speaker 1: the first half of the movie that takes place in
Speaker 1: the in the spring or summer, I guess. And uh
Speaker 1: so there are these hills and forests and caves and
Speaker 1: meadows and uh and and the colors of the costumes
Speaker 1: just pop. Uh. It's really wonderful. Yeah, it's um like,
Speaker 1: it just transforms the film in so many ways. To
Speaker 1: watch it in this this full colorful version. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: for starters, like if you have especially to Western viewers,
Speaker 1: you have these scenes of uh, you know, people in
Speaker 1: Babushka's uh you know, wandering about in the woods. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you have drab colors, that takes on a drab quality.
Speaker 1: But when it is so bright and so beautiful in
Speaker 1: the babushkas are so you know, vibrantly uh decorated. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, it paints an entirely to picture of of
Speaker 1: like rural living. It it actually allows you to taste
Speaker 1: the the the folkloric ideal. Uh. That's clearly this film
Speaker 1: is celebrating. You know. It's funny. I mentioned the Rudolph
Speaker 1: the Red Nose Reinder your thing. I just looked it
Speaker 1: up and it came out apparently the same year as Asco,
Speaker 1: both nineteen sixty four films. Okay, yeah, and it is
Speaker 1: weird with with Moroscoe. I've I've seen different dates for it,
Speaker 1: Like sometimes I see nineteen sixty four, sometimes I see
Speaker 1: sixty five. Um, but at any rate, that is the
Speaker 1: time period mid nineteen sixties, uh that it emerges. So yeah,
Speaker 1: this is essentially a big budget folklore spectacular for children,
Speaker 1: for the whole family, and it has everything. It has
Speaker 1: the personification of winter, it has the the evil which
Speaker 1: Baba Yaga and their chicken footed house. You have these
Speaker 1: troll like bandits milling about, you have magical animals, you
Speaker 1: have mushroom spirits, arranged marriages, folkloric lodge, and just much
Speaker 1: much more. So in terms of an elevator pitch for
Speaker 1: this movie, I the only the best thing I could
Speaker 1: come up with is looking for a change in life,
Speaker 1: consider wandering into the Russian folkloric wilderness and see what happens.
Speaker 1: The other way, I'd frame it is always be polite
Speaker 1: to magical old people you meet in the woods. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's just universal. All right, Maybe we
Speaker 1: need to hit some trailer audio. All right, we's playing
Speaker 1: hide and seek with me? Not oh you yes, are
Speaker 1: you a sorcerer? Granddaddy? I dabblings us for a little,
Speaker 1: But the truth is that I get bored. You get bored.
Speaker 1: I get bored. Come on, play with me. Let's play
Speaker 1: hide and seek together with you? Play hide and seek?
Speaker 1: Yes you're joking, I catch you in no time. Pick so, yes,
Speaker 1: I think so if you catch me, I'll give you
Speaker 1: a well bent bow and some nice eat ross. That
Speaker 1: a bargain. It's a bargain, Father Mushroom. Okay, just kidding
Speaker 1: that that wasn't the trailer, because apparently we we don't
Speaker 1: know if there is a trailer that has any like
Speaker 1: English narration. But I think there's a trailer at least
Speaker 1: with some singing yeah, yeah, And it's possible in missing
Speaker 1: something because I did find trailers with English language for
Speaker 1: other films from this particular director, who will get to
Speaker 1: in a bit now. Before we get to the connections,
Speaker 1: we do want to talk just a little bit about
Speaker 1: about folk tales and Russian folk tales and the Russian
Speaker 1: folk tale that is at the key at the center
Speaker 1: of all this UM. But before we do so, I
Speaker 1: wanted to just mention a few quick points that are
Speaker 1: actually from our episode on the list she uh from
Speaker 1: last year that concerns Russian folklore. UH. These were points
Speaker 1: made by Jack V. Haney in the the excellent book
Speaker 1: or series of books and mythology and Anthology of Russian
Speaker 1: folk Tales. So, first of all, he contends that more
Speaker 1: folk tales may have emerged from the Russian people than
Speaker 1: any other UH do in part to the fact that
Speaker 1: rural oral traditions lasted well into the twentieth century. He
Speaker 1: also says that Russia has the second largest number of
Speaker 1: tale types according to the International Classification System, and within
Speaker 1: these tales, who find lots of animal stories. Frequent villains
Speaker 1: include Baba Yaga, which is nasty, dwarves, shape shifting magicians. However,
Speaker 1: Baba Yaga is also sometimes a donor or a helper,
Speaker 1: so you know, some sometimes she's a she's a villain.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I guess she's kind of at an anti hero
Speaker 1: or something, uh, somebody that begrudgingly helps our hero out.
Speaker 1: And that's good to keep in mind in this film
Speaker 1: because she's kind of both at times. Um frequent characters
Speaker 1: in general, You've got Baba Yaga and her Hut the Firebird,
Speaker 1: uh Coshi, the Deathless uh Ivan. Different versions of Ivan
Speaker 1: pop up, and this is key. The hero frequently wanders
Speaker 1: through the woods at some point and receives help in
Speaker 1: his quest from an animal or some sort of supernatural aid. Now,
Speaker 1: the movie Morosco or Jack Frost actually seems to smash
Speaker 1: together a number of different fairytale archetypes. But I would
Speaker 1: say that the the core, the core of the story,
Speaker 1: the core situation, and backbone is based on a classic
Speaker 1: Russian fairy tale known as moros Co or Father Frost,
Speaker 1: which appeared in printed folk tale collections going back at
Speaker 1: least as far as the nineteenth century, maybe before then,
Speaker 1: and it appears to be a variant of an extremely
Speaker 1: widespread folk tale archetype the essence of which is that
Speaker 1: there are two girls, two sisters or step sisters, a
Speaker 1: kind one who is rewarded in a wicked one who
Speaker 1: has punished. Now, I thought it would be great to actually,
Speaker 1: just uh, to read through a version of the Father
Speaker 1: Frost fairytale. And this is the version collected by the
Speaker 1: Scottish poet and anthropologist Andrew Lying in the nineteenth century. So, Robert,
Speaker 1: are you game to read this folk tale with me
Speaker 1: and then see how it relates to the movie. Let's
Speaker 1: do it. So this is Andrew Lang's rendition of the
Speaker 1: story of King Frost. There once upon a time was
Speaker 1: a peasant woman who had a daughter and a stepdaughter.
Speaker 1: The daughter had her own way and everything and whatever
Speaker 1: she did was right in her mother's eyes. But the
Speaker 1: poor stepdaughter had a hard time let her do what
Speaker 1: she would. She was always blamed and got small thanks
Speaker 1: for all the trouble she took. Nothing was right, everything wrong,
Speaker 1: And yet if the truth were known, the girl was
Speaker 1: worth her weight in gold. She was so unselfish and goodhearted.
Speaker 1: But her stepmother did not like her, and the poor
Speaker 1: girl's days were spent in weeping, for it was impossible
Speaker 1: to live peacefully with the woman. The wicked shrew was
Speaker 1: determined to get rid of the girl by fair means
Speaker 1: or foul, and kept saying to her father, Send her away,
Speaker 1: old man, Send her away anywhere, so that my eye
Speaker 1: as shan't be plagued any longer by the sight of her,
Speaker 1: or my ears tormented by the sound of her voice.
Speaker 1: Send her out into the fields, and let the cutting
Speaker 1: frost to do for her. In vain did the poor
Speaker 1: old father weep and implore her pity. She was firm,
Speaker 1: and he dared not gainsay her. So he placed his
Speaker 1: daughter in a sledge, not even daring to give her
Speaker 1: a horsecloth to keep herself warm with, and drove her
Speaker 1: out into the bare open fields, where he kissed her
Speaker 1: and left her, driving home as fast as he could,
Speaker 1: that he might not witness her miserable death. Deserted by
Speaker 1: her father, the poor girl sat down under a fir
Speaker 1: tree at the edge of the forest and began to
Speaker 1: weep silently. Suddenly she heard a faint sound. It was
Speaker 1: King Frost, springing from tree to tree and cracking his
Speaker 1: fingers as he went. At length he reached the fir
Speaker 1: tree beneath which she was sitting, and with a crisp,
Speaker 1: crackling sound, he alighted beside her and looked at her
Speaker 1: lovely face. Well maiden, he snapped out. Do you know
Speaker 1: who I am? I am King Frost, King of the
Speaker 1: Red Noses. All healthy, you great King, answered the girl
Speaker 1: in a gentle, trembling voice. Have you come to take
Speaker 1: me away? Are you warm a maiden? He replied? Quite warm,
Speaker 1: King Frost, she answered, though she shivered as she spoke.
Speaker 1: Then King Frost stooped down and bent over the girl,
Speaker 1: and the crackling sound grew louder, and the air seemed
Speaker 1: to be full of knives and darts. And again he asked, maiden,
Speaker 1: are you warm? Are you warm, beautiful girl, And though
Speaker 1: her breath was almost frozen on her lips, she whispered gently,
Speaker 1: quite warm, King Frost. Then King Frost gnashed his teeth
Speaker 1: and cracked his fingers, and his eyes sparkled, and the crackling,
Speaker 1: crisp sound was louder than ever, and for the last
Speaker 1: time he asked her, maiden, are you still warm? Are
Speaker 1: you still warm? Little love? And the poor girl was
Speaker 1: so stiff and nun that she could just gasp still warm. King.
Speaker 1: Now her gentle, courteous words, and her uncomplaining ways touched
Speaker 1: King Frost, and he had pity on her, and he
Speaker 1: wrapped her up in furs and covered her with blankets,
Speaker 1: and he fetched a great box in which were beautiful
Speaker 1: jewels and a rich robe embroidered in gold and silver.
Speaker 1: And she put it on and looked more lovely than ever,
Speaker 1: and King Frost stepped with her into his sledge with
Speaker 1: six white horses. Okay, here we got intermission on the
Speaker 1: folk tail. So so it seems like not complaining about
Speaker 1: being cold worked out really good for her. She was humble, right.
Speaker 1: I think the point is supposed to be that she's like,
Speaker 1: she's so kind and polite that she won't even that
Speaker 1: she won't even complain about the cold, maybe because it
Speaker 1: would be like she's out in his domain, and it
Speaker 1: would be like, you know, offensive to complain about the
Speaker 1: cold to Grandfather Frost when you're out of it's kind
Speaker 1: of like going to somebody's house and saying it smells bad.
Speaker 1: That's the way I made sense of it, because otherwise
Speaker 1: I don't really know what it is that's so kind
Speaker 1: about saying you're warm when you're not. I think it's
Speaker 1: that she's in his house right In the meantime, the
Speaker 1: wicked stepmother was waiting at home for news of the
Speaker 1: girl's death and preparing pancakes for the funeral feast, and
Speaker 1: she said to her husband, old man, you had better
Speaker 1: go out into the fields and find her daughter's body
Speaker 1: and bury her. Just as the old man was leaving
Speaker 1: the house, the little dog under the table began to bark, saying,
Speaker 1: I don't know how to do dog voice? Okay here? Uh?
Speaker 1: Oh the hell you do you know how to do
Speaker 1: a dog voice? I do? I do a scooby doo voice. Here. Yes,
Speaker 1: your daughter shall live. Your daughter shall live to be
Speaker 1: your delight. Her daughter shall die this very night. Hold
Speaker 1: your tongue, you foolish beasts. Go to the woman. There's
Speaker 1: a pancake for you, but you must say her daughter
Speaker 1: shall have much silver and gold. His daughter is frozen,
Speaker 1: quite stiff and cold. But the doggie ate up the
Speaker 1: pancake and barked, saying, his daughter shall wear a crown
Speaker 1: on her head. Her daughter shall die on wood on
Speaker 1: wed And then old woman tried to coax the doggie
Speaker 1: with more pancakes and to terrify it with blows, but
Speaker 1: he barked on, always repeating the same words. And suddenly
Speaker 1: the door creaked and flew open, and a great heavy
Speaker 1: chest was pushed in, and behind it came the stepdaughter,
Speaker 1: radiant and beautiful in address, all glittering with silver and gold.
Speaker 1: For a moment the stepmother's eyes were dazzled. Then she
Speaker 1: called to her husband, old man, yoked the horses at
Speaker 1: once into the sledge, and take my daughter into the
Speaker 1: same field, and leave her on the same spot exactly.
Speaker 1: And so the old man took the girl and left
Speaker 1: her beneath the same tree where he had he had
Speaker 1: parted from his daughter. In a few minutes, King Frost
Speaker 1: came past, and looking at the girl, he said, are
Speaker 1: you warm, maiden? What a blind old fool you must
Speaker 1: be to ask such a question. She answered angrily, can't
Speaker 1: you see that my hands and my feet are nearly frozen?
Speaker 1: Then King Frost sprang to and fro in front of her,
Speaker 1: questioning her and getting only rude, rough words in reply,
Speaker 1: till at last he got very angry and cracked his
Speaker 1: fingers and ashed his teeth and froze her to death.
Speaker 1: But in the hut, her mother was waiting for her
Speaker 1: to return, and as she grew impatient, she said to
Speaker 1: her husband, get out the horses, old man, and go
Speaker 1: and fetch her home. And see that you are careful
Speaker 1: not to upset the sledge and lose the chest. Is
Speaker 1: the mother becoming irish? I think, yeah, she might be.
Speaker 1: She might be. I mean, as we'll discuss, like, it's
Speaker 1: impossible to read these lines without thinking of the the
Speaker 1: actors in this movie, and particularly the English dub of
Speaker 1: those characters. And uh yeah, so, and then I'm also
Speaker 1: drifting in my accent here. Okay, okay, But then so
Speaker 1: we got a couple more lines. So the dog beneath
Speaker 1: the table began to bark, saying, your daughter has frozen,
Speaker 1: quite stiff and cold, and never shall have a chest
Speaker 1: full of gold. Don't tell such wicked lies, scouted the woman.
Speaker 1: There's a cake for you now say her daughter shall
Speaker 1: marry a mighty king. But at that moment the door
Speaker 1: flew open, and she rushed out to meet her daughter,
Speaker 1: and as she took her frozen body in her arms,
Speaker 1: she too was chilled to death. And that's the end. Man,
Speaker 1: These old fairy tales are so mean, yeah they this is,
Speaker 1: as is often the case. Yeah, the old tales didn't
Speaker 1: play around they they were. They were often rather brutal
Speaker 1: in ways that you might expect a film adaptation to
Speaker 1: then soften things a bit and maybe not go so
Speaker 1: hard not people, especially if they're not, you know, doing
Speaker 1: anything particularly evil. But even if they are, like Frost
Speaker 1: is just going around just murdering everyone. Um, how how
Speaker 1: are the children going to connect with that? Right? So
Speaker 1: the skeleton of this folk tale absolutely appears in the movie.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, like you say, the the edges are
Speaker 1: dulled a little bit, so so the the spoiled mean
Speaker 1: daughter is is not frozen to death along with her mother. Instead,
Speaker 1: she's just sort of uh made a fool of Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and shein only there's just now that we've read through
Speaker 1: the story, like, I admired the script even more because
Speaker 1: they found great ways to soften the thorny nous of
Speaker 1: the story, like instead of the instead of the old
Speaker 1: man being like, well I better, I better do what
Speaker 1: she says and and abandoning his daughter to die in
Speaker 1: the in the in the cold, they do an alteration
Speaker 1: on that where he is going to do that, he's
Speaker 1: driving her out into the wilderness to abandon her. But
Speaker 1: then he has a change of heart and says, nope,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back and give her a piece of
Speaker 1: my mind. But but but Nostinka is so good, she's
Speaker 1: so good she can't see her her father go back
Speaker 1: and and and you know, and and watch the stepmother
Speaker 1: unleash hell on him for disobeying her. So she slips
Speaker 1: off and goes out into the wilderness to die in
Speaker 1: her own right, she decides she's going to freeze to
Speaker 1: death in the woods because she doesn't want to make trouble, right,
Speaker 1: I would say, by the way, you know, I'm a
Speaker 1: sucker for stories that have a moral about being kind
Speaker 1: and stuff. But that's that's a little too kind. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's okay. I think it's okay to not
Speaker 1: want to freeze to death, even if that's going to
Speaker 1: create some headaches for your dad. Yeah. But but like,
Speaker 1: like you said that, the skeleton of the story is there,
Speaker 1: but then other elements are added in to to give it.
Speaker 1: You know that this sort of an epic full motion
Speaker 1: picture feel. Baba Yaga is thrown in because she's a
Speaker 1: delightful villain. Um, you have a male hero thrown in
Speaker 1: in the form of Van, you have various other high
Speaker 1: jinks going on, a little bit of a sleeping beauty
Speaker 1: trope thrown in as well. Oh yeah, Morosco's got it
Speaker 1: all all right. Well, we'll come back to the plot
Speaker 1: here in just a minute, but let's take a moment
Speaker 1: to discuss the various people involved in this um because
Speaker 1: because you, like me, may not be familiar with any
Speaker 1: of the people that were involved in the making of Morosco.
Speaker 1: I've been watching them for years, but I didn't really
Speaker 1: know anything about them, and it was, it was it
Speaker 1: was really fun to research this a little bit the
Speaker 1: other day. So the director of this film is Alexander
Speaker 1: row Uh. That's often spelled UM r O U for
Speaker 1: in English, but you also see it spelled r o
Speaker 1: w e uh. So he was born in nineteen o
Speaker 1: six died in nineteen seventy three, legendary Soviet filmmaker of
Speaker 1: Irish and Greek heritage. So his father was an Irish
Speaker 1: engineer working in Russia. And U and uh and and
Speaker 1: and uh. Apparently I think there's some story about the
Speaker 1: father ended up like leaving the family uh in Russia. Uh.
Speaker 1: At any rate, Alexander grew up, you know, as as
Speaker 1: a Russian as a as a and then and then
Speaker 1: working his way into what would become the Gorky Film
Speaker 1: Studio and just becoming a mainstay there. He directed twenty
Speaker 1: fantasy films, mostly based on Russian folklore and Russian literature,
Speaker 1: and also some non fantasy films thrown in there as well.
Speaker 1: But this was his, his his thing um, and you know,
Speaker 1: certainly that's such a rich well to draw from. His
Speaker 1: films include such notable works as A Wish upon a
Speaker 1: Pike from nineteen thirty eight. This one features Czar Gorok
Speaker 1: and the Princess who never smiled. There's That's at least
Speaker 1: the Beautiful from nineteen forty. This has the Bobba Yaga
Speaker 1: in it as well as the frog Princess. There's the
Speaker 1: Humpbacked Horse in nineteen forty one film that has has
Speaker 1: Van in it. There's Cache the Immortal in nineteen forty
Speaker 1: five film that has a caste the Immortal. There's Firewater
Speaker 1: and Brass Pipes from nineteen sixty eight that has cost
Speaker 1: Babba Yaga Vodiano the water Spirit as well as apparently
Speaker 1: some were wolves. There's Barbera the Fair with the Silken
Speaker 1: Hair from nineteen seventy which has the Underwater King or
Speaker 1: the Underwater Zre in it being known as Chuto Yudo.
Speaker 1: And then there's The Golden Horns from nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: which was I believe his last film and I think
Speaker 1: another director had to had to complete it for him.
Speaker 1: But that is a film centered around the Bobby Yaga
Speaker 1: as well. Well. It is no was surprised at all
Speaker 1: that this filmmaker has a long running uh affair of
Speaker 1: the heart with with the Witch of the Woods, because
Speaker 1: the Babba Yaga in this movie is wonderfully realized. She
Speaker 1: lives in a house that walks around on legs, and
Speaker 1: all of her scenes are just pitch perfect. Yeah, all
Speaker 1: of these films feature similar folkloric threads, uh you know,
Speaker 1: because for example, Bobby Yaga pops up in four of them,
Speaker 1: um Yvan is in two of them, k is in
Speaker 1: two of them, and some of the same actors pop
Speaker 1: up in several of his films as well. Discuss So
Speaker 1: so basically, the deal seems to be that that Row
Speaker 1: popularized the epic folkloric fantasy film in Russia and set
Speaker 1: a standard that that that is that was certainly emulated
Speaker 1: by other directors of the time period, but it's also
Speaker 1: still reflected to this day in Russian cinema, including the
Speaker 1: films of the Walt Disney Company c I S, which
Speaker 1: produced the live action Russian fantasy films The Book of
Speaker 1: Masters in two thousand nine and the Lost Warrior trilogy
Speaker 1: from two thousands seventeen through. I believe the third film
Speaker 1: in that saga's coming out in two These are films
Speaker 1: that feature most of the characters that I just highlighted, So,
Speaker 1: you know, just a modern retelling of these various folkloric
Speaker 1: stories with modern cinematic tools and styles. I gotta say,
Speaker 1: I've never heard of any of these. Um, yeah, these
Speaker 1: are I have not seen any of them, but now
Speaker 1: I would like to check out some of them. I
Speaker 1: looked at some trailers and some clips, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm impressed. I mean, apparently you have the likes
Speaker 1: of Steven Spielberg, who has spoken admirally about Row in
Speaker 1: the past. So uh, for for those who know, uh,
Speaker 1: this guy was a master. Now, as far as the
Speaker 1: screenwriters go, there are there are two credited screen Lighters writers.
Speaker 1: The first one is Nicolay Erdman, who lived nineteen hundred
Speaker 1: through nineteen seventy a Russian playwright and screenwriter, perhaps best
Speaker 1: known for the suicide Uh this is a play, and
Speaker 1: he turned to his cinema when his playwriting career ran
Speaker 1: a foul of Soviet authorities. And then there's Michael Voltan
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen o two through, a Russian screenwriter who
Speaker 1: frequently worked with Erdman. Together they also wrote Rose, Firewater
Speaker 1: and Brass Pipes of Open also wrote the nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: one animated film The Key, which apparently ran a foul
Speaker 1: of Soviet sensors due to its criticism of social conformity.
Speaker 1: Right now, onto the cast. Let's start at the top
Speaker 1: with the actor who plays Morosco, who plays Father Frost.
Speaker 1: This is Alexander Kivyallya who lived nineteen o five through
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, a Russian actor of stage in screen.
Speaker 1: He worked with Rowan several different films, including Golden Horns
Speaker 1: and Firewater and Brass Pipes, as well as the really
Speaker 1: interesting sounding row film titled Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors, which
Speaker 1: apparently involves a mirror world and crooked mirrors that brainwash
Speaker 1: people through these various subtle changes in reality. UM, I
Speaker 1: may have to look that one up. He was also
Speaker 1: in Rose n One The Night Before Christmas, based on
Speaker 1: a Nicolay Gogol story. He does not play Santa Claus
Speaker 1: in this in case anyone's curious. For anybody wondering, is
Speaker 1: Father Frost Santa Claus, Well, no, but there's some significant
Speaker 1: aesthetic overlap. Yeah, yeah, they it's enough to where you
Speaker 1: sometimes see people described describe Father Frost has the quote
Speaker 1: the Russian Santa Claus, which is which is incorrect. But
Speaker 1: they're kind of cut from the same cloth. You know,
Speaker 1: there are similarities once you get into the amorphous you know,
Speaker 1: collective unconscious. Um, you know, I guess you could make
Speaker 1: an argument that they're essentially the same being. Both have
Speaker 1: long white beard, both right around in the sleigh, Both
Speaker 1: are associated with the winter months. Both have a scepter
Speaker 1: that freezes people solid upon touching. They both have a
Speaker 1: big beard, though, and then sometimes they bring gifts. Well, no,
Speaker 1: he's okay, Father Frost says the scepter, but Santa Claus
Speaker 1: has the flower to disappear if you know, well, yes,
Speaker 1: if you're watching um, yeah, you're watching Santa Claus. Uh,
Speaker 1: the well, that's the nineteen sixties movie as well. Wasn't
Speaker 1: it that Santa Claus versus the devil? All right, the
Speaker 1: rest of the cast. So you have Nastinka, the beautiful,
Speaker 1: perfect girl, the the uh you know, the step daughter,
Speaker 1: played by Natalia Sack who was born in ninety eight,
Speaker 1: still alive as of this recording. A former Russian figure
Speaker 1: skater and ballet dancer. She was also in Rows, Firewater
Speaker 1: and Brass Pipes. Hard to miss. She has just enormous eyes. Right,
Speaker 1: So not Nastica or Nastia corresponds to the good sister,
Speaker 1: the good daughter in the folk tale, the one who's
Speaker 1: who's very nice and polite and is treated very harshly
Speaker 1: by her by her hateful stepmother. Now let's let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and talk about the bad sister, the step sister. Here.
Speaker 1: This is Mafushka, the step sister, played by in A
Speaker 1: Chakova born nine and uh, I have to say that
Speaker 1: this was the performance that I always admired, knowing nothing
Speaker 1: about this actor. Like she's tremendous in this like just
Speaker 1: you know this this uh snarling, but but at times
Speaker 1: at times kind of vulnerable, um uh human being, you know,
Speaker 1: like like she she is an outrageous caricature. But at
Speaker 1: times you feel for her too. Well. She's detestable but
Speaker 1: also pitiable in the way that all spoiled children are,
Speaker 1: because you know, like there's nothing more revolting than a
Speaker 1: spoiled brat child, but you know that, you know they
Speaker 1: were made that way, and you get to see how
Speaker 1: her her how her mother's sort of abusive doting causes
Speaker 1: her to be the way she is, so you feel
Speaker 1: bad for her. Yeah, and you know, given how good
Speaker 1: this performance is, it it probably shouldn't come as a surprise,
Speaker 1: but it might surprise some people to know that, Okay,
Speaker 1: this was only her third screen role, but Chakova went
Speaker 1: on to have this just highly successful acting career in
Speaker 1: Russia and is highly acclaimed. Like she's essentially the the
Speaker 1: Russian Meryl Streep, Like she's that level of successful. If
Speaker 1: you if you look up lists of of like famous
Speaker 1: Russian UM actresses, unless it's you know, some sort of
Speaker 1: just modern list it's not taking in the like the
Speaker 1: full scope of Russian cinema, you you may very well
Speaker 1: find her on that list. She was born in nineteen
Speaker 1: forty three, uh still active today. UM she is. She's
Speaker 1: married to acclaimed Russian director Gleb Penvalov and has started
Speaker 1: several of his historical films, including three Vassa. She's just
Speaker 1: wonderful in this every moment on screen, she's doing something
Speaker 1: interesting now. The character of Ivan, the male hero, was
Speaker 1: played by Edward Izatov, who was born in nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: six died in two thousand and three. Tall, handsome Russian
Speaker 1: actor whose career lasted throughout the sixties and seventies, but
Speaker 1: was apparent Lea derailed in the early eighties due to
Speaker 1: some manner of financial or real estate scandal. I couldn't
Speaker 1: get the full details on it, but he was also
Speaker 1: in Rows, firewater and brass Pipes. All right. Then there's
Speaker 1: the step mom. This is played. This part was played
Speaker 1: by Vera Altaskaya, who was born in nineteen nineteen died
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight, another established Russian actor and a
Speaker 1: frequent cast member in Row films. In her later career,
Speaker 1: apparently she found her niche playing this, this exact sort
Speaker 1: of domineering moms step mom character. So apparently this is she.
Speaker 1: She had a later career based on this type of character.
Speaker 1: Wicked stepmother for life, yes, all right? And then Baba
Speaker 1: Yaga the witch. Oh this is such a great character
Speaker 1: and such a great screen presence in this film. She
Speaker 1: is played by the actor um uh G Glory mil
Speaker 1: Jar who lived nineteen o three through nineteen So this
Speaker 1: this guy was a comedic Russian actor who also seems
Speaker 1: to have specialized in playing supernatural folkloric villains. He played
Speaker 1: Baba Yaga five times for for Alexander Rowe, and he
Speaker 1: played um Kashkai the Immortal something like four times. He
Speaker 1: also played Judo Uto, He played our um Goroko, various
Speaker 1: devils and demons. So if you needed, if you needed
Speaker 1: somebody to play this kind of menacing but also slightly
Speaker 1: comedic villain, uh, this was your guy. He he has
Speaker 1: given it his all. I don't want to cheapen it
Speaker 1: by this comparison, but for like modern American audiences think
Speaker 1: like a level of commitment to to a frantic physical performance,
Speaker 1: sort of like like Jim Carey in the nineties. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like if in like in a sense, he's kind of like,
Speaker 1: you know, a big name monster player, you know, like
Speaker 1: a Boris Karlaf But imagine if if Boris Karloff were
Speaker 1: merged with you know, you know, you know, with one
Speaker 1: of these just outlandish physical comedians. Uh, this is what
Speaker 1: you might have, all right. We also have an interesting
Speaker 1: bandit chief character who pops up in this played by
Speaker 1: Anatoly Kubotsky who lived nineteen o eight through two thousand
Speaker 1: and one. Character a Russian character actor who often played
Speaker 1: heavies and bandits and kings and frequently worked with Alexander Rowe. Uh.
Speaker 1: He's pretty fun in this. It is not a huge part,
Speaker 1: but you know, he has a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: snarling of scenes where you know he's he's staring off
Speaker 1: and and uh off screen and looking very suspicious and
Speaker 1: uh and greedy. So it's it's a fun role. He
Speaker 1: has a great line that really sticks in my head
Speaker 1: where in the English dub after Van has like apparently
Speaker 1: magically thrown all of the bandits clubs up in the
Speaker 1: sky so that they don't fall back down until months later,
Speaker 1: the bandit chief just says, that's odd. I love it. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: I just one more name to minh and since we
Speaker 1: do tend to to to point out who did the music, Uh,
Speaker 1: it was an individibal by the name of Nicolay Budashkin
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen ten through I don't know much about him,
Speaker 1: but he also did the music on through fire Water
Speaker 1: and brass pipes. Uh, and yeah, I mean the score
Speaker 1: is delightful in this it's uh, it's it's it's beautiful
Speaker 1: and magical. Now. I don't really remember this introduction from
Speaker 1: the Mystery Science Theater version. Maybe it's in there. But
Speaker 1: the movie kicks right off letting you know it's a
Speaker 1: fairy tale, because it begins with with a grandmother sort
Speaker 1: of opening some like the wooden windows, the wooden shutters
Speaker 1: of a playhouse, and she leans into the window and
Speaker 1: and says the you know, once upon a time an
Speaker 1: old man and an old woman lived in a village
Speaker 1: with their daughters. So it's like you're you're being told
Speaker 1: a a fairy hill. Buy your babushka, right, you know,
Speaker 1: before bed or something. Yeah, yeah, this this is a
Speaker 1: great opening, And apparently the exact same opening occurs in
Speaker 1: other Row films with with I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: the same grandmother type character, but a very similar storyteller
Speaker 1: um saying yes, this is a folk tale, let me
Speaker 1: tell it to you. And uh, yeah, this was cut
Speaker 1: from the MS T three K version, I'm sure for
Speaker 1: for time as they frequently did with those films. But
Speaker 1: I also love it because if you remove her from
Speaker 1: the film, there aren't really any like nice old Russian
Speaker 1: ladies in the movie. You know, it's like mostly the
Speaker 1: evil step mom, a you know, a would be mother
Speaker 1: in law who's also kind of scheming, and then a
Speaker 1: matchmaker who, um, I don't know. I guess the matchmaker
Speaker 1: isn't isn't terrible, but still she lacks the charm of
Speaker 1: this this grandmotherly storyteller who's here to entertain us. I think,
Speaker 1: I think Yvonne's mom is you want to meet her
Speaker 1: for a second, But she like gives him, she gives
Speaker 1: him good advice that he doesn't obey though he should
Speaker 1: have right And she also, I mean, she's just like
Speaker 1: like she's desperately like trying to to tell him to
Speaker 1: live his his his life correctly as he's leaving the house.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, it's it's a very desperate scene
Speaker 1: and not really a warm one. I guess you give
Speaker 1: me a nice blind lady later on, but but nothing
Speaker 1: like the grandma here who is speaking directly to us. No,
Speaker 1: but you've got to give a shout out to Vaughan's
Speaker 1: mom and she's right about everything. He's like, I'm running
Speaker 1: off to cause trouble. I'm I'm gonna go rolling through
Speaker 1: the woods, getting into getting in all kinds of mischief.
Speaker 1: And she's like, wait, respect your elders. If he'd only
Speaker 1: listened to her, she could have saved him a lot
Speaker 1: of grief. But isn't that always the way? Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: so you get the introduction that she says, you know,
Speaker 1: she she explains the situation, which is similar to the
Speaker 1: beginning of the original folk tale about grandfather Frost. You
Speaker 1: get the two daughters. Uh, Nastica was the daughter of
Speaker 1: the old man. Marfushika was the daughter of the old woman,
Speaker 1: and uh. And then you fade to these idyllic scenes
Speaker 1: of rural life. So you've got sunrise on a river
Speaker 1: that's very smooth, in an old house deep in the woods,
Speaker 1: and you see the family sleeping inside, or at least
Speaker 1: most of the family, because the first character we get
Speaker 1: to see is Marfushka. Again, this is played by by
Speaker 1: inachure Cova. She is sleeping. And so there's a thing
Speaker 1: I was wondering about, whether this is a real feature
Speaker 1: of I don't know this time and place. Something you
Speaker 1: would find in these rural Russian houses, or if this
Speaker 1: is saying something about the character, but she's like a
Speaker 1: like a teenager sleeping in what appears to be kind
Speaker 1: of a crib, like it's like a wooden box. I
Speaker 1: think that maybe rocks And I wonder if that's supposed
Speaker 1: to be like, oh, she's spoiled like a baby. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I guess I always thought it was just, yeah,
Speaker 1: she's kind of a big baby, so of course she's
Speaker 1: in something like a crib. But it's possible that this
Speaker 1: is some sort of traditional box bed. I know we
Speaker 1: have some we have some Russian listeners and listeners with
Speaker 1: uh with with Russian roots or or or a greater
Speaker 1: knowledge of of Russian customs. Perhaps you can chime in
Speaker 1: on this. Is this something that an adult would actually
Speaker 1: be sleeping in or is this just about telling us
Speaker 1: that she's a big baby? Well, I think something that
Speaker 1: has got to be true to the original, to the
Speaker 1: Russian setting is the fact that she is being bothered
Speaker 1: by mosquito. Is they're they're buzzing around her face, you know,
Speaker 1: I hear the mosquitoes can be really rough h in
Speaker 1: the Russian woods and so they're they're buzzing around and
Speaker 1: her her mother wakes up and she sees what's going on.
Speaker 1: Oh no, my my poor baby is being bothered by mosquitoes.
Speaker 1: So she wakes up her husband and makes him sit
Speaker 1: at Marfushika's bedside to wave a branch over her face
Speaker 1: to keep the mosquitoes away while she and she also
Speaker 1: gives her a lollipop to enjoy while she's sleeping. Is
Speaker 1: that Is that normal or is that just a fairytale thing?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, all all babies would love
Speaker 1: to have a lollipop whilst sleeping, but you know, the
Speaker 1: only parents are not going to give it to them. Uh,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know. I can't speak to that.
Speaker 1: But the the interesting thing about the lollipop is that,
Speaker 1: again the MST three K version of this, the video quality,
Speaker 1: certainly on versions that lasted after the show went away. Initially,
Speaker 1: the video quality is so poor that I all I
Speaker 1: saw was red lollipop. It wasn't until I watched a
Speaker 1: nice HD version of it that I saw that the
Speaker 1: red lollipop is in the shape of a rooster, and
Speaker 1: so I I looked into this. So it's like, why
Speaker 1: why Is it in the shape of a rooster? Is
Speaker 1: this a thing? And yes, it is indeed a thing.
Speaker 1: There's this If something is in this film, I guess
Speaker 1: there's a very good chance that it. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: there for a reason. Um. There's a whole history to this.
Speaker 1: According to the website Russia Beyond Russian lollipops or leadin
Speaker 1: its uh date back to the thirteenth century. The rooster
Speaker 1: is there a tradition. There are other molds that are
Speaker 1: used other animals, but that the rooster is the main
Speaker 1: one because the rooster is a quote magical and regal
Speaker 1: bird in Russian fairy tales, and by the nineteenth century
Speaker 1: it was especially a big deal. So they're not always
Speaker 1: red in color. I think this might have to do
Speaker 1: with the use of beat sugar, or perhaps then using
Speaker 1: beat sugar and then beat juice to to color it.
Speaker 1: Uh so. But sometimes they're more of a of a
Speaker 1: brown color, and sometimes they're more yet more caramel colored
Speaker 1: in nature. But they're still around. You can still buy them.
Speaker 1: You can order them online. Um, and they're still sold
Speaker 1: in Russian candy shops. Oh my god, what a good
Speaker 1: Christmas gift. Getting somebody a bunch of more Fushkill lollipops. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really, after I've learned this, it's like, oh man,
Speaker 1: now I want one. I don't know if I want
Speaker 1: to sleep with it. That you know I want one.
Speaker 1: You know, I've outgrown certain concerns about looking cool and
Speaker 1: there's something, you know, like dignity questions I don't really
Speaker 1: care about. But I will not eat the rooster lollipop.
Speaker 1: That's that's a line that will not just in general
Speaker 1: or only at night. Never what, well, I'll have to
Speaker 1: get you one. You might change your mind, Okay, But anyway,
Speaker 1: I think we're supposed to get the message. Okay, you
Speaker 1: know they're giving her a lollipop all she's sleeping, So
Speaker 1: I guess Marfushka is a spoiled brad even win asleep.
Speaker 1: But then meanwhile we get the mother going into the
Speaker 1: next room to see her stepdaughter, Nastia, who again corresponds
Speaker 1: to the good daughter from the folk tale The Nice
Speaker 1: One and Uh. Nastia is staying up through the night
Speaker 1: to knit a pair of stockings that her stepmother asked
Speaker 1: her to make for Marfushka, and when she comes in
Speaker 1: and finds her hard at work, the stepmother is still
Speaker 1: not satisfied. She She's like, I told you to make
Speaker 1: the stockings, but I didn't tell you to click your
Speaker 1: needles like that. You'll wake up, my darling girl. So
Speaker 1: Nastia has sent outside in the cold to finish knitting,
Speaker 1: and the stepmother is so mean. She says, the stockings
Speaker 1: have to be finished by the time the rooster crows,
Speaker 1: and she says, otherwise, my precious little girl, I will
Speaker 1: tear your braid off. There's a lot of threats of
Speaker 1: braid violence in this movie, yeah, the removal of braids.
Speaker 1: And then, of course it's revealed that the stepsister does
Speaker 1: not have an actual braid, she has a store bought braid. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess you know commentary on you know which daughter
Speaker 1: is legitimately beautiful and good and which one is artificially
Speaker 1: beautiful and good, which, of course is based entirely on
Speaker 1: hair length. We can't respect that enough, right, Yes, hair
Speaker 1: length directly corresponds to moral virtue. Yeah, but I like,
Speaker 1: I noticed the little thing. This is also in keeping
Speaker 1: with the fairy tale, at least the version chronicled by
Speaker 1: Andrew Lang, which is that the family dog barks at
Speaker 1: the wicked stepmother when she's being mean Dynastia, so like
Speaker 1: the dog is taking nastias side, just like in the
Speaker 1: story the dog takes the good daughter's side. Back at home,
Speaker 1: She's like, you know, I'll give you a pancake if
Speaker 1: you say that that the good daughter is bad and
Speaker 1: the bad daughter is good and the dogs like, no,
Speaker 1: I won't. Yeah, that the dog is important in this
Speaker 1: movie as our other animals, like, they're not just they're
Speaker 1: not just hanging around like they have agency, even if
Speaker 1: the movie didn't go to the degree of having them
Speaker 1: actually speak with dubbed human voices, though some of the
Speaker 1: animals in the movie do speak. Yeah, like do they speak?
Speaker 1: As I was trying to remember just now, I was like,
Speaker 1: the pig speak, does the cat speak? The rooster speaks?
Speaker 1: You remember, Oh, yes, that's right, that's coming right up.
Speaker 1: So the sun's about to rise and a rooster hops
Speaker 1: up into frame. Remember the stepmother was like, Okay, if
Speaker 1: you don't finish these stockings by the time the rooster crows,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tear your braid off. And then uh, Nastya
Speaker 1: goes and negotiates with the rooster. She's like, give me
Speaker 1: a little time, please, pretty rooster. Uh, I guess she's
Speaker 1: flattering him, or no, she's not, probably not flattering because
Speaker 1: she's she's good and honest. So she just genuinely thinks
Speaker 1: the rooster is pretty and throws that in there just
Speaker 1: to be nice, and the rooster, actually talking with the
Speaker 1: human voice, says, uh, sorry, roosters only obeyed the sun.
Speaker 1: So you'll have to go. You have to you gotta
Speaker 1: talk to my boss. You gotta, you gotta go deal
Speaker 1: with the rosy finger Dawn. So she goes to plead
Speaker 1: with rosy Finger Dawn. And she so she goes up
Speaker 1: on this hillside with these trees behind her, and it's
Speaker 1: like this crest crest of grassy hill that rises up
Speaker 1: by the river, and she faces the sun and pleads
Speaker 1: with it, and apparently the sun is so moved by
Speaker 1: pity for her it sinks back down over the horizon
Speaker 1: and gives her time to finish the stockings. And I
Speaker 1: guess I think this was the first moment in the
Speaker 1: movie where I was like, huh, Like, so far it's
Speaker 1: been interesting and funny, but this scene is actually quite beautiful. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I have to admit when we recorded our our current,
Speaker 1: I guess is the current series on time travel fiction.
Speaker 1: I kept thinking of this like this, in some ways
Speaker 1: is kind of a folkloric time travel into the past.
Speaker 1: That the literal turning back of the clock, but not
Speaker 1: the clock on the wall, but the clock, the celestial clock,
Speaker 1: the great celestial clock of the the the the actual
Speaker 1: movement of the sun. It's like Joshua stilling the sun
Speaker 1: in the sky so he could finish his battle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it works. So so it works. She she has
Speaker 1: to him to finish the stockings before the brewster crows.
Speaker 1: But you know what, the wicked stepmother is just still
Speaker 1: not impressed. She comes out and she's like, so you
Speaker 1: did it on time. Why you wicked little viper, You
Speaker 1: wicked little witch. I'll give you much harder work next time. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, which is relatable dynamic to a lot of people. Maybe,
Speaker 1: I'm sure at some point in your life everybody might
Speaker 1: have had the experience of trying really hard, you know,
Speaker 1: working hard to complete some task that seemed impossible, only
Speaker 1: to discover that doing so is maybe not really rewarded
Speaker 1: or appreciated. Instead makes people expect even more of you
Speaker 1: in the future. Maybe that's more often a work thing
Speaker 1: than than a family thing. I don't know, well, I've
Speaker 1: encountered shades of it when in Dungeons and Dragons, like
Speaker 1: when the dungeon master gives you an encounter and things
Speaker 1: go a little bit too easy. Yeah, they just sort
Speaker 1: of like ad hawc make up another one to punish you, Yeah,
Speaker 1: or like next time, I don't have to make it harder,
Speaker 1: like it's okay to with with. Sometimes we need a
Speaker 1: cake walk, sometimes we need to win Natural twenty why
Speaker 1: you wicked Little Vipers exactly. But as a reward, of course, Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's going to get more chores, stuff like watering random
Speaker 1: stumps and so forth. Yes, yeah, exactly. So she's sent
Speaker 1: off with this big list of other chores to do
Speaker 1: around the farm. Uh. And then we cut to meeting
Speaker 1: one of our other main characters. I guess our two
Speaker 1: main characters are Nastia and then this new character, Yvonne.
Speaker 1: And so we see him coming out of his house.
Speaker 1: We learned he's from another village nearby, and immediately we
Speaker 1: get the vibe about Yvonne that he is young and strong,
Speaker 1: but proud and vain, And so he walks out of
Speaker 1: his house sort of, you know, chest puffed out looking
Speaker 1: looking into a handheld mirror and and just really enjoying himself,
Speaker 1: enjoying his own reflection and uh, like we were talking
Speaker 1: about a minute ago, we see his his mother comes
Speaker 1: out behind him, and she really worries for him. As
Speaker 1: as he's leaving the house, she implores him not to
Speaker 1: forget her. So it's as if he's just going off
Speaker 1: to maybe never return, who knows. And she tells him
Speaker 1: that he should should not harm the weak and that
Speaker 1: he should respect his elders. Yeah, and he yeah, he
Speaker 1: is a character cature of of of arrogance and uh
Speaker 1: and and beauty. But also, I mean the thing about Vane,
Speaker 1: and again it's my understanding that they are sort of
Speaker 1: different versions of Vane that you encounter in the stories.
Speaker 1: Like he has all the tools to back to back
Speaker 1: it up, Like he is a beautiful man. He he
Speaker 1: does have like almost godlike powers. He is he's like
Speaker 1: a Russian Hercules. Um uh. And he's also he's he's
Speaker 1: he has a is a great mind. He's he's able
Speaker 1: to trick people out of hurting him without necessarily getting
Speaker 1: into a physical battle with him. But he is just
Speaker 1: crushing le Vain, right, I mean, I think it picks
Speaker 1: up on a folk tale theme that I find interesting.
Speaker 1: Many folk tales concern concerned characters who are themselves vulnerable
Speaker 1: to some more powerful uh threat within the story of
Speaker 1: monster or a bear and animal of banded or something um.
Speaker 1: But there's another type of folk tale that is about
Speaker 1: the reckless arrogance of the strong young man. It's not
Speaker 1: that he's vulnerable, it's that his that his strength and
Speaker 1: his freedom make him a danger to himself and others
Speaker 1: right right, and he he can't even though he has
Speaker 1: all the tools to be a true hero, He's not
Speaker 1: going to be one until he learns like the right
Speaker 1: path in life and and and actually starts um that,
Speaker 1: you know, acting on the true values of of moral life.
Speaker 1: But as soon as we see Vans setting out from
Speaker 1: his house to to go on his wanderings, a song
Speaker 1: and dancing begins, and I just I also don't know
Speaker 1: if I remember this song and dancing from the Mystery
Speaker 1: Science Theater, but I loved it. It's it's sort of
Speaker 1: like Van's w W E entrance music. Uh. The song
Speaker 1: is not translated in the dub, so I truly don't
Speaker 1: know what they were singing about. But I'm guessing it's
Speaker 1: about how everybody, including van On thinks Yvon is really
Speaker 1: great scenes that way, And yeah, this is definitely a
Speaker 1: scene that was not in the MST three K cut. Uh.
Speaker 1: So it's it's it's it's kind of like this delightful
Speaker 1: uh bonus you get from watching it. You know, you
Speaker 1: get to watch all these scenes you've you've seen a
Speaker 1: million times transformed into something beautiful and then occasionally all
Speaker 1: new scenes. But this leads into iv ongoing singing in
Speaker 1: a tramping through the forests in the hills, and it's
Speaker 1: just a really excellent musical scene. The song is good. Again,
Speaker 1: it's not dubbed, so I don't know what it's about,
Speaker 1: but I assume once it's Von by himself in the
Speaker 1: woods singing, it's just, you know, I'm awesome, I'm the best.
Speaker 1: I'm going to sing about myself. And then we go
Speaker 1: straight into the bandit scene, which I did remember from
Speaker 1: the from the other version, and the bandit scene is
Speaker 1: a classic. It's how would we describe this one? Do
Speaker 1: you want to take it? Oh? Well, it's just this
Speaker 1: band of really only like watching this, It's it's easy
Speaker 1: to imagine that they're not even humans, but there's some
Speaker 1: sort of dwarves or trolls or something or gnomes. Because
Speaker 1: it's just a bunch of very rugged looking, mostly bearded
Speaker 1: men in mismatched garments setting around a campfire and they're
Speaker 1: they're plucking the petals off of daisies. Uh, and they're
Speaker 1: in they're they're trying to decide, they're trying to use
Speaker 1: the daisies way to decide how they're gonna how they're
Speaker 1: gonna go about their day, chanting we will rob them,
Speaker 1: we won't rob them, we will eat them, we won't
Speaker 1: eat them, et cetera. But the next one is we
Speaker 1: will beat them, we will be beaten. So what happens
Speaker 1: if they pick we will be beaten? They just still
Speaker 1: get beaten. I don't think I never really noticed that
Speaker 1: they were saying that part. Yeah, and the some of
Speaker 1: the some of the bandits are like up in the
Speaker 1: trees as lookout. So I love the set up here,
Speaker 1: but of course that we're gonna have a clash of
Speaker 1: the strong against the strong. Yvonne comes along whistling his
Speaker 1: theme song, uh, still doing the tune of his entrance music,
Speaker 1: and the bandits come up to him and they say Hey,
Speaker 1: you're captured. Now we're going to rob you. I think
Speaker 1: that's literally a quote, um, and so he says, all right,
Speaker 1: then robbed me and he drops his satchel, which I
Speaker 1: guess they would assume has his money in it, and
Speaker 1: they start fighting over his satchel, and in doing so,
Speaker 1: they dropped their clubs, and then Vaughan sets to grabbing
Speaker 1: the clubs and chucking them way up in the air.
Speaker 1: And then when when they're when they figure out what's
Speaker 1: going on, they're like, hey, what do you do with
Speaker 1: our clubs? And he's like, well, I threw them up
Speaker 1: in the sky and they'll come down next winter. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's great. I mean, the bandits are fearsome but but
Speaker 1: not the smartest, and Yvan is easily able to to
Speaker 1: outsmart them without even really having to fight them. So
Speaker 1: moving along, Van just goes about his business and then
Speaker 1: the narrator comes in. I love that there were just
Speaker 1: a few moments where a narrator suddenly talks. There's not
Speaker 1: much narration in the movie, but every now and then
Speaker 1: you get like a sentence or two, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of jarring because it's like, whoa where did that come from?
Speaker 1: But the nar vader says, how long did our young
Speaker 1: hero Yvonne wander over hill? And Dale frankly, we have
Speaker 1: no idea. And I was laughing when I saw that,
Speaker 1: because I was like, who is we? Is this like
Speaker 1: the God speaking like you know in Genesis? Let us
Speaker 1: make man in our own image? Anyway, so the narrator says,
Speaker 1: the fact remains that Ivan eventually reached far away in
Speaker 1: unknown lands. And here is where we get another classic scene.
Speaker 1: I think we talked about this scene a little bit
Speaker 1: in our Mushroom Foraging episode, but this is the chase
Speaker 1: scene between yvon and the old man Mushroom or grandfather Mushroom.
Speaker 1: So Von meets this old man who wears a hat
Speaker 1: that looks like a mushroom cap and uh he he
Speaker 1: keeps disappearing and reappearing, and Von goes up to him
Speaker 1: and says, are you a sorcerer, granddaddy? And uh he says,
Speaker 1: I dabble in sorcery a little, but the truth is
Speaker 1: that I get bored. And what does that mean? Does
Speaker 1: he get bored? Well, Grandfather Mushroom wants if On to
Speaker 1: play hide and seek with him. Uh So, so they
Speaker 1: work out a deal. If a Van can catch Grandfather Mushroom,
Speaker 1: he'll he will receive a well bent bow and some
Speaker 1: straight arrows. But it is hard to catch Grandfather Mushroom
Speaker 1: because he has the power to disappear and teleport. So
Speaker 1: this does not really seem fair. So Van loses, but
Speaker 1: because he admits to losing, the old man gives him
Speaker 1: the bow and arrows anyway. But in keeping with the
Speaker 1: themes of the original folk tale, here's what. So a
Speaker 1: Vaughan is not in the classic Grandfather Frost, at least
Speaker 1: the version chronicle by Andrew Lange, but the same rules apply.
Speaker 1: So he has met a magical old man in the
Speaker 1: woods and he is not courteous to him. He forgets
Speaker 1: to say thank you for the bow, and he just
Speaker 1: sort of he just sort of was like, Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go about I'm gonna go about my business. And
Speaker 1: the old man is like, hey, aren't you gonna say
Speaker 1: thank you and bow to me? Bow your head and
Speaker 1: if Vaughan says, those who bow run the risk of
Speaker 1: losing their head, the bear or will bow before you
Speaker 1: if you like, but not Yvonne, and this this is
Speaker 1: bad news. So so Grandfather Mushroom is like then so
Speaker 1: be it. Things will come to pass as you say.
Speaker 1: The bear will bow before me down to the ground,
Speaker 1: but it is your back that will bend. So here
Speaker 1: we get the again, always be polite to old magical
Speaker 1: people in the woods. But eventually we got to have
Speaker 1: our our two protagonists or two plot lines collide. Right. So,
Speaker 1: so Yvonne comes across a carving on a rock that reads,
Speaker 1: find a feather in the fields and throw it to
Speaker 1: the winds, and if you follow that feather, you will
Speaker 1: find your destiny. So he has a uh, somewhat aggressive
Speaker 1: way of finding a feather in the fields. He shoots
Speaker 1: a bird with an arrow and then picks a feather
Speaker 1: off of it throws it. It floats all over all
Speaker 1: over the place, and he follows it and eventually it
Speaker 1: lands at a riverside where he finds Nastia. She is
Speaker 1: they're drawing water from the river. She's got her loyal
Speaker 1: buddy dog at the side, and she's singing this melancholy song,
Speaker 1: and she is pouring water over a dead stump, and
Speaker 1: I Vaughn sees her falls in love at first sight,
Speaker 1: and he walks up to talk. She is, of course,
Speaker 1: hard at work watering the old stump. She says she's
Speaker 1: going to water it until flowers bloom out of it,
Speaker 1: something her stepmother told her to do, and I Vaughn's like,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. She she must she must be very mean
Speaker 1: to you. But Nastia does not complain. She's like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: it's fine, and you know I'll do it, and so
Speaker 1: ivn uh, I don't think there's really any lead up
Speaker 1: to this. He's just like, hey, will you marry me?
Speaker 1: So he's being very smooth, and she is like, I
Speaker 1: do not think we would make a good couple. And
Speaker 1: he wants to know why, and she says, well, it's
Speaker 1: because you're a braggert and I am not, and I
Speaker 1: like that. His response is, well, I'm not a braggert
Speaker 1: because I'm actually very good at everything, so he explains,
Speaker 1: so I guess not bragging if it's true. So he
Speaker 1: says he's a good fighter, he's a good fisherman, he's
Speaker 1: a great dancer, and he's a great hunter. And then
Speaker 1: he decides to show off how good he is at
Speaker 1: hunting by pulling out his bow and he says he's
Speaker 1: going to shoot a bear on the other side of
Speaker 1: the river and Nastia greatly opposes this. She says, no,
Speaker 1: she has cubs and she tries to stop him. So
Speaker 1: she calls out to her dog, who barks, and that
Speaker 1: scares the bears and they run off, and then Nastia
Speaker 1: throws a bucket over Van's head. And then when the
Speaker 1: bucket comes off, the movie kicks into high gear because oops,
Speaker 1: here we get grandfather mushroom magic. And now yvon has
Speaker 1: a bear head and he sounds like Zoidberg. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess he does a bit, but yeah, it has this
Speaker 1: fabulous bear head that, um, I think it's actually well crafted,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean within the context of the of
Speaker 1: the film and the times. Uh, you know, it looks
Speaker 1: kind of terrifying but also kind of alive. Yeah. It's
Speaker 1: a very creepy looking also sometimes funny looking, and and
Speaker 1: his voice has changed. She no longer just sounds like Yvonne.
Speaker 1: He He's like, whoa, what has happened to me? And uh,
Speaker 1: when he realizes he has a bare head, he thinks
Speaker 1: that Nastia did it to him. He thinks that she
Speaker 1: gave doesn't he I think he thinks she gave her head. Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: because he starts saying, I curse you forever, you witch. Um,
Speaker 1: and he runs off and and is freaking out. This
Speaker 1: also looks very funny because he's just running between the
Speaker 1: trees sort of swinging his arms around and moaning, and
Speaker 1: Nastia is very sad and her tears fall in the
Speaker 1: river and for some reason this makes flowers bloom out
Speaker 1: of the dead stump that she was watering. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think this is where we also have just
Speaker 1: a very beautiful, lengthy scene that I think was cut
Speaker 1: from the MST version where we just see this wonderful
Speaker 1: reflection in the water and you know, she's having this
Speaker 1: emotional moment and it's it's like again one of those
Speaker 1: where you just you just admire the look of the film.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're very right. I mean, so there it
Speaker 1: is genuinely a sort of sad moment here, But then
Speaker 1: it cuts back to being kind of funny because then
Speaker 1: we see Van just like roaming all over the place,
Speaker 1: growling and moaning and feeling really sorry for himself. Um,
Speaker 1: and he somehow he gets back to grandfather Mushroom and
Speaker 1: he's like, I gotta know how to get this get
Speaker 1: this head, you know, barehead off of me. He begs
Speaker 1: him to teach him what he can do to become
Speaker 1: a man again, and Grandfather Mushroom says, you've never done
Speaker 1: a good deed, and then Barehead Avon just runs with it.
Speaker 1: So he's like, oh, so I must do a good
Speaker 1: deed and then I'll return to normal. And Grandfather Mushroom
Speaker 1: is trying to protest. He's like, no, it isn't that simple,
Speaker 1: but Barehead is always he's already running off to get
Speaker 1: it done. So it's still that that youthful sort of prideful, foolhardiness.
Speaker 1: He's not going to even read the full instructions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and from here we get kind of a montage
Speaker 1: with scene try where he's running up to people, random
Speaker 1: folks and just like he's saying, what can I do
Speaker 1: to help you? But he's a bear monster, so he's
Speaker 1: terrifying people and they're just running away from it. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's kind only Frankenstein, right, Michelle, you
Speaker 1: know he he uh, the creature just just wants friends,
Speaker 1: but but he's scary looking, so people are going to
Speaker 1: run away. Oh, it is very it's in fact, it
Speaker 1: mirrors Frankenstein in in another way. They we'll get to
Speaker 1: in a second. Now, cutting back to the house where
Speaker 1: where Nastia and Marfushka live, there is a really funny
Speaker 1: scene leading up to I guess it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: a matchmaking scene where a suitor and his parents come
Speaker 1: to the house and uh, they're trying to set up
Speaker 1: Marfushka with this with this marriage bile bachelor, and so
Speaker 1: they're getting her ready for that, putting all this makeup
Speaker 1: on her, but it looks like clown makeup. And she's
Speaker 1: wearing this extremely colorful outfit with a with a red
Speaker 1: and yellow crown, and it's it's the colors look great.
Speaker 1: And again this is one reason that it really is
Speaker 1: worth watching the good HD version. But also I thought
Speaker 1: the scene is very funny because like the bachelor is
Speaker 1: this super dopey looking dude. He he slightly has a
Speaker 1: bit of um the energy of the guy in the
Speaker 1: who plays um microft homes in the BBC version of Sherlock,
Speaker 1: but like dope, he or with long flat hair and uh,
Speaker 1: and so there's a scene so they're trying to the
Speaker 1: parents are trying to get him to him and his
Speaker 1: parents to agree to marry Marfushka. But everything really goes
Speaker 1: wrong somehow. She ends up falling into the lake and
Speaker 1: then her fake braid comes off and it just it
Speaker 1: just all goes to hell and and the other people
Speaker 1: are making fun of her, and so the stepmother is
Speaker 1: really mad and uh. And then the worst thing of
Speaker 1: all is that the suitor dude is like, hey, what
Speaker 1: if I married Nastia instead? And that just makes the
Speaker 1: stepmother go like ballistic. Oh. And then eventually, after after
Speaker 1: a long interlude, Van does get his his original head back,
Speaker 1: and I think it's because he picks up a dick
Speaker 1: thinking it belonged to an old woman that he helped
Speaker 1: carry back to her home over a mountain, and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is her stick. I better take it back to her,
Speaker 1: And for some reason that's the thing that does it.
Speaker 1: Then Grandfather Mushrooms like, okay, you deserve a human head now, yeah,
Speaker 1: and an old blind woman. So it kind of mirrors
Speaker 1: Frankenstein in that respect that he ends up. Initially, he's
Speaker 1: he ends up helping her by carrying her home, but
Speaker 1: it's but it's seeing her stick and thinking, oh, she
Speaker 1: needs that stick. I need to get that back to her.
Speaker 1: So it's almost like I mean, this is something that
Speaker 1: the MST three k Riff had fun with, you know,
Speaker 1: the idea that it's like he didn't actually do anything nice,
Speaker 1: he just thought about doing something nice and and that
Speaker 1: was enough. But if I'm going to re into it more,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's the idea that that he was
Speaker 1: doing it without any kind of a scheme behind it.
Speaker 1: You know, he he wasn't helping her because it would
Speaker 1: help him. He was just doing it as a reflex,
Speaker 1: you know. It like kindness was no longer something that
Speaker 1: he had to force himself to do. He could do
Speaker 1: it instinctually. Oh well that makes more sense, Okay, I
Speaker 1: I can accept that. But yeah, when it does come
Speaker 1: down to it, is very funny to point out that
Speaker 1: that he just thought about doing it and he gets
Speaker 1: rewarded for it. And uh, I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: sometimes people do sort of work that way, like they
Speaker 1: maybe congratulate themselves a little too much, not for actually
Speaker 1: doing anything good, but for becoming convinced that they would
Speaker 1: do something good if given the opportunity. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: we've I think we've we've looked at some studies on that.
Speaker 1: For the core stuff to blow your mind episodes Okay, well,
Speaker 1: here sort of we hit the transition point because we
Speaker 1: skip ahead in time, so we we we skip ahead
Speaker 1: to winter. Previously, I don't know, I guess this was
Speaker 1: supposed to be in summer before. Uh, and and now
Speaker 1: we go to winter, and here's where we sort of
Speaker 1: really get into the meat of the original folk tale.
Speaker 1: I also think at this point we might we might
Speaker 1: skip over some things and describe in less detail. But
Speaker 1: there is so much wonderful stuff and magical characters in
Speaker 1: the second half of the movie too, because here's where
Speaker 1: we're gonna get Bobba Yaga and and Grandfather Frost. So
Speaker 1: the second part begins with the premise of the Grandfather
Speaker 1: Frost story, which is that the old man is taking
Speaker 1: Nastia out into the out into the frozen woods to
Speaker 1: die because presumably because suitors keep wanting to marry her
Speaker 1: instead of Marfushka, and stepmother is is tired of this,
Speaker 1: so she's like, an old man, you will kill your
Speaker 1: daughter for me? And uh, he's really broken up about it,
Speaker 1: but he's doing it like he's taken her out there
Speaker 1: on the sled. But then he while he's out there,
Speaker 1: he's like, no, no, I won't, and he tries to
Speaker 1: turn the sled around to take her back home, But
Speaker 1: like we talked about earlier, Nastia apparently doesn't want to
Speaker 1: cause trouble for her father, so she just hops out
Speaker 1: of the sled, so I guess, so as not to
Speaker 1: be a burden. She's just like, it's it's all right, dad,
Speaker 1: I'll just die of exposure. I don't want you to
Speaker 1: have a rough afternoon. I'll say again that is pathological kindness,
Speaker 1: that there's no reason to be that nice. But now,
Speaker 1: also in the in the same time period and the
Speaker 1: dead of winter, we find Yvonne out wandering the woods
Speaker 1: and what he's trying to find Nastia again. He's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I've got a human head again. I'm a better man.
Speaker 1: I'm not so selfish in vain now I am. I
Speaker 1: am a more suitable bachelor who who could marry Nastia
Speaker 1: because now she'll see I'm actually a good person. So
Speaker 1: he's out trying to find her and he comes across
Speaker 1: the cabin of of the Witch of of Bobby Yaga,
Speaker 1: which is up on legs, I think, as it is
Speaker 1: often depicted in these stories, and there's this great scene
Speaker 1: where they're they're like where he and the witch are
Speaker 1: both trying to order the house which direction to face. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a wonderful scene. And and this whole sequence
Speaker 1: is just great with with all the costumes and and
Speaker 1: the sets and everything. So yeah, she gets a bunch
Speaker 1: of trees to attack Yvonne and bring him inside because
Speaker 1: she wants to eat him. Uh, and she's going to
Speaker 1: load him into the then to cook him, but he
Speaker 1: tricks her in classic fairy tale style. He's like, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: you're you want me to sit on the shovel so
Speaker 1: you can put me into the oven. But I've never
Speaker 1: sat on a shovel before. You gotta show me how.
Speaker 1: It's like the youth have today. We're not taught anything.
Speaker 1: She's going to demonstrate it. So she gets on the
Speaker 1: shovel and and he shoves her into the oven. And
Speaker 1: then she's like, oh, get me out, so he lets
Speaker 1: her out. But then they're negotiating. He's trying to get
Speaker 1: her magical help to find Nastia. The interior of Bobby
Speaker 1: Iaga's hut is fabulous because it looks like Mario Baba
Speaker 1: was the end. It was the interior deck right here yes,
Speaker 1: blue and purple light everywhere, fog. It's full of animals.
Speaker 1: They're owls, pigs, cats, spider webs. I think some of
Speaker 1: the snakes other things I'm probably not even remembering. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then meanwhile, so while Yvonne is encountering this magical being, uh,
Speaker 1: Nastia is encountering grandfather Frost, and we get basically the
Speaker 1: same interaction that they have in the folk tale. So
Speaker 1: he's like, are you warm? And she says yes, even
Speaker 1: though she's obviously freezing, and he's like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you're a very nice girl, uh, because she you know,
Speaker 1: she's not gonna talk smack about how cold his forest is.
Speaker 1: And then he offers her his coat, but she's like,
Speaker 1: what about you, won't you be cold? But of course
Speaker 1: he's you know, he's Father Frost. He's not going to
Speaker 1: be cold. So it goes exactly this is this is
Speaker 1: this is a fashion coat. Um. So, just as she's
Speaker 1: about to freeze to death, father Frost is like, oh,
Speaker 1: she needs help, So he covers her up in his
Speaker 1: warm coat, takes her away in his sleigh, and they
Speaker 1: go to his house, which looks kind of like a church. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's it's it's another beautiful structure inside and out.
Speaker 1: Inside especially it's just this this blue crystal palace with
Speaker 1: you know again, I'm kind of reminded of of Mario
Speaker 1: Bava films, except it's it's as if Mario Bava made
Speaker 1: a fairytale movie for children instead of you know, some
Speaker 1: sort of uh thriller. Right well, there there is something
Speaker 1: quite deadly within the house though, because Father Frost he
Speaker 1: leaves his scepter in there, and wouldn't you know it,
Speaker 1: uh Nastya's. Nastia's curiosity gets the better of her because
Speaker 1: she's like, what's the deal with de scepter? She goes
Speaker 1: to check it out, touches it, and it freezes her solid.
Speaker 1: She's in a chunk of ice. We we learned from
Speaker 1: Father Frost that that whoever touches the scepter will never
Speaker 1: wake again. And he comes back and finds her frozen
Speaker 1: like that, and he really beats himself up about it.
Speaker 1: He's like, you knit with you, donkey, you didn't watch
Speaker 1: over her. Meanwhile, somehow the Witch sends van off Um
Speaker 1: chasing after some kind of object. I think it's a
Speaker 1: sheep skin or something that will allegedly lead him to
Speaker 1: Nastia or a pig sled. Maybe that's the pig that
Speaker 1: lives in her hut is transformed into a pig sled,
Speaker 1: magical sled. It will take him where he needs to go. Uh.
Speaker 1: And she when she's alone, she has these scenes with
Speaker 1: like a cat and an owl and a snake where
Speaker 1: she's just lamenting that she did not get to cannibalize Yvonne.
Speaker 1: She really wants to eat him. I would remember the
Speaker 1: cat was doing her bidding by helping to engineer the
Speaker 1: moment where she touches the scepter and it's frozen. That's right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But eventually von meets Nastia's loyal dog, you know, her
Speaker 1: buddy dog from way back in the beginning, and and
Speaker 1: the dog. I like this movie because this is a
Speaker 1: movie that appreciates the quality of a good dog, and
Speaker 1: the dog is a good friend. The dog leads him
Speaker 1: to Father Frost's house, and when he gets there, if
Speaker 1: An's love wakes her up and defrosts her basically, Oh
Speaker 1: and then, uh, what does the exchange they have? It's
Speaker 1: like she gets defrosted and he's there with his head
Speaker 1: back to normal, and she says something like um. She
Speaker 1: she says, well, she gives him the I guess it's
Speaker 1: the diminutive form of his Evenushka, she says, Evenushka, how
Speaker 1: nice you are? Now I like you better. And then
Speaker 1: he he brags now that he does good deeds all
Speaker 1: the time, and she seems to accept this, and then
Speaker 1: we we get sort of a happy ending. But the
Speaker 1: funny thing is the movie is not over yet, so
Speaker 1: you would expect that this is you know, the music
Speaker 1: kicks in and we go to credits, um, but it's
Speaker 1: not quite there yet that we do see the happy ending. Uh.
Speaker 1: Nastia and Ivonne arrived back at the family home in
Speaker 1: a regal sleigh. They're dressed like royalty with a box
Speaker 1: full of Jim's so it seems like they're married and
Speaker 1: they're happy and they're rich. And Marfushka is furious. She
Speaker 1: keeps saying I want stones so um so much like
Speaker 1: the fairy tale. Her mother demands that the old man
Speaker 1: take Marfushka out into the forest as well, so that
Speaker 1: the same thing can happen to her, because from their
Speaker 1: point of view, it's like, well, okay, daughter was left
Speaker 1: in the forest, came back. Uh. Married, happy and rich.
Speaker 1: So you know, we just assume the same will happen
Speaker 1: to the other daughter. But when father Frost comes across her,
Speaker 1: she basically beats him up. I think she actually hits
Speaker 1: him or something. Yeah, yeah, she's she's abusive and and
Speaker 1: awful to Frost. Uh And in the original folklore like
Speaker 1: he freezes her to death for it. But in this
Speaker 1: we get a you know, we get a sanitized version
Speaker 1: of that, right, so instead of him him killing her
Speaker 1: in the stepmother Marfushka is sent back home in uh
Speaker 1: not with a husband or not like royalty in a
Speaker 1: sleigh with a handsome husband, pulled by white horses and
Speaker 1: a box full of jewels. Instead she is by herself
Speaker 1: on a sled pulled by pigs, with a box full
Speaker 1: of crows. Yes, And there's also a great sort of
Speaker 1: epilogue scene where Van and Nasti are are riding off
Speaker 1: together and they get attacked by the bandits from earlier
Speaker 1: in the movie at the behest of the Witch the way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is kind of our final battle. So she's rallied
Speaker 1: the bandits and there's all there's a great scene where
Speaker 1: she comes flying in um in her in her mortar,
Speaker 1: which is which is her traditional means of flying about.
Speaker 1: And it reminded me so much of an illustration from
Speaker 1: the Enchanted World's book. Uh. It was this this really
Speaker 1: bright illustration by Ivan uh Billibbin from I believe nineteen
Speaker 1: hundred um. It was in the book on Witches and Wizards.
Speaker 1: But you can also see this image if you just
Speaker 1: go to the Wikipedia page on Bobba Yaga. It's like
Speaker 1: the top image and it's it's really cool. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: she's coming in. She's bribed the bandits, she's organizing them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, now you have the worst thing you have
Speaker 1: the Bobby. You have Bobba Yaga committed to bringing down
Speaker 1: Yvon and Nastinka, and she has convinced all of these
Speaker 1: bandits to work with her. The bandits aren't very smart,
Speaker 1: but now they have a general telling them what to do, right,
Speaker 1: And she I think she still wants to eat Von
Speaker 1: right like she's like, he looked so tasty. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: she feels she cheated out of that meal. So she's
Speaker 1: gonna she's gonna get it right. So so the bandits attack,
Speaker 1: Nastia gets tied up. The bandits are beating up Yvon,
Speaker 1: but then we get, uh, just save the day. We
Speaker 1: get a couple of things. First of all, the loyal
Speaker 1: dog unties Nastia from the tree, and then the bandits
Speaker 1: are knocked out by their own clubs. We get a
Speaker 1: call back from earlier when when Yvon threw all the
Speaker 1: clubs up in the air. Yeah, I believe the riff
Speaker 1: and they miss T three K version is it's raining
Speaker 1: cinematic payoff, which I love. I love that riff and
Speaker 1: I think about in anytime something like this happens in
Speaker 1: a movie. And then I guess we get the epilogue
Speaker 1: to the epilogue, which is like we see our our
Speaker 1: Nasty and Van at their wedding here or at some
Speaker 1: kind of celebration. They're in a They're in a house
Speaker 1: with a bunch of people gathered for a feast, and
Speaker 1: it's like the most colorful scene I have ever witnessed.
Speaker 1: The colors are just like violent. Yes, it is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1: Do just faberge egg pastel explosions. It's it's gorgeous and
Speaker 1: they're on the table. You see bowls of food, apples,
Speaker 1: there's a rooster bowl. Um, everybody's here. And it's a
Speaker 1: great shot too, because we begin it, they're into the
Speaker 1: table and then we we we we pull back. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, we we're moving down the table, down this
Speaker 1: feast table. We feel like we're part of the feast, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So so you know what the this is a wonderful
Speaker 1: holiday film. This is It does make for great comedic
Speaker 1: fodder on on MST. But this is also just a
Speaker 1: really gorgeous, creative and fun movie. I I give it
Speaker 1: ten out of ten talking roosters. Yeah, Like most of
Speaker 1: the best MST three K films, it stands on its
Speaker 1: own without the riff. The riff is not necessary to
Speaker 1: enjoy it, uh in my opinion, so uh, I recommend
Speaker 1: everybody consider giving it a go, especially if you're a
Speaker 1: fan of the episode. You'll still love it. You've probably
Speaker 1: seen the Rift version enough that you've memorized all the
Speaker 1: good riffs, so you can just think them or say
Speaker 1: them while you're watching. Pretend there are yours. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretending pretend there yours um And Lucky for you, you
Speaker 1: can buy or rent this digitally on a number of platforms,
Speaker 1: including Amazon Prime, where I think there are like two
Speaker 1: different versions of it. I'm I'm not sure about the
Speaker 1: quality on those, but whatever you end up finding, go
Speaker 1: with the high quality. If you find make sure it's
Speaker 1: the vibrant colors. Um you know, shop around. You can
Speaker 1: watch it in Russian with subtitles that you can also
Speaker 1: watch it again with this very fun English dub um. Uh.
Speaker 1: There's also a physical um Ruscico DVD that you can
Speaker 1: pick up for a quite reasonable price online if you
Speaker 1: want a physical disk to put into your DVD player. Nice.
Speaker 1: So I think this was our our what our second
Speaker 1: Russian film on Weird House Cinema. There was the Teams
Speaker 1: in the Universe, Oh yeah, the sci fi one with
Speaker 1: the great robots, also ultimately a children's film, and uh,
Speaker 1: and here we are with another Russian children's film. Well,
Speaker 1: and to understand, there's plenty more where that came from.
Speaker 1: It seems like, especially maybe the sixties and seventies have
Speaker 1: a lot of great, uh great looking fantasy and sci
Speaker 1: fi films from Russia. Yeah. Yeah, And we've heard from
Speaker 1: some listeners who have given us some recommendations that also
Speaker 1: look great and and I've also run across some older
Speaker 1: films that that also looked pretty good. There's a particular
Speaker 1: Russian horror film that is that is on my list
Speaker 1: uh that we we may have to get to in
Speaker 1: the months ahead, or rather in the year ahead, because
Speaker 1: like we said this, I believe this is gonna be
Speaker 1: it for this year. We're gonna have a couple of
Speaker 1: repeats in the weeks ahead, a couple of Weird House
Speaker 1: Cinema rewind episodes, but then we'll be back with something
Speaker 1: new Christmas with the Cranks in January, as it should be.
Speaker 1: All right. If you want to listen to other episodes
Speaker 1: of Weird House Cinema, you'll find it every Friday in
Speaker 1: the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed We are
Speaker 1: primarily a science and culture podcast, with core episodes on
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Monday's we do listener mail,
Speaker 1: on Wednesday's we do a short form artifact episode, and
Speaker 1: on Fridays we set aside most serious matters and we
Speaker 1: just talk about a weird and interesting film. Huge thanks
Speaker 1: as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson.
Speaker 1: If you would like to get in touch with us
Speaker 1: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest
Speaker 1: topic for the future, or just to say hello, you
Speaker 1: can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Speaker 1: Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for My heart Radio,
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