Sampo

This Soviet-Finnish co-production was condemned by Finnish critics and other nationalists even before it was made, on the grounds that only Finns could and should ever make a film about the Kalevala. When it was released, their reviews mainly listed things about it that were "un-Finnish". This was most unfair - visually "Sampo" is far more impressive than anything Finnish film-makers could have achieved at the time with their meagre resources. They haven't achieved anything comparable later either.

The digitally restored 2014 Finnish-language version is a pleasure to watch, but torment to hear because of the poorly dubbed verse dialogue and Igor Morozov's totally boring music. I would like to see the Russian-language version, which is probably better - hopefully the dialogue is not in verse. The butchered American version should be ignored.

I can only remember seeing this movie once, back in my schooldays in the early 70's. The tile being "The Day the Earth Froze". What most comes to mind was the fantastic atmosphere it had, very dark, gloomy almost surreal. It was about a Sampo (as far as I could make out or remember, it was a machine for making either money or gold). Everyone in the movie seemed old, dirty and poor. I think it was their quest to find the sampo or retrieve it or something like that. I would love to know if the movie ever made it to video.

Sampo......who can get that word out of their head??? It seems to be an infernal machine that makes gold, or salt, or flour, or something but whatever it does, everybody wants it and will go to any lengths to build one. This Scandanavian film has an unusual look to it but it appears that the print is faded, hence the washed out look. Or maybe it's because of all the snow and ice. But I must admit that I found it rather fascinating.

The lead actors play it pretty much without emotion except for the witch who is a total pain in the butt. It took me a while to figure out if it was a man or a woman; regardless he/she was irritating. It moves along pretty slowly and there are times when it is difficult to figure out exactly what is going on.....that may be due to the terrible dubbing. I hate dubbing.....give me sub-titles anytime.

The ending with the harps is insane. We should advise our military that harp music can be deadly and is a lot less messy than live ammunition. However, there is something rather endearing about this film that makes it worth watching. Of course, you need to see the MST3K version.... it is a lot more fun. Can you say Sampo?

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Aleksandr Ptushko; Produced by Gleb Kuznetzov; a Finnish-Soviet co-production for Suomi-Filmi and Mosfilm, released as 'The Day the Earth Froze" in America by Renaissance Films, then TV syndication by American-International TV. Screenplay by Viktor Vitkovich and Grigori Yagdfeld; Photography by Gennadi Tsekvyj and Viktor Yakushev; Music by Igor Morozov. Starring: Urho Spmersalmi, Anna Orochko, Ivan Voronov and Ada Voytsik.

Taken from a story in Elias Lonnrot's classic "The Kalevala", the great poetic cycle of classic Finnish folktales, this prettily photographed period fantasy is incredibly childish. Nominally, the title is truthful, since herein the witch of the shadowy land, with the aid of the enchanted one -Sampo, changes the sun's course and causes the world to freeze.

In the 1960s, some idiots bought this Finnish-Soviet production and brought it to the screen. The problem is that the plot involving a Finnish folk tale was confusing to Western audiences, so the film was chopped to pieces--and almost 30% of the original film was thrown on the cutting room floor. As a result, it's very dull and confusing--and not worth your time. There is LOTS of narration to fill in the gaps but the film never is interesting or coherent. HOWEVER, I am not maligning the original film--just this terrible dubbed mess seen in the States.

While bastardizing a movie like this seems odd today, American-International did this a lot--buying up Russian and Japanese films and creatively editing them into American films. Sometimes they inserted down-on-their-luck actors into the films (such as Basil Rathbone) and I sure would rather see the original movie--which MIGHT actually be pretty good. But, in the 60s, they rarely trusted foreign subtitled films--and sloppily dubbed them. Sad...and stupid.