Jack Frost (1964 film)

Jack Frost (, Morozko) is a 1964 Soviet romantic fantasy film made by Gorky Film Studio. It was based on a traditional Russian fairy tale Morozko. It was directed by Alexander Rou, and starred Eduard Izotov as Ivan, Natalya Sedykh as Nastenka, and Alexander Khvylya as Father Frost. The script was written by Nikolai Erdman. The soundtrack was composed by Nikolai Budashkin, who was inspired by the works of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. A version with an English dub was released in 1966 in the U.S. and was the one also spoofed on the cult TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

At the end of 2010, Russia 1 remade the film into a musical, very different from the 1964 film, starring Nikolai Baskov.

Plot

A joined family lives on a farm in a village. Each parent had one daughter from a previous marriage. The man had a daughter named Nastenka, who is kind and hardworking. The woman had a daughter named Marfushka, who is rude and lazy. Nastenka is despised by her stepmother, who favors her own daughter, Marfushka. Nastenka's father is powerless to stop his wife. Nastenka's stepmother gives her many household chores. Then one day, during the season of Summer, when both Nastenka and Marfushka are young adults, in another village nearby, a young man named Ivan bids his beloved mother goodbye and leaves his home and heads out to see the world.

While traveling, Ivan is accosted by bandits. He distracts them and tosses their wooden clubs so high that he claims that they will not fall until winter. Later, Ivan meets Father Mushroom, who offers Ivan a prize to try and catch him. Being able to turn invisible, Father Mushroom soon wins and offers Ivan the prize anyway—a fine bow and quiver of arrows. However, when he asks Ivan to bow before him in gratitude, Ivan declares, "The bear may bow before you, but not Ivan" and leaves. Father Mushroom remarks that the bear will indeed bow before him, but it would be Ivan's back that would bend.

Ivan comes across A rock with a message on it that tells him to follow a feather. So he shoots down a bird and blows one of its feathers into the air. He follows it and it leads him to a lake where he meets Nastenka and her dog. Lovestruck by her beautiful appearance and singing, he asks her to marry him, citing his many accomplishments. She Gently demurs, noting that he is a braggart. Eager to prove his worth, he attempts to shoot a mother bear with her cubs. Nastenka stops him by putting a bucket on his head. Father Mushroom watches nearby, and casts a spell that changes Ivan into a bear. Nastenka is startled and stumbles backwards and faints. Ivan is confused until he sees his reflection. He accuses Nastenka of being a witch and runs off, leaving her to weep alone. Nastenka's crying somehow makes beautiful flowers grow on and around the stump.

Ivan comes across Father Mushroom again, who scolds Ivan over his selfish nature. Thinking that all he must do to change back is a good deed, Ivan seeks out people, demanding to know how he can help them; however having a bear's head only terrifies them. He comes across an old woman carrying sticks to her home and offers to carry her, despite the distance being over rough terrain. Arriving at her home, the woman thanks Ivan, noting how handsome he must be; though Ivan notes he is still a bear and thinks she is mocking him, she explains that she is blind. Returning to the woods, Ivan comes across what appears to be the old woman's walking stick and decides to return it, with no thought of whether or not doing so will benefit him. Nearby, Father Mushroom is pleased at Ivan's selflessness and restores him to human form. 

Meanwhile, during the season of Autumn, Nastenka's stepmother tries to marry off Marfushka. She dresses Marfushka in fine clothes while putting mud on Nastenka's face to make her ugly. A wealthy suitor comes and asks Marfushka, who has never done a day's work, to prepare a meal for him. While chasing geese into a pond, Marfushka falls into the water and nearly drowns until she is rescued by Nastenka. Marfushka's makeup and the mud on Nastenka's face wash away, and the suitor chooses Nastenka for a bride instead. However they are never shown getting together, so it's assumed Nastenka turned him down. Then, just as winter is starting, the stepmother orders her husband to leave Nastenka in the woods. On the way, the father decides he has had enough of his wife's harshness and decides to bring Nastenka back home. Believing her stepmother will be even crueler to him for doing so, Nastenka gets off the back of his sleigh. There, while sitting under a tree, she meets Father Frost bringing winter to the woods. Touched by her kindness, he rescues her from freezing and brings her to his home.

Ivan comes across Baba Yaga, whom he pleads for aid to find Nastenka. She refuses to help, and after a battle of wills with her moving house, she animates a group of trees to kill Ivan. Ivan tricks her and threatens to bake the witch in her own oven until she tells him how to find Nastenka. After he leaves, Baba Yaga sends her black cat to harm Nastenka before Ivan can reach her. The enchanted sled sent by Baba Yaga to show Ivan the way to Nastenka leaves him trapped in a snowbank. While Father Frost is out walking, the cat tricks Nastenka into touching his staff, which freezes her, and makes her fall asleep. Ivan is helped by Nastenka's dog and they arrive to find her frozen. Ivan apologizes for his rude behavior, pleading for her to return to life; she is revived. Father Frost gives Nastenka and Ivan a large dowry of jewels and a horse-driven sleigh for their impending marriage.

They return to Nastenka's village, where her father is happy to see his beloved daughter, and he welcomes Ivan as his son-in-law, but Marfushka and her mother eye their fortune and demand the same. While Nastenka and Ivan and Nastenka's dog are traveling to Ivan's village, they are attacked by the bandits Ivan encountered in the summer along with Baba Yaga. The bandits overpower them until the clubs from before come down and knock out the bandits and Baba Yaga gets trapped. Meanwhile, when Marfushka tries to duplicate Nastenka's adventure in the snowbound forest, Father Frost is so horrified by her rudeness that he sends her back on a pig-driven sleigh, with a box full of crows as a dowry. The father stands up for himself and regains his place as head of the household. Nastenka and Ivan have a lovely wedding.

Cast
 Alexander Khvylya as Morozko (Jack Frost in Russian culture)
 Natalya Sedykh as Nastenka (called Nastia for short)
 Eduard Izotov as Ivan
 Inna Churikova as Marfushka
 Pavel Pavlenko as Nastia's father
 Vera Altayskaya as Nastia's stepmother
 Georgy Millyar as Baba Yaga
 Galina Borisova as Starichok-Borovichok (voiced by Mikhail Yanshin)
 Anatoly Kubatsky as Bandit Chief
 Valentin Bryleev as Suitor
 Tatyana Pelttser as Suitor's mother
 Tatyana Barysheva as Matchmaker
 Varvara Popova as Old Blind Woman
 Zinaida Vorkul as Ivan's mother
 Anastasia Zuyeva as The Storyteller

Awards
 In 1965, the film won the Grand Prize – Lion of San Marco at the 26th Venice International Film Festival in a program of children's and youth films.
 1966 - All-Union Film Festival - Prize for the best film in the category for children's films.
 For the role of Marfushka, the Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Bašta gave Inna Churikova the silver medal of Masaryk.

Legacy
The original Russian version was released on DVD in 2000 by Ruscico under the cover title Morozko. It has nine different subtitle options including English, as well as Russian, English and French audio tracks and special features. It was previously released on VHS by United Home Video under the title Magical Wonderland.

In 1997, the English-dubbed Jack Frost version was featured on the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 as experiment (episode) #813; it was released on DVD July 13, 2010 as part of the series' Volume XVIII DVD set. This episode is also Jim Mallon's last episode as Gypsy.

This fairy tale is still very popular in Central and Eastern Europe. The movie has been shown on Czechoslovak (now Czech and Slovak) TV channels (under name Mrazík in Czech and Mrázik in Slovak) annually around Christmas or New Year's Day since 1965. Some critics preferred the Czech dubbing to the original Russian version. Baba Yaga was dubbed in the Czech Republic by František Filipovský.

The video game Fairy Tale about Father Frost, Ivan and Nastya is heavily inspired by the movie.

In 2009, Neil Cicierega produced "Ivanushka", a demo based on the plot of the film, which would later be adapted into the Spirit Phone track "Touch-Tone Telephone". The original version was eventually released to Neil Cicierega's Patreon in January 2018.

See also
Pictures at an Exhibition
The Magic Voyage of Sinbad
The Day the Earth Froze

References

External links
 
 MST3K Episode Guide: Morozko
MST3K version on ShoutFactoryTV
 Review of Ruscico DVD (in Russian, with helpful images)

1964 films
1960s fantasy films
Jack Frost
Films based on Russian folklore
Films based on Slavic mythology
Films shot in Moscow Oblast
Soviet Christmas films
Soviet fantasy films
Gorky Film Studio films
1960s Russian-language films
Films directed by Aleksandr Rou
Baba Yaga
Films based on fairy tales