JACK FROST (Part one)

This most detailed write up on the internet about the film JACK FROST is as follows:

This musical, beautifully costumed film is based on a popular Russian fairy tale. Once upon a time there lived a nice, sweet girl, Nastenka. Her wicked stepmother made her work very hard day and night. One day she decided to get rid of her stepdaughter by sending her to a winter forest for her to freeze to death there. In the same land, there lived a lad named Ivan. He fell in love with Nastenka, but, unfortunately, he bragged too much, and was turned for that into a bear by a forest magician. Both Nastenka and Ivan would have to go through many trials before they are finally reunited. And the one who helped them was the good wizard Father Frost… The mastery of the film’s director, Alexander Row, who pioneered the genre of a fairy-tale screen adaptation, is still highly acclaimed. Even Steven Spilberg paid tribute to Row’s enchanting fairy tales.

Awards: St. Mark’s Golden Lion at the Venice IFF for Children and Youth, 1965; Capitoline Jupiter at the Rome IFF, 1966; Silver Medal at the Teheran IFF for Children, 1966.

Studio: Gorky Film Studio Year of Release: 1964.



This film is the holy grail of Russian Fairy Tale films. It was known to me as JACK FROST. The New More accurate title is FATHER FROST. Before I received the DVD I was grumbling on how this is not a musical. All the descriptions I could find on this film claim it’s a musical. There is music but no one ever sings except for an odd atonal song by Jack Frost as he tried in vain to “spray frost on a little fur tree with his magic scepter.” I know this film backwards and forwards how can they claim this is a musical. To my surprise it is a musical. The version I had on VHS was the international version that had all the songs trimmed. It makes sense. The vocals were most likely married to the music and therefore to release it in a non Russian speaking country would require re-recording the music in the language of the region or at the very least subtitles. It would be cheaper to trim the troublesome songs and be done with it. That’s what they must have done. This complete version is like finding lost musical numbers for STAR WARS. (and that Bea Arthur number in the holiday special does not count as a lost musical number… it was deliberately buried)
And nobody WHAT? (The scene shortly before the infamous last spoken line of dialog)