The Day
the Earth Froze

(SAMPO)
(1958, Finland/Soviet Union) color 91/85 minutes
Mosfilm / Suomi-Filmi
Story: Elias Lönnrot
Screenplay: Väinö Kaukonen, Viktor Vitkovich, Grigori Yagdfeld
Music: Igor Morozov (as "Otto Strode")
Cinematography: Gennadi Tsekavyj, Viktor Yakushev (as "Sid Roth")
Produced by Risto Orko (as "Julious Strandberg")
Directed by Risto Orko, Aleksandr Ptushko (as "Gregg Sebelious")

With: Andris Oshin (Lemminkäinen)(as "Jon Powers"), Eve Kivi (Annikki)(as "Nina Anderson"), Anna Orochko (the witch Louhi) (as "A. Orochko"), Ivan Voronov (Ilmarinen)(as "Peter Sorenson"), Urho Somersalmi (Väinämöinen), Ada Vojtsik (Lemminkäinen's mother), Georgi Millyar (Sorcerer)(as G. "Miljar"), Mikhail Troyanovsky (Soothsayer)(as "M. Trojanovskij")

English-Language Version:
(1964) color 68 minutes
produced by Renaissance Films
released by Filmgroup
distributed by American International Pictures
Narrated by Marvin Miller

***

Plot Outline: (based on Norse/Scandinavian mythology, Sampo is a classic tale from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic, compiled by famed storyteller Elias Lönnrot.)

In the village Of Kalevala, lives a community of good, hard-working people. They have everything they need, but for the coveted "sampo", a magical machine which will give its owner grain and salt and gold!

A fearless young soldier, Lemminkainen sets eyes one day on the beautiful young maiden, Annikki, and the two fall in love. Annikki’s father Ilmarinen, the village blacksmith, knows that this is a sign that the time has come for him to create the Sampo.

Meanwhile, in the evil land known as Procura, the evil witch Louhi and her demonic gnomes slave away, trying to create a “Sampo” for themselves, so that Louhi can rule the world!

Loukhy kidnaps the beautiful Annikki in order to compel her father to build the Sampo. Annikki is trapped in a dank cave, in which the evil witch has imprisoned the very winds themselves!

Lemminkainen and Ilmarinen go to Procura to retrieve Annikki and battle Louhi. Louhi first makes Ilmarinen create a magic horse, and forces Lemminkainen to plow a field of deadly snakes! Ilmarinen then forges a magical boat which sails them back to Kalevala. Failing to recover the Sampo, Louhi flies to Kalevala, and while the villagers are having a celebratory dance, steals the very sun from out of the sky!

Suddenly, the world is plunged into a horrible, frozen darkness. The villagers almost freeze to death, but decide to fight for their lives. They create magical harps out of the trees. They sail to Procura, play the magical instruments, and destroy Louhi’s power forever. Louhi turns into a pillar of salt. The sun escapes it’s mountain prison, returns to the sky, and brings warmth and life back to the good villagers.

***

Aleksandr Ptushko, Russia's master (cinematic) storyteller does it again by bringing a time-honored Finnish folk tale to life in SAMPO, a magnificent tale both marvelous and sublime. As usual in the films of Ptushko, a most elemental scenario forms the basis of a vivid and memorable fantasy spectacle, in which breathtaking natural vistas contrast with amazing effects sequences, mostly done on a grand scale.

Indeed the human heroes of the story, albeit virtually deitic in scope and courage, fade into the background against the sheer breadth and majesty of Ptushko's mythical universe.

One of Ptushko's strengths is his frequent, effective use of full-scale models on massive, elaborate sets, giving his fantasies an ultra-real yet nicely theatrical feeling. There is a tangible, visceral sense of fantastic reality here, far superior to films which rely mainly on animation, optical effects, or (god forbid), the dreaded computer!

In this way, Ptushko's closest Western Hemisphere competitor would be George Pal, whose elaborate live-action fantasies such as ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT and THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM create much of the same large-scale storybook atmosphere which makes for wide-eyed audiences.

Ptushko (and Pal, for that matter) were also masters in the use of realistic and exquisite miniatures. Miniatures work has always been one of cinema's most neglected children, and sadly, is now a lost art.

Ptushko's films also have the rather uncanny ability to change scale from the immense to the intimate, from the global to the human, at the drop of a hat; this too is the sign of the true film poet.

Needless to say, amazing visual effects abound. Some of our favorites:

* As the film opens, the revered storytellers of antiquity (Elias Lönnrot included), carved in stone, literally "come to life" in order to weave their wonderful tales.

* Louhi the Witch's Hades-like abode features a striking conglomeration of misshapen rock structures, as ugly demon gnomes forge steel in their hell-factory.

* The imprisoned heroine Annikki walks through a dank cavern in which are trapped the very winds themselves! Encased in giant trembling sacs, tethered by immense chains, these captured elements plead and beg for release, in a scene as haunting as it is visually arresting.

* The blacksmith Ilmarinen forges a magical stallion, which rises out of a wall of crimson flame.

* Lemonkinen and his wonder-horse ride through a perilous field of writhing snakes.

* Ilmarinen creates a sailing ship, which rides to sea on a river of lava.

* A downtrodden country roadway comes to life and begs for release from its grim sentence of being trampled on all day long.

* One of Louhi's demons manifests the images of her enemies in a sparkling pool of vision.

* Louhi the witch flies into Kalevala in a breathtaking, highly theatrical shot.

* Louhi steals the sun, in a marvelously primitive scene in which the sun is represented by a barely disguised movie light, highly effective in its attempt at literal representation.

* sublime miniatures shots of Kalevala being overrun by a fearsome blizzard.

* an auroraborealis appears in the sky to lead the villagers to Procura, in order to rescue their kidnapped Sun.

* Louhi turns to salt as Ilmarinen steps up to rescue his beloved Sun.

For better or worse, Renaissance Films brought SAMPO to the U.S. in truncated form, replete with coarse dubbing. Roger Corman's Filmgroup licensed the film for distribution through American International Pictures, who decided to re-title the film THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE, and market it as science-fiction!

Although the film did play some Kiddie Matinee dates, one wonders why the film wasn't marketed directly as a children's fantasy, during a period when this would have proved quite successful; indeed, similar Russian fantasies of the period, such as THE MAGIC WEAVER and JACK FROST, did quite well in the tots-only market.

Sadly, THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE ended up buried at the bottom of a few lackluster AIP drive-in double bills before slinking off to TV, where it languished for years in dupey black and white prints which sabotaged the film's unique visual bounty.

More recently, SAMPO had the misfortune of falling under the sniveling nerd-eye of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000, which could think of nothing better to do than mock the film's odd U.S. dubbing, ignoring completely the gorgeous film poem within. Ah, "Best Brains", mocking your superiors is the simplest child's game...

Thus, it is our great fortune that Something Weird Video has recently re-released THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE with video color correction, restoring much of its original majesty. Make no mistake about it; even the English-dubbed version is a little gem, and as no original language version of SAMPO is currently available, we are even more beholden to SWV for unearthing, and restoring, this long-lost fantasy jewel.

The films of Aleksandr Ptushko have recently enjoyed a well-deserved, long overdue revival. There have been numerous articles and several film festivals honoring this all-but-forgotten master. One of our favorite articles appeared in a recent issue of Video Watchdog. We highly recommend obtaining this back issue, and reliving the glorious legacy of A. Ptushko.

(03-01-05) Raymond Tucker submits this rare sighting of a full-length version of SAMPO, on a German video label, with the following scenes not seen in the U.S. version: * At the film's intro, the statue of the harp player begins to sing an ode to Kalevala. * Much of what was cut seems to be musical numbers. * One striking difference was Leminkinen's FIRST attempt to retrieve the Sampo is completely cut from the US version. * An extended scene of the mother's search for Lemminkeinen: Loehi tells her he is dead and that his body has been cast to the sea, whereby the mother asks the sea to summon up his body, whereby it complies and she carries Lemminkeinen (single-handedly!) to the mainland (again walking on the ocean). Once back on land she summons the power of the road, the birch and the sun to restore life to Lemminkeinen, whereby he takes a raft and again tries to recapture the Sampo (against his mother's protest). For some great images of these deleted scenes, visit our new SAMPO: the deleted scenes foto gallery!

Video/DVD availability: VHS (Something Weird Video)

Links of related interest:
the complete text of the KALEVALA, compiled by Elias Lönnrot,
is available for download from those nice folks at Gutenberg.net

another review

review and credits information (in Russian)

The horrible witch Louhi!

Louhi has trapped innocent Annikki in a cavern with the very winds themselves!

As Lemminkainen's mother seeks her lost son, a roadway comes to life to help her on her journey.

Louhi flies over Kalevala. Her mission; to steal the sun!

Kalevalians bravely set sail for Procura.

Louhi prepares to snatch the sun!

A horrible blizzard befalls Kalevala.

The elder of Kalevala contemplates his country's fate.

A magical auroraborealis leads the intrepid soldiers of Kalevala on their way to rescue the poor Annikki.

Lemminkainen risks his very life to rescue the sun from the clutches of the evil witch.

Her power destroyed forever, Louhi is transformed into a pillar of salt!

The life-giving sun returns to Kalevala!

The soldiers return, triumphant.

Ilmarinen and Annikki are now safe, free to express their love.
(all images courtesy of Something Weird Video)