Father Frost (1964)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

First, as many of the folks who have reviewed this movie have seen it on Mystery Science Theater, I'd like to make an important point about the MST3K version of this film, and MST3K itself.Like many other reviewers, I too saw this movie on MST3K. MST3K was a brilliant series, intelligent and well executed. Most of the movies that were featured on the show were films that would otherwise never have been watched by future generations. The fact that they were chosen for the express purpose of being mocked, unfortunately, has created a sort of conundrum for fans of the show, and the show itself.What a lot of folks don't understand, I think, is that the people who worked on MST3K were movie fans, plain and simple. They were fans of cinema in general, bad AND good. Now, bad versus good is not a binary system; there is a certain quality of film that makes it "so bad it's good." Then, of course, there are the movies that are simply bad. However, the fact that a movie is inflicted on the residents of the Satellite of Love does not in and of itself make the movie a bad one of either variety. This is an issue that plagues many of the reviews on this site of movies featured on the show, and frankly, it bewilders me.It seems that many MST3K fans or casual viewers are completely unable to separate their own perceptions and opinions of the movies featured there from the idea that, simply due to the fact that those movies were "mocked" by MST3K, they are "bad movies." While a good many reviewers are able to make this distinction, and form their own opinions about MST3K featured movies, for some reason the brilliance of this remarkable, beautifully shot Russian folk tale has completely evaded them too.Quite a few of the movies shown on MST were foreign films, where certain cultural elements were sure to go over the heads of most Americans. But I don't think that is the case here. Americans are quite capable of watching movies that aren't CGI laden or "realistic" (I'm glad that some folks made reference to The Wizard of Oz when reviewing this movie, because that was the first thing that came to mind while watching it). I just think that many of them have formed blocks in their minds against this particular film for two reasons: One, as I said above, simply due to the fact that it was featured on MST; and two, to be perfectly frank, because it is a Russian production.Americans have a peculiar relationship with Russia; many of us who grew up during the Cold War or during the Reagan years (a slightly warmer but no less tense version of the Cold War) were fed massive amounts of anti-Russian propaganda, taught using the spectre of nuclear holocaust to fear and hate. However, not all Americans have allowed themselves to be brainwashed by such doctrine; despite appearances, many of us are able to distinguish fact from fiction and look back through American history only to find it full of xenophobic hysteria covering many ethnicities and nationalities. We recognise that Russia was just another victim of this country's strange need to establish a political villain in the form of another country or ethnicity (see the Middle East).This mentality is at least part of the reason why, I think, Jack Frost (Morozko) has resulted in such oddly scathing reviews. Despite its consistently beautiful photography, fascinating characters (all of whom, as in every single American (or Americanized) fairy/folk tale, are caricatures--the Handsome Prince, the Wicked Stepmother/Stepsister, The Fairy Godmother/Godfather, etc.), the reviewers of this movie seem unable to do two things: separate their own opinions from the fact that the film was featured on MST, and overcome their prejudices and recognise that, if nothing else, this movie proves that every culture has something in common with ours.If this movie doesn't demonstrate that fact to you, I don't know what will. Look past the dubbing and the babushkas and you'll find an amalgam of tales that Americans have heard all their lives. Of course, the fact of the matter is that American literature has adapted these classic folk tales from other cultures and passed them off as our own. Nonetheless, these tales are staples of American culture. Morozko is many of those stories (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, among others) rolled into one fascinating movie. Personally I found this movie even more interesting than the American tales which ironically have borrowed from it so freely.I've read reviews for almost every movie that MST3K ever featured, and see the same thing over and over again--so many reviewers refuse to view the movie on its own merits and instead allow the admittedly brilliant and hilarious comments of Joel/Mike & the bots to form their opinions for them. I've enjoyed many of the movies I've seen on MST on their own merits, and this is one of them. I just wish more MST3K fans would do as the very writers and producers of the show themselves did and allow themselves to love the very movies that they mock.

In our life there are some things you should know about first before you judge them. You can like music and art, and you can not - it is subjective and needs no explanation. You can like the taste of beer or the colour of yogurt, but it is also individual. but how would you react if a medical student being for the first time on an autopsy starts to make theories that the liver is too small and entrails are in the wrong place? Or what about a doctor of philosophy who tries to convince nuclear physicists that the protons in the Large Hadron Collider are moving briskly enough, and never in the wrong direction? So to understand this movie you should not just spend some time, but have a certain amount of knowledge, at least in the field of Russian folklore. And if at all not politically correct, then it is a Russian fairy tale for the Russian people. Rowe shot it not for display at McDonald's to brighten up the expectation of an order. And if the foreigner does not understand, the more likely it is the normal course of things, than something incredible.SelfPiercer with the participation Pandra & Hilda from www.horrors.ru

This movie really only gained notoriety in the US through Mystery Science Theater 3000, which is both good and bad. For the good: I'm a MST nut, and had they not worked their magic on this film, I'd have never seen it.The 'bad' has to do with the two types of MST3k folks out there: There are those who appreciate movies, obscure references and sarcasm; and there are those who think that because the MST crew chose a movie, it is automatically bad. Many (not all) of the bad reviews for this movie come from people who let MST do their thinking for them.To be completely honest, viewers of the MST version really don't have enough information to accurately rate this movie because MST edited the snot out of it to make it fit into their 1:35 window (2 hours minus commercials). Some of the edits were good, others took huge chunks out of the story.I have seen several versions of this movie now, including "Father Frost" (with the voice of Donald O'Connor) and "Jack Frost", the source of the MST version. The English dubbing is laughable in all versions, but they are each enjoyable in their own right.Rating is subjective. You can rate production quality, dialog, characterization, plot, direction, acting... I prefer to rate according to how much I enjoy a film. I liked this movie so much that I sought out the non-MST versions and have watched them over and over again. 10 stars.

Guys, weighted average (imbd rating) is just one of statistical values. It usually tells you more about results than just 'average', but I consider 'mode' as the most informative statistical value. For Morozko, mode is 10 points! This could be a slight satisfaction for you :)Please note that we in Czech Republic used to hate Russian's products and thoughts just because it was Russians, our occupant during communism era. Nevertheless, people in my country really have liked this movie since 60s, and even my father borned in 1952 and had been living most of his productive age in opposition to Russia likes this movie and enjoys watching it even today, remembering this nice fairy tale from childhood.