Warning! The original version of "Sampo" lasts over 90 minutes, and is a beautiful, atmospheric and awe-inspiring retelling of the Finnish legend of the Sampo, from their national epic, "The Kalevala". In many ways it was the great director Alexander Ptushko's most ambitious film: the idea of the Sampo itself goes far beyond the search for a mere object, touching on the mainsprings of desire and humanity's questing spirit (in much the same way as does the Holy Grail in Arthurian literature).

Sadly, the American release as "The Day the Earth Froze" more or less destroyed the director's structure, his epic time scale, and the sense of mystery to the plot itself, sacrificing everything subtle in a brainless attempt to turn the film into helter-skelter action and swashbuckling excitement. Almost one third of the original film disappeared, and much of the rest was barbarically recut.

The result is a travesty - please, if you watch and rightly condemn "The Day the Earth Froze", do not confuse this farago with the beautiful and profound original film which is (or was) "Sampo"!

Evil witch Louhi (wizened old crone Anna Orochko) kidnaps sweet fair maiden Annikki (lovely blonde Eva Kivi) from her peaceful village in order to get her rugged blacksmith and magician brother Ilmarinen (solid Ivan Voronov) to build her a magical device known as a sampo. After honest, decent woodmans Lemminkainen (likable Andris Oshin) and Ilmarinen rescue Annikki from Louhi's vile clutches, the wicked old hag retaliates by stealing the sun and putting the village in a permanent state of dark bitter cold. Director Aleksandr Ptushko relates the compelling and imaginative story at a steady pace and does a sound job of maintaining a pleasant, charming tone throughout. Moreover, there's a cool sense of quirky creativity evident in the narrative: Among the funky oddball touches are a field of deadly snakes that Lemminkainen has to plow, a killer flying cloak, a whiny talking tree and talking road, and the villagers making magic harps to combat the witch with. Best of all, the simple and straightforward plot about good versus evil proves to be quite engaging thanks to its refreshing lack of pretense. Igor Morozov's sweeping, dramatic score, Marvin Miller's melodious narration, the nifty special effects, and the crisp cinematography by Gennadi Tsekavy and Viktor Yakushev all further enhance the considerable appeal of this nice little movie.

Like with Sadko/The Magic Voyage of Sinbad and Ilya Muromets/The Sword and the Dragon, Sampo (or The Day the Earth Froze for its American version) is an Aleksandr Ptushko film spoilt by bad dubbing that wasn't even necessary in the first place. The American version is incoherent and unbearably goofy, but the original Soviet-Finnish film is just lovely and it is this version that I'll be talking about now. Maybe the dialogue doesn't always flow and the middle's pacing is on the stoic side. However, it is a beautiful-looking film, the costumes and sets are in equal measure beautiful and eerie, the film is nicely shot with techniques that scream of Ptushko(and in a good way) and the special effects are simple but awe-inspriring and some are wonderfully weird. The music score positively sweeps, with the fantasy-adventure themes and folk-song-like melodies wholly appropriate. The story is also simple, but coherent and mostly attention-grabbing, giving us time to breathe and admire everything. While the tone is on the most part suitably eerie and profound, there are also some nice oddball touches that don't feel out of place(if there was anything at all like that it certainly wasn't as bad as it was in its American version). The characters are very like the characters that you'll find in a fantasy/fairy-tale and they are engaging. There seems to be a mixed reception on the Witch here, depends on the version seen I think, she is irritating in the dub but in Ptushko's original she is very sinister. The acting is solid and fitting for their characters. All in all, a lovely film but sadly it has a really bad dub that because of MST3K more people will be familiar with. 8/10 Bethany Cox