Sergei Martinson Movies

The warrior-hero Ruslan rescues his princess bride Ludmila from the evil white-bearded dwarf Tchernomor in this spectacular Soviet retelling of Alexander Pushkin's famous poem (which also inspired an opera). The dwarf gains uncanny physical strength from his long white beard. Ruslan must also battle sorcerers and witches, as well as his bride's other suitor, in order to win through to Ludmila. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The Tale of Tsar Saltan is a colorful Russian fairy tale based on the classic poem by Alexander Pushkin. When Tsar Saltan is away at war, the scheming members of his court exile his young wife and newborn heir. The tsarina and the young prince Guidon survive and reach a remote island. Guidon saves the beautiful Princess Swan from an evil sorcerer and through a series of miracles she helps the prince to reunite with his father. ~ Rovi

An impressionable young man's dream of marrying the local smithy's daughter is nearly derailed when the Devil shows up and tries to persuade him to leave the deeply religious girl alone in this magical Soviet comedy based on Nikolai Gogol's stories. Fortunately, despite the Dark One's clever machinations, nothing can stop true love. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

There have been several film versions of Feodor Dostoyevsky's tale of an obsessed elite and a Prince with a destructive passion for one woman. This interpretation by director Ivan Pyriev features Yuri Yakovlev as Prince Myshkin and Y. Borissova as his love, Nastassia. The tale opens with the impoverished, epileptic Prince returning to St. Petersburg in 1860, after a stay in a Swiss mental hospital. He restricts his activities and interests to the social circle of the aristocracy and his family, and their multitude of petty problems. When he falls in love with Nastassia, she returns his feelings but is also pursued by Rogogine (L. Parkhomenko), a classic villain. Given the Prince's mental weaknesses and his inexplicable, self-destructive love for Nastassia, his prognosis does not look good. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The original Russian title of The Sword and the Dragon was Ilya Muromets. Boris Andreyev plays the title character, a legendary Russian hero of the Middle Ages. Fact and fantasy meld copacetically as Muromets does battle not only with human adversaries but with three-headed, fire-breathing dragons and other such obstacles. Special effects in Soviet films of the 1950s generally seem to be of the "Howdy Doody" school; not so the effects in Sword and the Dragon, which retain their razzle and dazzle even after 40 years' worth of Kubrick, Lucas, Spielberg and the like. Sword and the Dragon was released in the U.S. in 1960, shorn of several minutes' running time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Magic Voyage of Sinbad is the American release title for Sadko, an outsized 1952 Russian fantasy film. Based on the Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov opera of the same name, the film details the efforts of seafaring Sadko (Sergei Stolyarov) to rescue the citizens of Covason from their despotic rulers. To do this, he must seek and capture the fabled Bluebird of Happiness (aka The Phoenix). The most fanciful sequence takes place in the undersea domain of King Neptune, which though elaborately staged looks a bit like a special exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Though the film is not a musical, the strains of Rimsky-Korsakov are heard throughout, sometimes taken from sources other than Sadko. Alexander Ptushko is credited with the direction on Sadko, though James Landis is cited in some sources as director; in fact, Landis oversaw the recutting and redubbing of the American version, which was distributed in 1962. The scripter for the revamped Magic Voyage of Sinbad was Francis Ford Coppola, but you'd never know it. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi