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Reviews
Sampo (1959)
Not terrible, but...
To answer the previous reviewer, as far as I know this film is not "officially" available on DVD, though you can get it from a source or two I know; the catch is its not going to the plain film. This and two other films by Aleksandr Ptushko have been goofed on by the MST3K team (Ep. 422 for The Day the Earth Froze, the other two I'm not sure) headed by Joel Hodgeson and the other original cast members. To each his own, but even as a fantastic epic its, well, I don't think this film did very well in its American release. This film is much better as a gag piece for the MST3K team. Eve Kivi (Vallatud Kurvid), the actress who played Annikki, was a beautiful woman at the time this film was produced, I happened upon this site searching her name on the net to see what became of her. A Sampo, btw, is a Finnish version of our Horn of Plenty myth, except it also supplies gold, not just food.
The Wizard of Baghdad (1960)
Last review on point
I happened on this film simply because the TV was on and the FMC channel on cable happened to be showing it this one Sunday. The credits scene was of Dick Shawn riding on a magic carpet singing the intro song. I was intrigued. The previous review is right on point, I can only add that this appears to have been a vehicle for Dick Shawn and is really not much more notable otherwise. It has that pastel look of "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" or "Forbidden Planet", and is simply typical of that era. One interesting line is that in the first ten minutes of the film Shawn has an audience with William Edmonson ("Asmodeus", King of the Genies) through a looking glass, Edmonson remarks that "...Baghdad will become the center of the World!" How prophetic film can be in 1960.