A small but steady consignment of celluloid continues to cross the Iron Curtain westward. Russian movies, still shown in a handful of small U.S. theaters, are mostly party-line pageants, e.g., Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible (which was practically rewritten by that supercolossal scenarist, Joe Stalin himself), and heavy footed musicals. But occasionally a good film comes out of Russia. One of the best in years is Sadko (Mosfilm; Artkino). Directed by Alexander Ptushko, who also did Stone Flower (TIME, Jan. 27, 1947), it is a hearty, grandly dressed and often beautiful version of...
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