KOROLEVSTVO KRIVYKH ZERKAL - "Kingdom Of Crooked Mirrors" Part Deux (1963)

 Greg Goodsell back again – here is the second installment to the classic Russian fairy tale film, KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS. Check an earlier post to bring you up to speed if you’re unaware on this one – you don’t check back every day to see what we’ve cooked up for you? For shame!

Our twins must make it past these fearsome giants in a clever forced perspective shot.

Yet another delightful matte painting! Pay attention to the spider at the right, it's a recurring motif --

Here is the helpful chambermaid. Perhaps tiring of her subservient status, and sick of her servitude to King Torrap (parrot spelled backwards), she aids our two plucky heroines! Viva la revolution!

Oh my! Some Soviet-style sentiment just snuck by the censors!

Here's the plan! She disguises the gals as pages to sneak into the king's antechamber!

There's that spider again! Yaaaaah!

Decadent capitalists bend the ear of our nefarious king!

Here we go! Mr. Doat (that's Toad backwards) enters the scene -- he's as flamboyant as any villain on the old Batman TV show of the 1960s!

AH! It's the lovely and lethal Queen Elitper (that's Reptile spelled backwards) giving us her patented Bette Davis eyes!

Doat and Elitper have a convo and you know it can't be any good! Watch out, kids!

In the meantime, Dneirf is kept hostage at this Spider themed prison! Looks like the most boring ride in Disneyland, if you ask me!

This shot makes me cringe. My longstanding fear of heights, I suppose.

Yippee! Yet another matte painting!

Here we are at Doat's digs, and just by the look of things, it's leading up to one hell of a wild ride!

The bad guys shouldn't be quick to have a toast -- our two little girl heroines are out to foil them at the last minute!

It's the twins to the rescue!

Will Doat and Elitper beat the girls in time for evil to triumph? This is a kiddie film, whaddya expect?

THERE! Evil has failed! Phew!

Which key to unlock Dneirf with? They're both identical in this crazy mirrored universe!

Here we go! The girls rescue our hero and sing a song about universal friendship and brotherhood. "What country are you girls from?' he asks them. “Why, the best country in the whole wide world," one of them says.

Not so fast, there buddy! The kids have won out and we're on our way to a happy ending!

And there you have it! KINGDOM OF CROOKED MIRRORS is a delightful fantasy that should be seen on one of myriad DVD versions with English subtitles.

CURSES! Foiled again -- and with that, your humble narrator Greg Goodsell must bid adieu.

Bye bye now!