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"A dizzy morph from a CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON template to a forecast of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, all shot in rich tropical greens . . . and fueled by mad-scientist ideas of a class-free 'underwater republic.'" - Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
One of the most beloved of all Russian films (65 million admissions in 1962, which roughly translates into 520 million current American box-office dollars), this tall tale of a handsome, gilled mutant named Ichtyandr (Vladimir Korenov) whose father has replaced his faulty lung with the gills of a young shark, unfolds in a very oddly conceived coastal locale among pearl divers, rogues and old salts. When Ichtyandr saves a local fisherman's daughter (Anastasia Vertinskaya) from a shark attack, he falls in love with her and wants to give up the water for a life on land. Perhaps the ultimate product of the late 50s-early 60s “thaw,” this enchanting hybrid of THE LITTLE MERMAID and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON surreally brims with Latin song-and-dance numbers and Russian stars in brownface (shot on beautiful Cuban locations) that must be seen to be believed. Korenov and Vertinskaya (who went on to play Ophelia in Kozintsev's HAMLET and the Princess in Bondarchuk's WAR AND PEACE) both became huge Soviet stars as a result of this film's massive success.
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