Silver Skates

Silver Skates (Trailer)
SPM MUSIC GROUP

It's pretty much a fairy tale woven together from elements of several stories, including fast and fancy ice skating (Hans Brinker), a gang of pickpockets (Oliver Twist) who are living on an abandoned sailing ship (Peter Pan). A poor boy and a rich girl happen to meet and in a tale as old as Hollywood, proceed to disregard all the sage advice of their elders, believe love will triumph all, and the script writers make it happen. There was a moment when we thought this might be an actual Russian story when the boy dies, but then he wakes up, 'returns from the dead' the doctor says, so we can have our Hollywood ending.

It's set in 1900 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The scenes are great. We have scenes on the ice in the canals through town, which serve as roadways during the winter, and scenes of the city and the palaces.

Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907), father of the modern Periodic Table, makes a couple of appearances. Seems our girl is a budding chemist and wants to study at the university instead of marrying the handsome, brave, strong nobleman her parents have picked out for her.

Our hero has some very fancy ice skates that his father picked up in Amsterdam. I looked for a picture but I didn't have any luck. If I watched the entire film over again, I might be able to find a shot or two, but it's two hours long, and I'm busy. Busy, very busy.