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Boing Boing reader Mike needs

Boing Boing reader Mike needs your help in identifying a movie:

“I have been trying for years to find a movie that someone has suggested to me might be based on a Russian Fairy Tale. If you could bear through my long description of it, maybe you could help me. The ending gives the best clue. It was made in the late 60’s to early 70’s.

It was a fairy tale about two princes (a good one and an evil one) sent on a sort of scavenger hunt to see who would marry the princess. Among the things they had to get: a golden apple, a witch’s magic flute, the ring off a king’s finger in the next kingdom, a golden key. It was live action. Some of the images from the film: both princes scaling a tall tower on opposite sides using the same rope, the princess being attended to by her handmaids, sad at the prospect of marrying the evil prince- she looks down and the rose in her hand has produced an enormous tear and she says “Look, it’s crying” and she shows all her attendants. The good prince by a pond playing the witch’s flute, which drives her mad and she dances crazily around her hut. Father Time, who the prince consults, who turns the enormous wheels of time in the sky. The prince rides his horse across a bridge of clouds to meet with him. There’s more and more….here’s how it ends. They both go to the king, claiming to have found the golden key. The king weighs them on a balance, and as the evil prince’s key is a fake, and the balance drops, he writhes, falls to the floor and disappears in a cloud of black smoke. The prince and princess marry, and as they are leaving the castle, he sees a fountain and says he’s thirsty and wants a drink. She begs him not to, but it’s too late, and he turns into an old man. She explains that it is the fountain of old age, and she drinks from it as well. The story ends with them as aged newlyweds.

If any of this sounds familiar to you or anyone in blogland, I would greatly appreciate any info on what film this might be.”

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